On vacation

I decided to take a few days vacation before the semester gets started again. I
went to Dali, a very touristy town northeast of Kunming, about 4 hours by bus. Dali is typical of every culturally significant location in China; it's basically been torn down and "restored" to a large open-air shopping mall. From everything I'd heard about Dali, I knew that I wouldn't like it, but my objective was not the town, it was the mountain range to the west of the town, the Cangshan range. I wanted to take a break from the gritty, teaming, chaotic marketplace that is China and get out into some nature.

The bus ride was beautiful, through green valleys terraced for crops, the same
terraces they have used for thousands of years. The white-washed brick villages clustered on the sides of the hills and the fish ponds in each valley were so
picturesque. Unfortunately there was no chance to take any pictures.

Due to transportation timing, I had to spend one night in Dali, and it was every bit as touristy as I'd been led to expect. I stayed in one of the many guesthouses, very simple and basic, but friendly. That night, I sampled some of the chuan (skewers of meat, veggies, tofu, etc. roasted over coal and then sprinkled with chili powder and other ingredients) from the stand in front of the guest house. Absolutely delicious. One of the girls running the stand told me that they were Yi people and so their chili ingredients were different than what the Chinese chuan stands use. I think the secret was Sichuan pepper, which I absolutely love. It's got a unique flavor, and it leaves your mouth somewhat numb. I cook with it a lot.

While I was waiting for my second round of lotus root, a family walked by and their little girl of 8 wanted to practice her English. We talked for a while, so the family sat down to have something to eat during her "lesson." They were really
nice and invited me to share their chuan and a few beers, which of course I could not refuse. They were from Guizhou, the next province to the east and had been travelling Yunnan for about a week. I understood them fairly well, especially the mom, at least for the first hour or so, until the beer started to impair my listening ability. The father really admired Western ideas and English in general even though he could only speak a few words (cheers being the main one). He didn't have an English name, and when I told him he looked like an Allan, he seemed exceptionally pleased. After the rigorous Chinese lesson and the beer, I climbed the stairs and slept like a baby.

The next day I set out for the mountains. There is a chairlift to the 2600 meter level and I'd planned to take it, but after trying to buy a ticket and enduring a few rounds of typical negotiation (90 yuan, round trip ticket only; ok, 60 yuan, round trip ticket only; ok 30 yuan one way ticket, blahblahblah), I figured screw it, I can walk. The "trail" isn't really marked, and I'm not actually sure I was on it, but it's not hard to find a way up through the forest. I just followed my nose and stuck to the horse trail. It was steep and slippery in places, but very pretty and a good workout. Over time, the horses have caused pretty serious erosion, and as I climbed, I thought that if it rained the trail would become a raging river in minutes.

After about an hour, it started raining. Softly at first, and then it really started coming down. I hiked as fast as I could, and even though I had my umbrella, I got pretty wet, especially my shoes. After another 40 minutes of hiking in the rain, I reached the rather secluded guesthouse on the side of the mountain. Of course I was drenched, but unfortunately, so was virtually everything in my pack. I figured I would dry out in front of the heat source, whatever it was, no problem. Problem: no heat source. They have a wood stove in the dining area, but apparently they save it for the winter. The rooms have no heat at any time. Of course this is the rainy season and summer, but still. It was pretty musty and cold in the room, and I spent the first afternoon trying to figure out a way to get dry in the continuing rain. I ate the spiciest thing on the menu for dinner and piled on the blankets to get warm enough to sleep.

The next morning was misty but beautiful, and I hiked north to the end of the trail. No worries about getting my feet wet at least. The scenery on the mountain range was absolutely spectacular. The trail winds in and out of steep green mountain valleys covered in pine and broadleaf forest. Each valley ends in a long full thundering waterfall. There are so many different greens: ferns, mosses, liverworts, and herbacious plants and vines, most of which I'd never seen before. And hundreds of different species of fungus. There were also many birds with unique and beautiful calls, but the bird book I have doesn't have the greatest pictures, so I had a hard time making any positive IDs. When the clouds parted, I could see Erhai Lake to the east, a huge lake that runs the length of the mountain range. It's hard to describe how amazingly beautiful it is in those mountains, and it's not just because I've been nature-deprived for 6 months.





The trail is also amazing. It's about 16 kilometers long and virtually flat. It's
completely paved with marble (mined from the mountains) and I think granite in an artistic design. There is even a railing at the steepest drops. I'm not sure when it was built, but there was clearly a lot of care taken in it's construction. It looks like something I'd expect to see in Switzerland. It's obviously maintained too, because there was almost no trash.


After a lunch of spicy soup, I hiked up a different trail toward one of the peaks. I had no intention of actually climbing to the top (9 hour round trip, very cold at the top) but the trail was so beautiful I just wanted to keep going. This particular trail is very little used, so it's overgrown to the point that it's almost invisible. It reminded me a lot of my botanical survey days when I'd just hike through the forest following deer trails or nothing at all. Besides bird calls, there was no sound at all. It was so still and pristine, like being in another world. I had to turn back because it was getting late, but it's definitely someplace to return to.

After another cold damp night, I hiked south along the trail to the other end. There were many beautiful waterfalls and rocky outcroppings, and hardly any tourists until later in the afternoon. There wasn't much rain either so the views of the lake below were spectacular. After 6 hours of hiking, friction was starting to dry out my shoes but I was relieved to get back to the inn before getting serious blisters. I had a lively dinner conversation with some young travellers from England, Ireland and Spain. It's so interesting to see how other Westerner's perspectives on China.

The next day I did some more hiking before heading down the mountain and back to Dali to wait for the night train to Kunming. I met a traveller from Guangdong province and we walked around the town for a few hours and chatted. Since they speak Cantonese in that province, his Mandarin was hard for me to understand (I'm sure he would say the same for mine), and so was his English, but we got by. He also had no English name, so I named him Wade. It seemed to fit.


On the hour bus ride to the train station, I talked to Lisa, a 5 year old girl from
Beijing. Her English pronunciation was great. Kids are so good at listen-and-repeat. Her grandparents were delighted to have her speak to a native English speaker for an hour and she was such a cute kid. Chinese kids are always cute.

The train ride back was 9 hours and although I usually sleep really good on the
train, I had a hard time this time, partially because the windows were open and the fumes from the engine filled the compartment so it was kind of hard to breathe. That's one of the drawbacks to living in China: sometimes it's hard to breathe.

The Cangshan range is a great place, but if you go, dress warm and stay dry.
Otherwise, I discovered that if you have two dry layers, you can wear a wet layer between them when you sleep and the wet layer will be almost dry when you wake up. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about wet shoes.