So today was a short but extraordinary day in the hills above Lijiang. We stopped at a small Buddhist monastery up in the hills, and a bunch of old women there performed a traditional dance for us that we could take pictures of as long as we made a contribution, which of course we did.

So first a little information about Lijiang. It is the most popular tourist city in all of China now apparently. Lijiang was completely and absolutely destroyed by an earthquake 1996. Since then this place has rebuilt with incredible speed. There truly was an ancient town here full of old market buildings stone walkways waterwheels and ancient stuff. It has been rebuilt to look as if it’s old. Everybody says about Lijiang, it is new old. And really, if you didn’t know better you could walk through most of the ancient town and believe that it in fact was 1000 years old. It really is amazing the work that is done here. But on the outskirts of town you see in enormous housing developments being built, great wide roads some of which we were riding on today. It was really a great ride for our first biking day.

We got back to town reasonably early in the afternoon, so a couple of us went out to the main part of town outside of the ancient town, and Paul and Catherine were looking for biking shirts which they found. Then I just happened to see a foot massage sign on this one building, so we ended up having a 90 minute foot and leg and actually pretty much the whole body massage. $78 Yuan, or about $13! It hurt a lot actually, especially after hiking the day before and biking today, but I’m convinced that the massage of sore muscles is good thing. Then we met up with the rest of the group for a simple dinner tonight, and everybody’s crashing pretty early tonight.

A big day tomorrow, about 70 km in hills, and I think tomorrow will be our first view of Tiger Leaping Gorge. I’m excited for that because it is one of the deepest gorges on the planet as I understand. As is common on these bike trips, it’s just after 9 PM and I can barely keep my eyes open. How funny is that, so different from my normal life where often I feel like I can’t even sleep until midnight.

China is such an interesting place, and because one of the group members is Chinese but lives in Singapore, we’re getting a lot of other perspective on how China works from him. Apparently there is this thing they practice called Guangxi, which is if you know somebody who knows somebody, then you can get things done. It’s not about bribes in the traditional sense, but it’s about influence.

And it’s also interesting to see things being built here in such a massive scale. The last time I was here a few years ago, it was similar in that huge highways were being built, cities were being created in the middle of nowhere apparently, and not unlike the outskirts of Lijiang today where massive buildings are being built to house people that will be moving over the next years.

Sleep now…

Day 2 – Baisha Town Ride We ride north out of Lijiang and soon hit the quiet back roads that take us to Suhe Village, follow the narrow back roads passing through a few Naxi villages we will ride to Baisha, a small Naxi town that is very photogenic and is a good spot to sample some ginger tea. After a moderate climb we reach the view point of the day, a place worth stopping for a picnic with the views out over the flat plains that surrounds Lijiang. After the picnic we head down hill on the other side and cruise back into Lijiang with a gorgeous view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on our left. In the afternoon you may visit the Mu Palace or the Black Dragon Park or attend a performance of the Naxi orchestra. Dinner is on your own tonight. Hexi Hotel. Ride 45 km. B L