Last Wednesday we left spicy Sichuan and the comfort of Sim’s Cozy (very cozy) Hostel in Chengdu for Yunnan province. The original plan was to bus/train our way there, but after our exhausingly long bus rides around Tibet we opted for the 20 hours shorter and only a few euros more expensive flight to Lijiang.

We had heard alot about Lijiang before coming. The Lonely Planet refers to it as the “must-see travellers mecca”, which frankly is a little frightening and we were worried about the hordes of Chinese tourists also roaming the street, and while it is SUPER touristy, it’s also gorgeous and a great place to hang around for a few days. The old town is made up of small streets (too small for cars for the most part (but ok for horses, bicycles, wagons and carts apparantly), and little canals that used to distribute all the water for the town.

There are losts of cafes and restaurants along the water where you can watch the little fishies go by… 

Roland sitting in a restaurant… watching the fishies

The river is still used for many things, like washing veggies… 

Washing clothes…

 Washing feet…

I even saw people cleaning freshly slaughtered chickens in there.  Early in the morning the canals are beautiful and clear and by the end of the day they are pretty cloudy.  Luckily there are also people to clean the canals. This guy was fishing out the garbage. 

We’ve noticed alot more veggies around here and you see great, heaping baskets of  produce every where!

 This was early sunday morning and I think she was off to market.  I accidently stumbled on said market a little later and it was fantastic! In such a touristy town it was amazing to find a place where I was the only tourist.

There was all sorts of food for sale but the most impressive were the mountains of greens…

 

 and the longest beans I’ve ever seen… 

 

Ginger and garlic! (explaining the tasty food we’ve been getting here)

 All different kinds of mushrooms… 

 I’m not sure what these were, but they looked like little yellow flowers…maybe for tea?

Traffic jam! These two carts were stuck and couldn’t get past each other for about 5 minutes. 

Weighing potatoes:

 I was suprised to find out that they eat potatoes in China, but there are a few dishes with them. My fave here is a fried potato pancake with green onions.

 And at night, the coaches of tourists leave town, though many remain,the red lanterns are turned on

 Like every where in China, there are little stands to buy BBQ skewers of meat and veggies. Roland choosing a few:

 Still a lot of tourists, buying the mandatory woven scarves/tea/trinkets…

We spent a lot of time just wandering the streets…

In Lijiang, we stayed at Mama Naxi’s guesthouse – she’s the woman on this picture:

The food is pretty awesome (and cheap!)… Mama takes good care of you!