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All posts for the month March, 2017

Aidao Nunnery, which we just stumbled on while walking to a monastery

Aidao Nunnery, which we just stumbled on while walking to a monastery

Tourists come to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, for one primary reason: to see the pandas. There are fewer than 2,000 giant pandas in the world and perhaps 80 percent of them are in Sichuan. Now, you’re not going to see them in the wild, but back in the 1980s Chengdu built the Chengdu Panda Base for research and – presumably – tourists. We’d already seen it, though, when we were here in 2015, and there’s only so many times you need to see a panda zoo in a two-year period. For us, that would be precisely once, so we didn’t go out there.

We came here, instead, for a remarkably prosaic reason: it’s where the flight went. From Shangri-La you can fly to three cities: Kunming (already been there twice this trip), Lhasa (wrong direction; it’s west of Shangri-La and we want to go east), and Chengdu. So we went to Chengdu. We could have caught a connecting flight on, but we hate doing that so we spent three nights here.

Sichuan Province may have the hottest, spiciest, and tastiest food on earth. This fish dish was loaded with the kind of Sichuan peppers that leave your lips just numb. Oddly, though, except for this place we had a bit of trouble finding good food in Chengdu and in fact had what was undoubtedly the most boring meal of our three-plus weeks in China here.

Sichuan Province may have the hottest, spiciest, and tastiest food on earth. This fish dish was loaded with the kind of Sichuan peppers that leave your lips just numb. Oddly, though, except for this place we had a bit of trouble finding good food in Chengdu and in fact had what was undoubtedly the most boring meal of our three-plus weeks in China here.

But for the panda zoo and Mount Qingcheng – another day trip from Chengdu we did two years ago – there’s really not that much of interest in here. It’s just a big, not terribly attractive city of 10 million people. To add to the sense of boredom, Mark was recovering from the sprained ankle he’d acquired the morning that we were flying here. The good news was that we had a gorgeous suite at the St. Regis, thanks to Starwood’s generous upgrade policy. It made hanging around and not doing much except reveling in the Republican melt down over repealing Obamacare relatively pleasant.

The grounds of Wenshu Temple create a little slice of calm in Chengdu

The grounds of Wenshu Temple create a little slice of calm in Chengdu

By our third day there, after a bit of healing and more than a bit of cabin fever, Mark’s ankle was good enough to walk to Wenshu Temple, a beautiful and peaceful spot in what is otherwise a pretty intense city. Unfortunately, because of a ban on photography inside the temple itself we were unable to capture one of those memorable moments that you get to experience in travel. There was a big statue of the Buddha and, as often happens, someone came in to pray. In this case it was a young guy who got on his knees and bowed faithfully to the Buddha so we could clearly see that the back of his jacket was the word “FUCKING” in big, bold, capital letters.

We love China. Sometimes, at least.

No, Steve Jobs didn't rise from the dead in Chengdu. Right across the street from our hotel was an imitation Apple Store. I went in to see if I needed anything and discovered this mini Apple Museum. It was actually really fun to walk through the history of Apple, seeing a bunch of the old Apple products and pictures of Steve Jobs as he aged, got heavy, and then got thin.

No, Steve Jobs didn’t rise from the dead in Chengdu. Right across the street from our hotel was an imitation Apple Store. I went in to see if I needed anything and discovered this mini Apple Museum. It was actually really fun to walk through the history of Apple, seeing a bunch of the old Apple products and pictures of Steve Jobs as he aged, got heavy, and then got thin.

And then imagine how excited I was to discover the very Macintosh - with one whole MB of RAM! - that Mark had when we were in graduate school

And then imagine how excited I was to discover the very Macintosh – with one whole MB of RAM! – that Mark had when we were in graduate school

Wenshu Temple

Wenshu Temple

More of Wenshu Temple

More of Wenshu Temple

The streets of Chengdu could be interesting. Here's an itinerant peddler selling fresh chickens. Never thought of just buying a dead, cleaned chicken from a guy on a scooter before.

The streets of Chengdu could be interesting. Here’s an itinerant peddler selling fresh chickens. Never thought of just buying a dead, cleaned chicken from a guy on a scooter before.

You meet the most interesting people on the streets of Chengdu

You meet the most interesting people on the streets of Chengdu

And then there was the street we were walking down that turned into al fresco dining. We're familiar with sidewalk restaurants, but in this one spot - we didn't see it anywhere else - they'd spilled over the sidewalks and way out onto the street. Strange.

And then there was the street we were walking down that turned into al fresco dining. We’re familiar with sidewalk restaurants, but in this one spot – we didn’t see it anywhere else – they’d spilled over the sidewalks and way out onto the street. Strange.

The old town, beautifully rebuilt after a devastating 2014 fire, had a distinctly western feel to it

The old town, beautifully rebuilt after a devastating 2014 fire, had a distinctly western feel to it

The name evokes an earthly paradise, a Buddhist utopia. It was the name Franklin Roosevelt gave to what we now know as Camp David, though the current White House resident doesn’t think so highly of it, displaying his normal degree of class in a January interview when he called it “nice.”

“You’d like it. You know how long you’d like it? For about 30 minutes.” Really classy.

At any rate, Shangri-La was the fictional setting for James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon and while it’s not well read these days the name has endured. And though it was fictional, various Chinese locales claimed that they were the inspiration for his novel. In late 2001, though, the city of Zhongdian one upped the other contenders by changing it’s name to Shangri-La. And so the tourists came.

Actually, tourists had come before and continue to come because of the lovely old town, pleasantly cool summer climate, and a temple that includes what is allegedly the world’s largest prayer wheel.

Up on the temple with Buddhist prayer flags that we saw all over Bhutan flying in the breeze and the world's largest prayer wheel in the background

Up on the temple with Buddhist prayer flags that we saw all over Bhutan flying in the breeze and the world’s largest prayer wheel in the background

One of the first things I noticed was the altitude. We were staying at a hotel maybe 20 minutes from the old town and I was surprisingly winded during the walk. We’d just finished hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge, of course, so I thought maybe I was just tired from that until I checked the app on my phone that shows altitude and discovered that we were 10,800 feet above sea level. Well, that explains things.

The other quick observation was just how different Shangri-La (née Zhongdian) is from what we’d experienced up to this point in Yunnan. It’s only a couple hours north of the Gorge, but it was as though we had suddenly moved into Tibet’s orbit more than Kunming’s or the rest of Yunnan’s. This just felt like we’d reached the west with wide streets, measurably colder climate, and surrounding mountains.

Yaks are big in Shangri-La. It seemed as if every shop and every restaurant advertised their yak-ishness. And these beauties were right near our hotel.

Yaks are big in Shangri-La. It seemed as if every shop and every restaurant advertised their yak-ishness. And these beauties were right near our hotel.

Didn't believe me about how central yaks are? This was a page from the menu at Three Brothers Cafe, our favorite restaurant. So yeah, yaks are big here. We ended up trying a few of them, including yak cheese, and they were OK, sometimes even good.

Didn’t believe me about how central yaks are? This was a page from the menu at Three Brothers Cafe, our favorite restaurant. So yeah, yaks are big here. We ended up trying a few of them, including yak cheese, and they were OK, sometimes even good.

We’d originally planned three or even four days in Shangri-La but cut it back to just two days so we could avoid forecast rains on the hike; thus we didn’t have a lot of time to explore the town. That was probably OK as there really wasn’t that much to see. The old town is beautiful, but much of it isn’t that old: a fire in 2014 wiped out about half the buildings there. They’ve done a remarkable job of rebuilding and maintaining the historic feel of the place, but it seemed as though a lot of the newly constructed replacements were empty. They got the infrastructure back but now they have to fill it all up.

There was one beautiful temple in the city, on the edge of the old town, and we enjoyed poking around. And there’s a monastery maybe an hour’s walk outside of town that’s supposed to be beautiful. On our second day we were going to go out there in the morning, before a mid-afternoon flight to Chengdu. As we were leaving the hotel and watching a group of local people in beautiful and colorful native costume arriving for a wedding or something Mark missed a step and did a total face plant on the sidewalk. One second he was walking with me and the next second he was flat on the pavement. Fortunately there was no permanent damage, but he sprained his ankle and thus that was the end of our idea of walking out to the monastery or doing anything else before the flight, for that matter.

Mark enjoying Shangri-La's temple and prayer flags before his little accident

Mark enjoying Shangri-La’s temple and prayer flags before his little accident

And thus we close out our three weeks in Yunnan Province. It’s been remarkable, often even stunning. It’s possible there are more beautiful areas of China and more interesting places for tourists to go but if so I can’t wait to find them. From here we fly to Chengdu and then on to Shanghai before heading north to Japan. This has really renewed our interest in traveling in China and, in Mark’s case, studying Chinese. He thinks that with another three months he could learn to read Chinese pretty well. So who knows, we may spend more time back here in the coming years than I would have ever imagined.

The temple is on a hill, up a whole bunch of stairs. And here I'd thought after the gorge hike I was done with climbing.

The temple is on a hill, up a whole bunch of stairs. And here I’d thought after the gorge hike I was done with climbing.

Old town at night was beautiful but kind of quiet

Old town at night was beautiful but kind of quiet

To our surprise, though, we discovered Mokkos Bar, as cool a bar space as you could hope to find

To our surprise, though, we discovered Mokkos Bar, as cool a bar space as you could hope to find

Here I am for dinner at Three Brothers Café. It was on the second floor, right above a town square where the locals come at night to dance. And this was huge: it was heated. As we've traveled through Yunnan, with temperatures down in the 40s and even 30s, almost nothing is heated. Dinners are normally eaten in heavy coats. The heat here was enough to make you think you really were in some utopia.

Here I am for dinner at Three Brothers Café. It was on the second floor, right above a town square where the locals come at night to dance. And this was huge: it was heated. As we’ve traveled through Yunnan, with temperatures down in the 40s and even 30s, almost nothing is heated. Dinners are normally eaten in heavy coats. The heat here was enough to make you think you really were in some utopia.

And finally, dinner - kung pao chicken on the left and a cold yak dish on the right. Even the tea was interesting, hot water poured over buckwheat. Surprisingly good!

And finally, dinner – kung pao chicken on the left and a cold yak dish on the right. Even the tea was interesting, hot water poured over buckwheat. Surprisingly good!

Looks more like a mountain hike than a gorge hike, huh? Day One was about the mountains, while Day Two was for the gorge.

Looks more like a mountain hike than a gorge hike, huh? Day One was about the mountains, while Day Two was for the gorge.

About 40 miles north of Lijiang was a destination we’ve had in mind for years, Leaping Tiger Gorge. With a distance of some 12,400 feet from river to the mountain peak it is one of the deepest gorges in the world, and the 18- or 20-mile hike up in the mountains and ultimately down to the river (and back out again!) is one of the great hikes we’ve ever done. We had delayed the hike while in Lijiang for two days to give the rainy weather that was forecast a chance to clear. Boy, did that work out for us: with temperatures in the 40s and 50s and nary a cloud in the sky, it was perfect for hiking.

The gorge is created by the Jinsha River, part of the upper Yangtze River. Legend has it that, to escape a hunter, a tiger leaped across the river at the narrowest point (and our ultimate destination). Given how steep the cliff face was on one side of the gorge it’s hard to imagine where a tiger would have gone to, but it still creates a pretty nice name.

Down in the Jinsha River, where the tiger escaped a hunter and our ultimate destination

Down in the Jinsha River, where the tiger escaped a hunter and our ultimate destination

For us, as for nearly all hikers on the route, Tiger Leaping Gorge is a two-day affair. The “upper trail” as the main route is known, runs along the western side of the Jinsha River, mostly high up in the mountains. The first thing that struck us was the majesty and beauty of the mountains across the river. We’d been expecting more views of the gorge but in fact overwhelmingly what you were looking at was beautiful Jade Snow Mountain. Here on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau we finally encountered the snow-covered mountainous terrain that we’d been expecting to see in Bhutan but never did.

And so we hiked. Up, up, and further up that first day. We hit the trail just about the same time as Frederick, a 20-something Danish law student studying for a semester in Beijing. As the route turned steep Mark and I took great pleasure when he told us to continue on, he needed a rest. And up and up it went, before starting down into one of the remote villages in the area. That going down part was particularly disconcerting as we knew we had not yet reached the high point of the trail; we would have to climb back up every step we went down. Once we started back up we went through a series of 28 “bends” or switchbacks before reaching the high point. Let there be no question: that was a workout.

Mark up in the mountains

Mark up in the mountains

Me, too

Me, too

We’d made a reservation at the delightfully named Come Inn in a village known as Halfway, only to discover on the trail that Halfway is about two-thirds of the way to the end of the official trail. After having stopped for a surprising lunch – we didn’t know we would pass through a village with a hiker-serving guesthouse – we made it into Halfway about 4:00 PM, making for a solid six-hour hike. The inn was basic, with one of the hardest beds I’ve ever slept on, but it had hot water, decent food, and stunning views of the mountain face. At $40 for a room with our own mountain-viewing balcony, we weren’t complaining.

Did I mention it was cold up there? Our bags were heavy with cold-weather gear, which seemed silly while we were sweating and hiking. When we got to Halfway, though, and the sun went down, we were glad we'd packed it all.

Did I mention it was cold up there? Our bags were heavy with cold-weather gear, which seemed silly while we were sweating and hiking. When we got to Halfway, though, and the sun went down, we were glad we’d packed it all.

The next morning we were up and on the trail by maybe 9:00 AM. It was a surprisingly short and relatively easy trip down to Tina’s, a guesthouse that marks the end of the official, government-sponsored trail. We’d read that from there you can hike down to the bottom of the gorge, even to the very rock where from which the legendary tiger had leapt. We had plenty of time before our 3:30 bus to Shangri La, so off we headed with some of the friends we’d made along the trail.

It was a little shocking just how far down the river actually was, knowing that after getting there we would have to climb back every step of the way. Still, being in the gorge, after hiking above it the day before, was spectacular and made for a great counterpoint to the previous day’s hike: one day up in high elevation with views of the mountains and one day down along the river with views of the gorge itself.

Looking downstream in the gorge

Looking downstream in the gorge

So we loved it. A couple days later and we’re still a bit sore, but it was totally worth it. And we had fun meeting some of the other hikers, all, of course, much younger than us. Frederick the Danish student. Frank and Andy, the former a Dutch student who’s just finishing a 15-month break from that life, and the latter a New Zealander who works when he needs to and hikes or bikes when he can. I was kind of upset to learn that he once biked from Alaska to Argentina, putting my little Alaska to Minnesota trip in 1982 to shame. Paula and Alfredo, a Spanish couple traveling in Southeast Asia for several months before returning to their home in Berlin. A professional photographer whose client – the Aman hotel chain – pays her to travel to fabulous places, stay in their fabulous hotels eating their fabulous food, and take pictures. A French woman traveling alone who made the same wrong turn we did (as did just about every other hiker we talked to; the one place the trail was poorly marked) and who took the great picture of us at the top of the blog.

The three-hour bus ride from Tina’s to Shangri La was hell, but that’s OK: the hike was worth the years we’ve waited to do it.

Loved these views of the mountains

Loved these views of the mountains

Early in the hike. The trails were good and mostly well-marked, but you really didn't want to slip off...

Early in the hike. The trails were good and mostly well marked, but you really didn’t want to slip off…

Mark working his way gradually up the mountain

Mark working his way gradually up the mountain

After a lot of climbing the first day we hiked down into this village, knowing we would have to climb all the way back out again

After a lot of climbing the first day we hiked down into this village, knowing we would have to climb all the way back out again

Blue sky, snow-capped mountains, and cool weather - we were pretty happy

Blue sky, snow-capped mountains, and cool weather – we were pretty happy

At one point along the trail we had to share it with these goats. And yes, Mark petted that cute one closest to him.

At one point along the trail we had to share it with these goats. And yes, Mark petted that cute one closest to him.

The river really was that green

The river really was that green

Didn't think I'd write a blog without cherry blossoms did you?

Didn’t think I’d write a blog without cherry blossoms did you?

Blue skies and big mountains makes for a happy hike

Blue skies and big mountains makes for a happy hike

There were lots of signs along the way. In many cases the translation was presumably lacking.

There were lots of signs along the way. In many cases the translation was presumably lacking.

Here I am hiking up the trail. Turns out, though, it wasn't the trail we were supposed to be on, so back down we went. Pretty much everyone we talked to that night and the next day had made the same wrong turn.

Here I am hiking up the trail. Turns out, though, it wasn’t the trail we were supposed to be on, so back down we went. Pretty much everyone we talked to that night and the next day had made the same wrong turn.

On Day Two we hiked down into the gorge. That's Andy & Frank with Mark, a couple of very fun guys

On Day Two we hiked down into the gorge. That’s Andy & Frank with Mark, a couple of very fun guys

The bridge over to the rock from with the legendary tiger leapt. Not sure how stable and secure it was, but it worked for us at least.

The bridge over to the rock from with the legendary tiger leapt. Not sure how stable and secure it was, but it worked for us at least.