China Trip 2005 - The Way to Shangri La
Well, July 14th 2005 saw the intrepid travellers set out again on more adventures in China.

Master Huang Ping and her daughter Zhao Si Yu, with seven students, flew to Beijing, then to Kunming city in Yunnan Province, South West China. From last year's trip there were Andy & Patricia, Dipen and the writer, another Patricia. Joining us this year were Shirley, Ken and Rayner. The latter at 13 years old was the youngest member of the group, and became our mascot!
We arrived at Kunming airport to a very warm welcome from Master Ping's husband, Zhao Jun Hui, family and friends of all ages waving Dreaming Dragon banners and presenting us each with a red rose! Much hugging and many "Ni Haos" before we headed for our comfortable hotel - we stayed there last year, so felt at home immediately. As we had been travelling all day and were weary, we were each supplied with a picnic to eat in our rooms - an inspiration which meant that we could unwind and unwrap the delights of sweet bean soup, orange cakes, tamarind juice and many other exotic goodies.

Saturday 16th July
We visited a beautiful Buddhist temple, not far from Kunming - very peaceful. Whilst the kids had some fun practising their Kung Fu moves with Dipen, the rest of us just strolled around and enjoyed the incense, the brilliantly painted architecture and the tranquil atmosphere.
Back down into Kunming for the first of many fabulous meals - in a room in a two storey restaurant built around a courtyard, with a garden set over lily ponds and accessed by small wooden bridges. After a sumptuous lunch, which included spicy tofu, eggs, mushrooms, spicy, sour veg - which tingled on the tongue, and pancakes with honey, we caught up on much-needed sleep at the hotel.
We were then transported to a very modern massage place where, three to a room, we had an exhilarating foot massage!!!
Dinner, another fantastic array of interesting and tasty dishes, was in a special Yunnan restaurant, built to give a rustic, country-barn look. Part of the entertainment was a calligrapher writing with just the side of his hand dipped in ink! This was then auctioned.

Sunday 17th July
Eight o'clock start - off to a large lake ("Cheng Jiang"), where we all piled into a metal gondola-shaped boat and were rowed across to an island. A vertical climb up stone steps to a temple, beautiful, with great views - then another steep climb to the look-out point at the top. Very green and lush tree-covered hills all around. Back across the lake and through terraced hills past rice, maize, corn and vegetable fields to a spit of land by the lakeside for lunch under the trees.
Fish from the lake are kept in containers in the water until they are cooked on request. Beautiful texture and flavour - and accompanied by delicious vegetables - white carrots, grated and prepared with vinegar and sugar and rice mixed with pieces of roast potato.
Master Ping told us that there was a submerged house in the depths of the lake - and that a dinosaur bone and egg had been discovered. It was very peaceful as we walked around the edge of the water, nothing to be heard except birdsong - and, maybe the gentle lapping of a left-over dinosaur - well we WERE all still a bit jet-lagged!!!
We had an impromptu stop on the way back to Kunming - for some pear harvesting in an orchard! Great tasting fruit, sweet and juicy! We looked the part with our straw hats on!
Back to the hotel for a couple of hours' rest - and out to dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Kunming is a very gentle city to walk around, wide pavements, clean air , comfortable temperature - and not very much noise. We had 'crossing bridge noodles' - each person had a large bowl filled with hot stock, and several plates containing chopped or sliced meat and vegetables, also a bowl of noodles - all of which are placed in the bowl to finish cooking.

Monday 18th July
Ten o'clock start - and off to Luhai park in central Kunming, which housed, among many other delights, a sports hall.
We had the privilege of watching some young children doing Wushu training. Dipen and Rayner demonstrated some of their skills - to a surprised and appreciative audience!
Lunch in a delightful restaurant, nearby. An old, dark wooden-panelled building, two storeyed, opening onto a series of courtyards. We had a separate room, with open shutters which let gentle breezes float through the space.
We lunched on soup, crunchy veg, poached fished - delicate, like sea bass - mushrooms, intensely flavoured, green veg mixed with pineapple pieces and fritters with an apricot-type friut inside, served hot and dredged with sugar!! Fab... Walked off this feast by browsing through the city centre shops - very sophisticated , everything one could wish to buy - and some of us DID.
Spent the afternoon at Master Ping's lovely home, where we enjoyed the company of her family and friends and were regaled with tea and sumptuous cakes. We then headed off to the airport for our one hour flight to Xi Shuang Banna - in the far south of Yunnan, about 200 miles from the Vietnam/Laos borders.
This is a tropical region, so we were prepared by Jun Hui who provided each of us with a wide-brimmed straw hat and a pair of light, cotton Hawaian-style, very snazzy shorts! Very fetching they were, too.
We stayed in a very smart hotel, all glass, marble and chandeliers, big comfortable rooms.

Tuesday 19th July
Six - fifteen wake-up call - some of us coped quite well!! After breakfast we were collected by our travel guide and set off for the Elephant Rain Forest Reserve.
As we walked from the coach there was a great drum-beating and dancing welcome from the Dai people - very colourful and exciting. We appeared to be the only non-Chinese visitors - so attracted a deal of interest and attention.
As we progressed through the reserve, there were various attractions to see, shows with singing and dancing ( worship of the sun and earth) - great music, and energy, also animals to talk to - deer, snakes, a praying mantis and an elephant show. Some of the Dreaming Dragons participated in a tug-of-war. The elephant won. At many points along the way, there were computers set up, one could have a photo taken with the animals, have it processed and buy a laminated copy all in the space of a few minutes! Very impressive!
We spent an enchanting interlude in the butterfly garden, full of red hibiscus, stephanotis and other wonderful tropical flowers and millions of butterflies, of every colour and size imagineable - and took many pics!
We floated for half and hour or so above the rain forest canopy in small, two-person, cable cars - very peaceful, just the sounds of birds and the movement of butterfly wings around us. We had a delicious lunch (mine shared by a tiny pale ginger cat, under the table) outside, finished off with sweet juicy pineapple and walked back down the forest trail - no sign of the wild elephants who lived there, but we did see some enormous footprints!
Dinner in a local restaurant ( whilst a loud electric storm raged above, then passed on) on veg, rice, omelettes, cucumber and lemon salad - and many other delights! Dipen and I, the only vegetarians, had vegetable soup with silk bean curd dumplings in it - fabulous!
A lovely end to a superb day.

Wednesday 20th July
On the coach by seven - thirty a.m. ! Travelling eastwards ( towards the Laos border) we visited a local market, then to the rain- forest reserve of the Dai people. We were able to walk along an opened trail and see some of their houses - some live in tree houses, too. We saw examples of the beautiful, richly-coloured embroidery they make, some fire eaters, and some of the bizarre ( to our eyes, at least) customs practised - i.e. a notion of beauty in long necked women - like the African 'giraffe women', ears with large holes in the lobes and the women who proudly smiled to show us their beautiful black teeth! ( the latter also ate dirt, according to a sign nearby!). Lunch in an open-air restaurant, one amongst the lovely dishes was tofu flavoured with cardomum, very good!
We drove past the villages of the Dai people, very picturesque roof shapes, tiny roads running between the houses, to the Botanical Gardens of Xi Shuang Bana - the fourth largest in the world (?) - Very large, beautifully kept and fascinating.
On our way back to the hotel, we visited a water- splashing festival in another Dai village, set around a magnificent temple complex. The local people were joined by their guests in a large central fountain where each was given a plastic bowl - and encouraged to soak as many people as possible! Dipen and Rayner were the warriors representing the Dreaming Dragons at this enthusiastic and good-natured event! They did very well - and were pretty tired at the end of it - and very wet.
Another superb dinner awaited us after all the excitement, then we collapsed into bed - fairly early.

Thursday 21st July
Drove northwards to the area occupied by the Aini people and were driven around in buggies from one area to the other. Walked along the rain forest trail across streams and over thin bridges across rivers a long way below. Some had rides on two-seater swings which spanned the river beds. We stopped for a picnic, then continued along bamboo walkways up through the canopy - very hot and humid.. Out to a big, open area to watch the peacocks flying across a lake, right over our heads. Quite spectacular...
We continued our travels in the evening - and took a plane to Dali, in the mountains in the north of Yunnan province. However, the plane couldn't land because of thick cloud - so we had to return to Kunming and to stay there overnight.

Friday 22nd July

Early start - this time we reached Dali mid-morning. Much cooler there and cloudy.


We checked into the Landscape hotel in the centre of the old city - a very stylish and beautiful hotel - where some of us stayed last year.
We were taken to a Buddhist temple just outside Dali, by Jun Hui's brother and sister-in-law ( both of whom we met last year, so we all greeted each other very warmly!) for lunch. High up in the forest in a fabulous location - the scent of the pines sharp in the rain, we were entertained by the monks ( male and female) with lovely food - and company. One monk shared our table - and was talking on a very cool-looking mobile!
We were given a special ceremony of chanting and prayers to bless our onward travels - it was a spiritually uplifting and moving experience - and very memorable.
Some of us rested during the afternoon, others made the most of being in the centre of Dali - a very beautiful, pedestrianised, cobbled network of streets, full of small shops . We bought a lot of hand-made, exquisite things - in a fairly short space of time! Shirley proved to be a very dedicated shopper!
After dinner, we went to a brilliant show, at a theatre in a nearby town, called the 'Butterfly Dream' . Wonderful music, staging and costumes.

Saturday 23rd July
Early start - coach to 'Chicken Foot' mountain, then trekked on horseback up the path, then by cable cars, then walked up and up, visiting temples along the way, through the thick forest, lots of brightly-coloured lichens covering the trees - some of which were huge and very old and gnarled.
We listened to the birdsong and smelled the scents of the forest and the flowers. Lunched at the temple near the top of the mountain as the mists began to clear and we could see the breathtaking view across the wooded mountain range.
Lunch was accompanied by a heavy rainshower, thankfully we were indoors! Fortified by the, by now, inevitable feast - we walked back down the mountain for three hours along gentle, stone-flagged paths. At the bottom was a small temple where we heard the monks chanting. After dinner in a local restaurant, we collapsed into our beds - and slept very well!!

Sunday 24th July
Early start and to Shangri La by coach, through villages and small towns where life has remained unchanged for centuries. We passed brickmakers, potters, rice fields, vegetable plantations and many small holdings. Beautiful houses with grey-tiled pagoda roofs and walled gardens in front - with impressive pagoda entrance gates. Some villages had a large temple complex in the centre.
There were a lot of colourful flowers by the roadsides, forget-me-nots, verbascum and wild primulas - flowers that we buy and have to nurture in the U K. We drove by the side of the Yangtse river to Leaping Tiger Gorge - where the water crashes and roars through a deep, narrow gorge. the viewing-point is accessed via many steep and winding steps. We lunched at a wayside cafe - frequented by the biker crowd; the food was excellent, of course!
We drove towards Shangri La - home to the Naxi people - across a wide green plateau flanked by the mountains. The meadows are dotted with houses, handsomely built, all in the same shape and style and very spare and elegant. Once closer to them we could see the finely painted decorations and sumptuous proportions, two storeys and built around large central red-painted columns. Some had walled courtyards at the front and huge entrance gates. There were horses in the meadows, with richly-coloured saddles and blankets - and a lot of sturdy-looking black pigs!
We arrived at Shangri La, parts of the town are modern and others have tiny cobbled streets, little wooden cafes, restaurants and shops. We had dinner in a newly-built hotel complex, the dining hall was huge and very ornate - fabulous food, of course ( amongst the delights were thinly-sliced tomatoes dredged with sugar and light pancakes to dip into honey) - everything is full of flavour and beautifully presented. Junhui whisked us off to an amazing Naxi stage show - among the entertainments was a tug-of-war in which Dipen and Andy participated in the final - and which Andy won.
His prize was to don a fur-trimmed velvet chief's costume and be given the choice of remaining with his wife ( Patricia sat with head in hands!) or marrying a young, beautiful Naxi girl who was looking for a husband!! He extricated himself from this predicament with great aplomb - and to much applause from his fellow Dragons!

Monday 25th July

Early start - drove out, by coach, to a famous, very beautiful lake, the sun appeared, and so did all the dramtic reflections! drove on through tree - covered mountains dotted with villages.
We lost the road , swept away by a landslide - so had to walk across the water - on planks and stones, with many helping hands - and pick up a lift from the other side, in the back of an open truck, to take us to the Shangri La nature reserve ('Bai Shui Tai' which is translated as "White Water Terrace"). We ate lunch before riding up to the thermal limestone rock formations that looked like giant saucers jutting out of the hillside. Beautiful place, very few people about, some Naxi girls in their rich costumes arrived and danced for us. Master Ping joined in - then everyone else did, too! We walked back down the hill, on wooden boardwalks through wild-flower meadows and over bubbling mountain streams. All we could hear were birds and dragon-flies - a perfect place and time.
Dinner in a charming, Tibetan restaurant in the old part of town. Cosy, upstairs room with sofas around a big wooden table and casement windows opening onto a courtyard.
Yak's milk tea - salty or sweet, rich - an aquired taste....Lovely food, eggs and cheese and masses of veg for the non-carnivores, beef and yak meat for the rest! Also great pizza-type breads - some with herb butter inside.
Checked into our new hotel after dinner - Tibetan-style hotel rooms - sleeping platform - very cosy!

Tuesday 26th July
Visit to a wonderful monastery on a hill just outside the town. We left behind the clamour of the street and climbed up to the top - although there were a lot of other visitors, the peace of the place was all around us. An important centre, several large buildings, monks in robes of a deep claret/orange and saffron, incense lighting and water blessings. We walked through large prayer-wheel halls and stood near the gold pagoda roof-tops to look out on the Naxi village across the valley.
Lunch in the old part of town - simple meal of soup and fabulous dumplings. More bread - dough, this time made into parcels with spicy vegetable fillings - delicious!
Back to our hotel - for a siesta, much needed by all....
Another great tibetan dinner, relaxed and comfortable - then what we thought was going to be a short, interesting little visit to a typical Naxi house, turned out to be a full-scale fantastic singing, dancing, audience participation show. In a large, richly decorated hall, we sat in rows all around the walls and were treated to yak's milk tea and barley wine. It was crowded, very noisy and great fun!

Wednesday 27th July
Early call - and flight back to Kunming at 8 a.m. we checked into the beautiful hotel complex where some of us started our visit last July. We relaxed for an hour or so, then had a light, delicious lunch in the hotel - and were entertained by an Aini show , very colourful and attractive. Another stage performance by Dipen and Andy!! Nuff said...
We spent a leisurely afternoon shopping in the old market in Kunming. Several floors selling all sorts of wonderful things! One floor devoted to jewellery - mainly jade, in shop after shop, some amber. A feast for the eyes. Next floor - many clothes shops. Traditional styles, and some antiques. Everyone found something to bring back home!
We then headed for an enormous, modern supermarket - selling everything, athough we bought mainly food items, cookies, tea and honey for take-home gifts. Great to see noodles being freshly made - a huge variety of every food, some very exotic-looking vegetables, too.
Dinner in a restaurant in the centre of town with high vaulted ceilings. Pancakes, among many other things, and sweet soup made with honey. Rayner and Si Yu said their farewells - Rayner was to stay with Master Ping and her family until her return to the UK at the end of August.

Thursday 28th July
We left Kunming on an early flight to Beijing, feeling that we had been in China for much longer than two weeks. we had seen and done SO much and enjoyed every moment of our time there. We, of course, are already planning our next adventure - and are looking forward to returning to this wonderful country - and to seeing our friends again.
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