Lijiang

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Trip Start Aug 18, 2008 Previous
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  Lijiang, Yunnan, China
Thursday, August 28, 2008

The second I arrived in Lijiang I knew I was going to love it here.  I was instantly glad that we decided to come to this place.  The sky was blue, we were in a valley surrounded by green mountains and it just looks spectacular.  It turned out the people were wonderful as well.  As we exited the airport  and tried to get a taxi to our hostel I showed the driver the brochure which had a map and the address written in Chinese on how to get there.  Apparently that wasn't good enough and he asked a couple guards for help, then some more people came over to try and figure out where he should go.  Finally one of the guards got on his cell phone and called the hostel. Then handed his phone over to the driver so the driver could  get better directions.  I couldn't believe he just offered up his cell phone to call for some perfect strangers and it wasn't even his job!  The cabbie should have done it to begin with but still it was a kind gesture. 
            The drive from the airport into town was about 25km of fields of sunflowers and mountains, it was quite impressive like something out of a dream.  And once into town the driver was still a little lost so called the hostel again and one of the workers walked out to meet us at the taxi.  Only 1 hour in Lijiang and I had been overwhelmed by the friendliness. 
            After checking in we went out to explore the town a bit and get some lunch.  The town, even though super-touristy - filled with souvenir shops, was still something special.  The old look and feel and the fact you could watch the workers making the souvenirs.  They sat in there stores carving wood or working with the leather they were selling, pulling the taffy that they sold or beading a necklace.  It really added to the charm of the place seeing that a lot of the crafts they sold were handmade and could be done right before your eyes. 
            Later in the evening we walked up to "Looking into the Past Pavilion" (Wangou Lou), which was built upon Lion Hill and looks out over the town.  It gives a great view but unfortunately was built using 400+ year old ancient trees from the northern Yunnan forests. 

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do you think it's chicken or beef yak?	daily life in Lijiang	Matt takes another picture of me eating	narrow streets of Lijiang
canals	The bank horses prefer	old meet new Lijiang	water wheels
lucky frogs	Lijiang old town	ginger candy store	making ginger candy
old Lijiang	1-old town Lijiang	prayers	Wangou Lou
view from Wangou Lou	1-view from Wangou Lou	2-view from Wangou Lou	1-Wangou Lou
Lijiang	city life	Old town	Old Lijiang at night
old town Lijiang	1-Old Lijiang	old town	2-old town Lijiang
3-old town Lijiang	view of Wangou Lou at night	view from our hostel front door	grandma and grandson

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