Dude, where's my hotel?
The old town of Lijiang and its surrounds is paradise in anybody's tour book and for this reason attracts more than 50 million visitors a year. The 850-year-old World Heritage-listed place is a maze of charming cobbled streets and serene lakes. Gushing rivers and snow-capped mountains are within close driving distance.
However out-of-towners can easily lose their way because it is riddled with twisting, turning streets that all look the same. I became hopelessly lost on my second night in Lijiang and made the mistake of asking too many shopkeepers for directions to my hotel.
"It is called Deng-something and has red lanterns hanging out the front", I said seriously.
Shopkeepers kept giving me puzzled looks. I soon realized that every hotel in Lijiang old town - all 200 of them - had red lanterns hanging out front. My hotel key was no help, because it was inscribed in Chinese. "Ah, that way," the Naxi shopkeeper would point.
Lijiang's population of 320,000 is made up of the Naxi, Bai, Lisu, Pumi, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Hui, Han and other ethnic groups and the Naxi make up about 60 percent.
I wandered "that" way, but at night, every street looked identical, and thousands of red lanterns were hanging everywhere, outside an endless array of shops and restaurants. Naxi traditional knick-knacks and musical instruments, leather bags and cowboy hats, 100 yuan ($13) parcels of tea, colorful silk scarves, linen shirts and more traditional jewelry were being snapped up by curious tourists.
I soon became curious too. "That way," another shopkeeper told me, as he handed me a bag containing a really cool wooden carving of fish and as I handed him 200 yuan ($26). As I kept asking shopkeepers for directions I kept buying more stuff. A Naxi bracelet, a leather wallet, a 100-yuan cannister of tea, a green scarf, a bronzed ram and a lovely cream-colored linen shirt.
Asking for directions was milking me dry, so for another two hours I avoided all the shops, and loaded with my bags of goodies, wandered the streets aimlessly searching for my digs. But getting lost on a China holiday is all part of the adventure. I had no deadlines, meetings or pressing engagements - only more interesting sites and sounds, which my senses had never experienced before.
I finally made it to my hotel, the one with the red lanterns out the front. The hotel was like many Han-style lodgings, a two-storey building with an unroofed courtyard in the centre of the complex.
The next day I bought a 20 yuan ($2.6) compass and it was the best investment of the trip.
I was staying in the southern part of the old town, near a big windmill, and this wonderful little Chinese invention steered me back on course.
Over the next few days I discovered one of the prettiest towns on the mainland.
Lijiang is really two towns, divided by Lion Hill. The New Town, which came into being about 50 years ago, and the Old Town, an architectural gem in Yunnan Province's crown. Ten years ago the World Heritage Committee declared: "Lijiang is an exceptional ancient town set in a dramatic landscape which represents the harmonious fusion of different cultural traditions to produce an urban landscape of outstanding quality."
A World Heritage listing can do wonders to a local economy, boosting tourism and attracting millions of extra visitors each year. It also means these historical cities can also be a costly experience for an unprepared tourist.
I traveled during the recent May Day holidays and some of the more experienced locals charged me like a wounded bull. I paid 450 yuan ($59) a night for a basic hotel room, dinner at one average restaurant cost 140 yuan ($18) and a full-day tour of the nearby mountains and rivers cost me more than 1,000 yuan (about $131, 350 yuan car/driver; 400 yuan tour guide, 180 yuan for Yangtze River ride). Even a roadside Naxi soup man charged me 40 yuan ($5) for a bowl of his chunky beef broth. It was delicious, but 40 yuan? The locals were getting change back from 10 yuan.
It was only the second day of my Lijiang holiday and I had spent more than $300, when I added up all my knick-knacks.
I wrote it off as just one of those days. A foreign tourist cops this anywhere he or she goes. It's all part of the school fees of life.
A network of small waterways (above) add to the charm of 850-year-old Lijiang, which features thousands of courtyard-style houses (top right). |
On the morning of my third day, I reached for my brand new little compass and let it steer me in the right direction. I was never lost again. I later found accommodation for 150 yuan ($20) a night, a two-dish meal cost 30 yuan ($3.9) and half day tour to one of the most stunning mountains I have ever seen cost 300 yuan ($39).
All was well.
Lijiang really is a perfect city and many argued it was actually the mystical city of Shangri-La, mentioned in James Hamilton's 1933 novel, The Lost Horizons. Hamilton said "Shangri-La" was a mountain-top paradise where people lived in harmony, reveling in learning and profound inner peace. In 2002, Zhongdian, in northwestern Yunnan Province was officially declared to be Shangri-La, after a wide-ranging search for the "true" paradise on earth.
However the jury could have voted for Lijiang, which is about a three-hour drive south of Zhongdian, and they would have been 100 percent right.
At night the red lanterns light up the polished cobblestones and trickling brooks run though the town. There are bars, teahouses, restaurants and big public squares bustling with commerce as they have done for centuries. The roads in the old town radiate from Sifang Street (Square Street) to form a network connecting every corner of the city.
Small squares are scattered along the main streets. Houses have been built on the mountain slopes tier upon tier.
In its heyday, Lijiang was an important trading center for business between Yunnan and Tibet, China and India. Today the major business is tourism and travelers venture out to the see the Yangtze River and the Tiger Leaping Gorge or the Yulong (Jade) Snow Mountain. There are many other scenic spots including the Black Dragon Pond Park, outside the Old Town.
Because the water is as green as jade, the pond is also called "Yuquan" or Jade Fountain. The Longsheng Pavilion in the park was built in the second year of the Qianglong era of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and its compounds house more than 500 kinds of flowers. "At Yuquan the flowers of the four seasons are like embroidered brocade," wrote a Qing poet.
Lijiang is the perfect place to stop and smell the roses.
(China Daily 05/24/2007 page19)
