Lijiang, August 10-11

Ok, Lijiang deserves the hype it gets. It's extremely cute with its traditional (Naxi - another ethnic minority, supposedly related to the Mosu but certainly not as cool :)) courtyard houses, cobble stone alleys and small water ways. And while that's nothing extraordinary, the fact that the old town is really big and consistently in this old style makes it special. But as with Venice, you can't help but wonder "how many tourists can a place take before it loses its original character?" My answer for Venice would be "quite a few more than you might think" whereas for Lijiang I'd say "not a single more." Maybe it's just because in Venice I am better at picking out spots where the locals go, there you just need to leave the big roads and turn into a small alley to be surrounded by real Venetians, drinking their apero in their local wine bar. In Lijiang's old town every single man, woman, child or dog (of whom we saw lots, but none above a few months old - where do you think they older ones went? Contributed their share to the tourism industry?) seems to have some connection to tourism. I didn't get the feeling that there are some people who just live there because it happens to be their hometown they are attached to, so they don't leave despite the tourists crowding their door steps. Of course, Venice is bigger and also has a university, so there's more than one raison d'etre. It's not a fair comparison. But I'm done being fair after the umpteenth prettied-up-for-tourists town.

See, the problem in China seems to be that as soon as someone notices a spot is pretty and can be exploited touristically, they go all out and turn it into a Disney-like recreation of its former self. On the other hand, if a place has not been beautified this way, then there's generally speaking no reason to go there. We drove through quite a few small towns/villages and quickly reconsidered interrupting our bus ride their after seeing how desolate these places were. So, that leaves big cities or you have to suck it up to be surrounded by hordes of tourists. Ok, maybe Lugu Lake was a bit of an exception (because it's so hard to reach) and in Langmusi (for some reason unbeknown to us) we didn't mind. Maybe because there it felt like they weren't really pro at this whole tourism business yet :)

I should stop bitching, because tourism also has its advantages - otherwise it would be difficult to get coffee and internet :) The two things all foreign travelers seem to need. We met a couple in a tea house who (with desperation in their voices) asked us if we spoke English. They said they had such a hard time finding anyone who speaks English (I guess it's true - Lijiang caters mostly to Chinese tourists) and wanted to know something about the hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge (used to be the backpacker fire baptism but if already the 3-year old Lonely Planet says it has turned into a tourist scam, we won't stomach another bus ride for it - besides, we have to be in Kunming on the 17th because we booked plane tickets to Thailand :)) I guess I don't quite realize what advantage we have because I speak (poor) Chinese and can read signs. I don't think I'd recommend travel in China to anyone who doesn't, unless you are perfectly content with only seeing the major sights, you know, the Beijing-Shanghai-Hong Kong tour. Then English gets you all you need. Funny though how all Chinese expect every foreigner to speak English... as if we would expect every Asian to speak Chinese, just because the number of Japanese, Thai or Malay is so much smaller!

Mh, seems I'm mostly rambling and not actually saying anything about Lijiang, aren't I? Well, what can I say? There's only so much hanging out in cafe's you can do. One day we rented bikes and rode out into the countryside north of Lijiang. That was quite pretty but nothing to write home about. I was still recovering from my altitude sickness, so I certainly didn't feel like climbing up Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Besides, it was hidden behind clouds all the time.

When we tried booking train tickets to Kunming, we were told they were sold out for the next week (there's only two trains a day and Lijiang is the end of the line, so it's really difficult to get away from here). We didn't have much of a choice but to book plane tickets (thank you God for inventing the internet! No, wait, those were the physicists at CERN... nevermind). Four times the price of a soft sleeper (around $130 p.p.) but so much more painless than a bus ride! Did I mention those suck?