Sisterhood Meets the Naxi People

Iona

The sisterhood started off the day with congee, rice noodles, and egg on toast on the first level of our Naxi-styled hotel. At 9am we met Evan to head to the Mu Residence; the Mu family has occupied that estate for 22 generations which brought them to the 1720’s. It was very interesting to see how the residence had been split up into a work/education area, a rec time area, and an area for praying with a temple that overlooked the city. From this view, it became evident that every house in sight was the same style with the same height and same coloured roofs. Makes you think about how big the vision and how effective it must have been communicated to have had every single house in the region built the same way, to the same height.

[VLOG#15] Jade Dragon Stone Mountain

Iona

(Video only)

A Mountain, a Village, and a Show

Ms Waterman
(teacher)

Our day started in the dark this morning since we woke up before sunrise to eat breakfast and set out for Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. That might sound like it was incredibly early in the morning, but we ate at 7:00. It was so dark because the time zone here in Lijiang (which borders Tibet) is in the same time zone as the rest of China. It is strange to me that such a huge country has only one time zone, but it has been great not to have to reset my watch over and over as we travel.

On the drive to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, we learned that it is 5,600 m high - 17,000 ft - and that it measures 40 km north to south and 25 km east to west. The footprint of the mountain is huge! It’s called a snow mountain because there is snow on the top year-round. It’s also the southernmost snow mountain in the northern hemisphere and no one has ever succeeded in summiting the highest peak. That sounds like a challenge to me!

From Mountain to Mountain!

Elizabeth (Liz)

Quote of the Day

     "You have been tired for a week!"
                              - Rebecca Waterman (to yours truly :))

Well we were on the move yet again this time leaving the humble Shaxi Village and over to Lijiang. The car ride was wonderful as we went down the winding mountain roads taking in our final moments with the peaks and ridges. Before we went to Lijiang we first stopped at a Naxi village, which I was super excited about because that happened to be the minority I had studied this autumn. But before we entered the village Evan, our guide, took us to see these amazing frescos from the Ming and Tang dynasty. They were all depicting Buddha, just like the carvings we saw on the tea trail. Evan also showed us a 600 hundered year old tree, which was crazy and quite lovely.

After that we explored the village which had all kinds of knick knacks from Mao clocks to bugs encased in Amber, which were all super cool and had lunch which consisted of meat, veggies and rice. We then headed over to yet another embroidery school that amazed and shocked us. The produced textiles were out of this world and just so amazing to look at. Afterwards it was finally time to head over to Lijiang village were we quickly checked into to our historic hotel.

From there we walked around on the cobblestone streets of Lijiang, enchanted by every shop, every demostration and every historic site. After we had dinner and parted ways with Evan, we decided to look for some snacks for tommorrow. Simple enough right? Wrong. We went down probably every possible street looking for a supermarket or convience store with no luck, until we gave up and just bought snacks from a shop that we knew was close to the hotel.

Thats all for now!
Over and Out

[VLOG#14] Lijiang Day 1

Iona

(Video only)

[VLOG#13] Shaxi Day 2

Iona

(Video only)

A Shaxi-Lense

Kelby

Today was another eventful day for the Sisterhood. Per usual, we woke up at 7:00 this morning, sat in bed until 7:50, and then met Mrs. Waterman for breakfast at 8:00. After breakfast, Iona, Elizabeth, and I all went back to our room, got dressed, packed our bags, and prepared ourselves for a day in the outdoors.

Evan (our tour guide for Shaxi Village) decided to take us for a hike up to some Buddhist temples. The way up to the temple was definitely the hardest part of the hike. Not only were we hiking upwards, but the altitude was higher than any of us had ever experienced (more than 2,000 meters).

The scenery was beautiful. We encountered multiple pavilions, what seemed to be a shrine, and a tomb placed on the hill of the mountainside. The trail leading us to the summit was cleared on the side of the mountain, so we had to make sure not to deviate more than a couple steps.

Sisterhood Meets the Bai People

Iona

This morning we got breakfast at the Landscape Hotel around 7:30 this morning and were ready to check out of the hotel by 8:30am. Carrie went over our itinerary with us during breakfast; we were planning on driving the van three hours to Shaxi Village, but she suggested that we add a stop at Xi Zhou. Xi Zhou was a village full of Bai people, whom we had learned about from Carrie who had a lot to tell us since she comes from a family of Bai ancestry. It was really interesting to learn more about the traditional customs and beliefs, and something that stuck with me is the opinion of the Bai people: if a young adult chooses to stay in the village, then it is a reflection of a lack of motivation. Staying with your family for longer than necessary is discouraged, which in turn leaves the village deprived of young adults to work on the farms (their main source of income is agriculture, not industry, so this poses as a problem). In an attempt to bring back more young adults, the government has put an effort into creating more small stores that would attract people to work there and stay local rather than going off to the cities— even though this is what the Bai belief encouraged... I’m not sure how a deficit in young individuals wasn’t going to be inevitable given that having the children move out of the village once they came of age was desirable. Anyways, super interesting town full of traditional Bai architecture that was very pretty.

[VLOG#12] Shaxi Village

Iona

(Video only)

[VLOG#11] Dali

Iona

(Video only)

A Day in Dali

Mr Waterman
(teacher)

Today was quite the day! We arrived in Dali this morning at 6:45 after sleeping (sort of) on the sleeper train from Kunming. On the train (which Kelby and I were desperately hoping was as elegant and comfortable as the Orient Express!), we had our own cabin. The bunks were relatively comfortable and we managed to stow our luggage mostly out of the way. Elizabeth and I lucked out by sleeping on the bottom bunks, and Iona and Kelby were happy to survive the night without falling off of their top bunks. The conductor woke us up this morning just after 6:00 and we gathered ourselves enough to stumble out of the station.

Last Day in Yangshuo

Elizabeth (Liz)

Quote of the day

        "Liz, no" - Iona

Today is our last day in Yangshou. After eating breakfast with Elaine we headed out back to Guilin. Our first stop was the Elephant Trunk Hill, which doesnt actually have elephants, it just refers to a cave that looks like one. Within the park we walked around looking at the lovely sculptures that were spread throughout the park. Our next stop was Fubo Hill, yet another park, this one contained buddist temple remnants which were really cool! We also climbed the tower which gave us a really cool view of the city!