Spring Festivus For the Rest of Us Part II

So here it is. Part two of the epic journey. In Kunming we caught a bus for Dali. Dali was the seat of a Muslim empire that emerged after Kublai Khan conquered China. The bus trip to Dali was great. The view from the bus was spectacular. The road from Kunming to Dali slices through the mountains and passes many small villages. There are actually two Dalis. One is New Dali, which is a modern city of about five million, and the other is old Dali, which is a well preserved walled city. The two are separated by about 8 kilometers and centuries of time. Dali is set at the foot of a large mountain and flanked by a massive lake. The valley near the lake is quite fertile with thousands of plots of land where many different vegetables are grown. Scott, Bryne, and I stayed at a hostel in neither old nor new Dali. It was down by the lake about two miles from the walls of the old city. It was a bit isolated and taxis were nonexistent. We spent a lot of time at the hostel playing Risk as a result of our isolation. We did get to the old city for a few nights and it was quite nice but nothing like the old city we would see in Lijiang. While in Dali we went to a hot spring spa which was excellent. It was set in the mountains and the natural springs were the perfect accompaniment to the view. Our brief visits to the old city were punctuated by bizarre encounters with elderly drug dealers. Everywhere me or my friends went we were approached by old women wearing traditional clothing and all they would say was, "Ganja? Hashish? Heroin?" These ladies were all over the city and dealing out in the open in front of God and everyone. In China you get the death penalty for dealing (or using) drugs so I have no idea what the deal was with these heroin dealing grannies. The manager of our hotel explained that Dali is a unique autonomous region where the drug rules are relaxed due to the religious practices of many of the minority groups in the region. I've never heard of heroin being used in a religious ceremony but then again I don't know that much about Scientology.

After three days in Dali it was time to head to Lijiang. Lijiang is a UNESCO world heritage site that earned its place on the list not through a famous statue, or beautiful view, but through sheer durability. Lijiang as a city was formed almost 1000 years ago. The old city is famous because of its incredibly well preserved Song Dynasty architecture. The wooden buildings and their distinctive sloping stone roofs seem to go on forever connected by small stone alleyways that spill out into small public squares. The city is beautifully lit at night. It is quite an amazing place. Lijiang is famous throughout China for being the travel spot of choice for young couples seeking a romantic getaway. The city is set near Jade Dragon Snow Mountain which dominates the landscape. We stayed at a hostel, again, on the outskirts of the old town. This was not as bad as the situation in Dali because everything is in walking distance in Lijiang. We spent three days in Lijiang just wandering the streets and looking into the small shops that line them. This may seem a little boring but the city is honestly one of the coolest places I've ever been. Many people in Lijiang still wear their traditional ethnic clothing which is always quite colorful and the sites, sounds, and smells are a lot to take in. One of the main reasons we went to Lijiang was its proximity to Tiger Leaping Gorge. The gorge is located on the opposite side of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain from Lijiang. The two hour bus trip to the gorge takes you over another smaller mountain and runs parallel to the Yangzee river. At this point in its course the river is a deep blue which is quite amazing considering the brown hue the river becomes in eastern China. As the fame of the gorge increases new visitors centers are being constructed. We had no desire to see the gorge you'd see on a tour. We had heard of a hike that takes you through the gorge at 3,000 meters. In Lijiang we asked some locals and picked up a few hand drawn maps of the trail with a few points of interest and guest houses drawn on. We had heard that the length of the whole hike was about 12 kilometers so on the morning of February 9th (my birthday) we took the first bus from Lijiang in hope of hiking the whole gorge in one day. The weather was beautiful and when we arrived at the town near the trail head we followed the first of the yellow arrows that would guide our path through the day. The views were breathtaking. It was really a great way to spend my birthday and a day I will never forget. The hike did have its low points. One section is called '28 Bends'. It is a snake path that takes you up about 300 vertical feet in about 100 horizontal feet. I honestly thought I might die. I thought I'd be one of those people whose headstones have the same date at both ends but luckily I survived. As the day went on we stopped at several guest houses in order to get food and rest. We pushed ourselves to get to the end of the trail but we could never seem to find it. Around every bend where we expected to find the last guest house we would find the trail extending around yet another bend. The day was getting late and we were exhausted and at this point wondering if we'd made a mistake somewhere. Finally we arrived at Tina's Guesthouse 15 minutes before sunset. We got at the guest house six hours after we began the hike and found out that from the trail head to Tina's is 27 kilometers, not 12. We were happy with ourselves for completing such a long hike in such a short time but at the same time we were kind of worried that the map we followed and advice we were given were so wrong. The next morning we left the gorge and headed back to Lijiang where we caught a flight to Chengdu.

We spent three more days in Chengdu before heading to Hainan Island. One of Scott's co-workers helped us buy plane tickets and book a hotel as part of a tour group. We met the group at the airport and, no surprise, they were all old Chinese people. It was a bit awkward for them to be traveling with three white guys but they got used to it. We flew to Hainan on Valentines Day and during the flight the stewardesses performed a few skits and even had couples participate in a game in the aisle. The TSB would be enraged by these actions but it was quite entertaining once the shock and disbelief faded away. We landed in Sanya in the evening and the whole tour group went straight to the hotel. The tour guide had zero English. We were told he would speak English and be able to tell us about Sanya and Hainan but there was no way that was going to happen. At the hotel we spoke with the man and told him we were not going to continue with the tour group and he seemed fine with that. Bryne, Scott, and I went out for a bit that evening before heading to bed. The next morning at 7:00 a.m. the tour guide was knocking frantically on our door. He was telling us we had to go with the group. We said we didn't want to and he demanded that we go. We found out that the group was not staying in Sanya that evening. The group was headed to the interior of the island to see some Buddha or something. We were in Sanya to relax. We had seen many sites of cultural significance but now we wanted to relax on the beach and enjoy the warm weather. We could see no way out of this bind at the moment so we went along. At this point the tour group had been waiting for us for about a half hour, they were happy with us. We boarded a bus and headed to some faux cultural village. Sanya looked beautiful as we were driving away. Once at the cultural center Scott called his co-worker and she explained that we could pay a small fee, sign a contract, change hotels, and be relinquished from the grip of the tour guide. We paid the fee and were free. We spent the next two days going to the beach and sipping coconuts while we lazed in the sun. Exactly what we wanted to do. It was in Sanya that I had some of the best seafood I've ever had. We spent several dinners eating on the street. In Sanya there were streets where restaurants would be set up on the sidewalk. They have all their ingredients out on a table and they let you select which vegetables and meats you'd like and then they cook them right there in a wok on the sidewalk. The fish was amazingly fresh and all the dishes were great.

On the fourth day we went to Monkey Island (Ho Dao). It was a ways away from Sanya and getting there was kind of expensive as was the admission ticket. It was totally worth it. As soon as we got off of the cable car that ferried us to the island a monkey appeared and frightened a woman so terribly that she jumped into my arms. The island had many attractions with monkeys but the best part was just having wild monkeys everywhere. Monkeys were stealing things from people and terrorizing children. It was monkey chaos. One monkey even stole Bryne's water bottle. I laughed and laughed. Some of the attractions included Monkey Stunt Show, Monkey Comedy Show, Monkey Color Guard, Monkey Introspection Room, and Monkey Jail. I never found out why the monkeys were in jail. One monkey even approached me and climbed onto my head where, disturbingly, he found a few good things to eat in my hair. Monkey Island was great. The night we returned from Monkey Island was Spring Festival Eve.

Spring Festival is what we know in the west as Chinese New Year. It involves many traditions but the most famous are the dragon dances and the fireworks. We went out to a bar that evening and celebrated with the locals. At the stroke of midnight the sky was ablaze with fireworks. The Spring Festival traditionally lasts about two weeks so for the next two weeks it was quite hard to sleep as fireworks had been going of constantly since that first night. The next day we bid farewell to Hainan Island and headed back to Chengdu and finally back to Beijing.

Second semester has begun and now there are only 15 weeks left in the school year. I have twice as many classes as last semester including six classes a week with the Korean students in the international building. Last week I returned to Capital Mandarin for my Chinese classes and last night I attended a party at 789 Art Gallery. Things are back to normal here but I still feel like I was in the stone forest and had a monkey on my head just yesterday.