17 October 2009
South West, my last stop in China
Posted by oulin under: travel .
Despite the frustrations from conflicts between me and my travel partner, Yunnan was probably the most spectacular part of my journey in China. The diversity of landscapes and ethnic cultures made the other places seem shy in comparison. Out of few dozens of ethnic groups, the dominating ones are Tibetan, Bai, Yi and Miao living in different regions of the province. From The Lost Horizon, Zhongdian gained its tourism name “Shangri-La”. We had our first relax stop there staying in my boss’ brilliantly restored old Tibetan wood house with a view to the major temple and the 20m high praying wheel. Matt and Hsuan came to join us for an exciting weekend for off-road motor-biking into the tourist free tracks and wetlands. It’s the first time I saw friends from Shanghai in after almost 2 months. It felt more like a family reunion to me. Our next stop was Tiger Leaping Gorge, where I had the best hike so far in my life. We set off quite late at 4:30pm. Most of the hikers might have made their half way to the usual over night guesthouses by then. The only sounds around us were the roaring river underneath, the buzz of the insects and the occasional neck-bells of the passing by mules. Landscape, scenery and vegetation changed as we kept turning around the corners of the narrow paths created by the local villagers. Soon after the Twenty Eight Bends we found ourselves walking in the dusk. The mountains and forests around us slowly turned into gray blue. The temperature was just perfect. Slight breeze dried the sweat on us and eased the tiredness from the earlier ascend. Although we could constantly hear the river, the insects and other night animals, I felt I was walking in perfect silence. So far away from the modern civilization and the noises produced from it. By the time before we reached Halfway Guesthouse at 9:30pm, we couldn’t see anything on the road without the flash light. Other tourists at the guesthouse were amazed how we finished the first day hike in such late hour. The next day was a short but exhausting hike to the Mid-Gorge and we returned to Qiaotou Town and caught a minivan to take us to Lijiang. We went directly from Lijiang to Dali. I couldn’t waive my prejudice about Lijiang being over touristy and just wanted to avoid it although I hadn’t been there before. What I heard about it was enough to make out the image of another spoiled Chinese tourist destination. Also, MaoMian was waiting in Dali!
I made a real stop in Dali for more than two weeks, visited a couple quiet yet beautiful villages around it. Almost untouched by tourism, Shaxi and Xizhou were a refreshing surprise. The scene of the ocean of paddy-fields was so soothing. There were moments I was sitting on the rooftop gazing out at the surrounding green fields and felt perfectly content. After parted with Abram, I had a good rest in Dali enjoying the precious time with one of my oldest friends Maomian who I rarely saw in the past four years. Then I started the rest of my trip in early August. Yuanyang’s massive terrace fields and Dongchuan’s red earth were breathtaking. I am always happy to be in places where normal tourists find hard to get to. Although people in those places usually are anxious to attract tourists so that they could get out of poverty, I secretly hope the process would be as slow as it can so its true beauty could be preserved for longer. We often want to share the amazing experience in this kind of places, but at the same time, so afraid tourism would just destroy what’s amazing about it.
Guizhou seems to be a rough blunt young guy while Yunnan appears as a delicate beautiful girl without any vulgarity. I also avoided the most popular waterfall areas near the capitol city and travelled from the south west to the south east with only one night over Guiyang for transit. Most of the areas of this province are covered by epic mountains. Lacking of developed highways, places are connected by bumpy roads winding around the mountains, which often under some sort of repair work. Local buses run clumsily on them. I haven’t encountered so many car-sick people in my life before. It was incredible to see how many locals vomiting at the same time on the bus and demanding the drivers to turn off the aircon even it’s over 40 Celsius in the car. William came to join me and we had a wonderful time visiting the Miao and Dong villages in the south east Guizhou. We couldn’t help shopping though. The ethnic costumes and products were simply irresistible. The handmade fabric was died over and over until it became shiny dark blue paper-like material, then made into exotic, yet fashionable to our opinions, traditional clothes. Most of the locals wore their traditional outfits and accessories daily, and we were just envious how good they look in them. When we put them on, we looked like nothing else but silly tourists. Even though, we both bought a couple pieces which might be stuck in the bottom of our wardrobes right after this trip.
After the long exhausting bus ride from Congjiang to Guilin surrounded by more than a dozen constantly vomiting crowd, I was more than ready for a more sophisticating scene in Guangzhou. It’s time for a short period of relatively luxury lifestyle J My friends in Guangzhou welcomed me back warmly. They were quite amused how I acted like a country girl the first couple days back in modern civilization. I wowed every few minutes about the cosmopolitan sights. I complimented every dish I ate, amazed by how delicate the dim sums looked like, and was eager to kick off my flipflops and have my rough nails manicured.
I spent a few days with my father and his family in my hometown. It’s been three years I haven’t been home. I felt like back to my teenage years sleeping in my old bed, staring at the popstar’s posters I hung on the wall when I was 16. My dad didn’t change the room much although I didn’t have any belongings left there anymore. I gazed out of the window in my room and found nothing actually changed in my neighborhood over the past 16 years. I exhaled a deep sigh. Another time that I confirmed myself I didn’t belong there.
Hong Kong was a blast as usual. I quickly arranged my travel insurance and spent the rest of my time reunited with Lea. We went to movies, ate in delicate restaurants, partied in Lankwaifang with Andrew and friends, and, of course, we wandered around on Lamma Island my favorite place in Hong Kong. The brief catching up with Neil was very pleasant, too. He’s like a long lost brother to me. There was no awkwardness what so ever even we hadn’t seen each other or exchanged much updates for more than four years. We just casually chatted what’s happening in our lives and our common thoughts of changing our careers while sipping latte in a café in central.
While feeling blessed by the warmth from my friends and family, I boarded the plane to Bangkok on 7th of September starting the other route of my journey in South East Asia. Adventures ahead of me again!!
For photos, please go to:
http://www.fl1ickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157621954610932/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157621946767347/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157622393833966/
