China Yun Nam trip Day 5 Lijiang 17 Nov 2010

On the 5th day of our trip in Lijiang, we visited a cultural village showcasing the customs and religion of the Nakhi tribe.

The religion the Nakhi tribe practice is the Dongba (东巴)religion, which have its roots from Tibet. According to what the tourguide described, it seemed to be a way of life rather than a religion. It also contains its own set of language (Dongba Script) which has over a thousand glyphs and characters.



After visiting the cultural village, we zoomed to Blue Moon Valley (蓝月谷), it is a water feature and a nice spot to take pictures.. However, the crowd was too much to handle and we didn't get a good picture and worst of all, we had to spend a lot of time queuing for the mini bus ride which had lots of rowdy locals whom had no respect for orderly queuing. We left the valley with a bad aftertaste.

Isabel and Christine at 蓝月谷

Though there were several other places we visited in Lijiang after we left 蓝月谷, they did not leave much impression. The rest of the day was somewhat ruined after our bad experience with the locals at 蓝月谷.. Or perhaps it was due to the tourguide rushing us with the worry of us being late for the cultural show later on.

Our guide practically gave us little time for each tourist attraction on day 5 because we were booked for a 2pm cultural show "IMPRESSION LIJIANG" that was directed by Zhang Yi Mou (张艺谋), aka famous Director of "HERO" and "China Olympics 2008 opening ceremony".

Sitting in the open at high noon was no joke. Lijiang is 2400 meters above sea level and that also means that we are 2400 meters nearer to the sun. The heat was awful due to the strong sun, even in winter. We have to bear the sun to watch the show for about 45mins.

After the show, we can also purchase a copy of the show on DVD.. Fortunately, we did not buy..

I recall visiting the Black Dragon Pool (黑龙潭) after the show. But it's all starting to get hazy now.. I better complete the rest of this travel log asap.

黑龙潭 aka Black Dragon Pool in Lijiang

See the rest of the pics for day 5 here!

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China Yun Nam trip Day 4 Dali & Lijiang 16 Nov 2010

On the morning of our 4th day in China, we were on our last day in Dali and we visited the famous Chongsheng Temple with the historic 3 Pagodas.

In the olden China, Dali was a kingdom (Dali Kingdom) aka the "Nanzhao Dynasty", ruled by for 22 generations by the "Duan's". Buddhism was the state religion and 10 out of its 22 kings had given up their throne during their time to become buddhist monks. And the 3 pagodas were the place where these kings gave up their imperial lifestyle and ordained as monks. Much of the temple were destroyed by wars and natural disasters and only the 3 pagodas were the original buildings that was relatively intact throughout the years.

After visiting Chongsheng Temple, we left Dali and headed to Lijiang.

The first stop at Lijiang was the old town center, where it is now listed as a Unesco World Heritage site. This town center was the distribution site for merchants whom travelled the Ancient Tea Route or literally translated from Mandarin, the "Tea Horse Old Route" (茶马古道). According to history, China merchants travelled far and wide to trade tea with neighbouring countries and Lijiang was one of the prominent stopover place along their trade route. This famous "Tea Horse Old Route" was supposedly to have equal historical importance to the "Silk Road".

The native minority there is known as the Nakhi tribe (納西族). The Nakhi tribe have their origins from the foothils of the Himalayas. They are very musically inclined and we saw our local Nakhi tour guide singing most of the time while describing sights along the way! Again, we are taught how to address the local men and women. We have to address the local ladies as "Fat Golden Sister" (胖金妹 ) and the local men as "Fat Black Brother" (胖金哥).

As to why the locals address each other as fat and dark is because in Lijiang, it is not easy to find a rotound local because of the tough environment and climate. And in Lijiang, big is beautiful.

No wonder I get all kinds of sheepish stares from the local ladies... hehe..

Back to the Nakhi tribe, during the days of the tea trading times, most of the goods were carried by horses by the merchants and the Nakhi tribe, being in the center of this ancient route, were the couriers and forwarders of the merchants. Since they are well known for their toughness and stamina, there were the horsemen for the merchants and they form their own horse gangs (马帮) to ensure that they are kept safe from mountain bandits by travelling together.

Our tour guide in Dali, Ms 梅成芳, whom is also of the Bai tribe but in modern attire

Mrs Neo and Isabel Neo with a local Bai tribe lady in Dali

3 Pagodas in Chongsheng Temple, Dali

Local Nakhi Tribe dressed as the Horse Gang from olden days in Lijiang

Did I mention that Yak is as popular as Beef in Lijiang?

From See the rest of the pictures from Day 4 in China here!

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China Yun Nam trip Day 1 Kunming 13 Nov 2010

Christine, Isabel and myself went on a trip to the southern part of China in "Yun Nam" for a holiday.

The trip includes the tour of Kunming, Lijiang, Dali and Shangri-La.

These are the pictures from Day 1 in Kunming.

We visited the caves and gorges of Jiuxiang.

Next, the tour guide brought us to the Stone Forest (石林).

It was an geological wonder and it is aptly named. You could literally get lost in the heaps of giant stones. The place owes its creation from the tectonic plates movements which resulted in huge undersea rocks and corals were raised above the sea level and form the "stone forest" of today. Some of the larger and taller rocks have clear horizontal cracks on it which according to the guide, was caused by the erosion of the surface of the sea when it was still submerged.

A wee bit about the local customs and culture..

We learnt that Yun Nam have many tribes, the one most prominent in Kunming is the Yi Tribe ( 彝族 )

In Kunming, it is rude to address the local ladies as "小姐" because the term is commonly used to associate with KTV hostesses and prostitutes in China. To address a young "YI" woman proper in Kunming, we have to call them "Ashima" so as to get their attention.

More ways to address a woman in different parts of Yun Nam later.

Franklin, Christine & Isabel at Shilin, Stone Forest in Kunming, China

Many apologies for pics not well taken due to new camera.
Also, the short timing for each tourist site means I gotta learn the trust the metering instead of taking the time for trial and error.

Click here to see the rest of the album for Day 1.

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