Shivering in Shangri-la

Again, I am a little behind in the updates but getting closer. However, this one is only 6 weeks late.

I took some holiday from school with the intention of finally getting round to trekking Tiger Leaping Gorge and once again my plan failed me.

As an extra bonus it was Halloween weekend so I thought I had missed the party the school makes us put on. Annoyingly someone decided that this year we were to put on two, I missed one but not the other. The Friday night was a party for the primary school kids and their parents so I had the ones in my classroom, racing with balloons between their feet or knees. It was hilarious and only one person fell over.

world's largest prayer wheel

whats left of the old town

I jumped on a train to LiJiang on the Saturday and arrived early Sunday morning. The bus to Tiger Leaping Gorge was cheap and fairly regular so I had no problem getting a ticket. I did however have trouble staying awake on the bus and sailed straight past the gorge only to wake up about half an hour outside ZhongDian or Shangri-la (it was renamed in 2002 for tourism reasons). I had no idea where I was going and it only clicked when we arrived and I checked with the ticket guy. They thought I was hilarious and called over several people to tell hem what I had done, helpfully they all laughed at me too. One was actually helpful and told me about a nice hotel and dropped me off. Shangri-la is at over 3000 meters altitude and so was pretty chilly. Luckily I had packed for hiking and so had lots of shorts and t-shirts and not loads else. So when it started to snow I was only a little freezing (sarcasm, I froze and spent three days looking for fireplaces in cafes and bars).

World's largest Buddhist monastery

Most of the old part of town was destroyed in a fire over the summer so lots of building work. The hotel owner was telling me that although pretty the old town was a tourist trap and he was hopeful some of the traditional elements could be restored with the new build. Time will tell I guess, but I would be interested in going back to see what they make of it.

ZhongDian is a hugely religious and spiritual place, so most of the things to see are monasteries or temples. Although I have seen lots of temples in China, the ones I visited In ZhongDian were different and so very impressive and interesting places to look round.

 I spent a few days chilling (literally) in ZhongDian and loved how relaxed and easy going the place felt. After about 3 days I jumped on a bus back to LiJiang before heading back to Kunming and work. I have been to LiJiang so I have ticked off the highlights tour of the town, so this time I took advantage of the warm weather and sat in the park with my book for a  few hours before finding a place to stay for the night.

I ended up in a YHA dorm room of about 30 beds and nothing else. It was amazingly cheap but the public bathrooms outside of the hostel were much nicer than anything in the room. Luckily I managed to snag a bed on the opposite end of the dorm to the bathrooms so I wasn't took bothered by them. I reluctantly got the train back to Kunming and back to work.

Caves in AnShun Day 2

After getting back to AnShun town and having a speedy shower we went to investigate the food market street we had been told about. It was about half a mile of market stalls selling some of the best food i have had in Southern China. Everything was really cheap so we just bought loads of stuff to try and if it as no good we went and got something else. We found a place that sold ribs and they were amazing. So good in fact that we went back the next day and got some more.

We had an early night and a chilled Tuesday morning before heading out to the Dragon Pool Caves. We used public buses so it took hours but was amazingly cheap. Somehow I ended sitting in the front seat of the mini bus so I had an unobstructed view of the terrifying road with drop we were hurtling down. If we ignore the break neck speed we were travelling at, it was actually beautiful and impressive scenery.

The Cave itself is in a smaller scenic area with a waterfall and another trail to follow. There were no signs in English or Chinese so we got lost constantly and found no-one but grumpy and unhelpful staff. The trail to the cave took about an hour on which there were several other little scenic attractions as they were called. One area was called "fun with stones" which was most certainly a lie. there were stones but there was nothing fun at all about them.

We jumped into a little boat to go into the cave and were sped into the middle and back out again all in about 5 minutes. The cave was fairly impressive but not as good as the Internet or the tourist board had made us believe. We headed back to AnShun feeling a little cheated and deflated.


 Karen had heard of a temple in town that she wanted to see and as we had plenty of time to kill we went in search of it. Many misdirections and wrong buses later we found it and discovered that it was at the end of the food market we had dinner at the previous night. On the bright side that was dinner for the Tuesday sorted. The temple was small and deserted so we sat and watched the sun set and then went and gorged on ribs for the second night running. Our train was supposed to leave at about half nine but was delayed a few hours. By the time it turned up we were both freezing and shattered and very eager to get to bed. Unfortunately the train had started in Shanghai 30 hours previously so it was in a disgusting state. No bathrooms were working, there was rubbish and half eaten food everywhere not to mention smoking people in the beds. Thankfully we were only on the train for 8 hours so it could have been a lot worse.

It was a speedy trip but definitely worth seeing.

Waterfalls in AnShun. Day 1

I am hugely behind on my travel updates, I went to AnShun back in October but have been alarmingly busy but that's for later.



First area

AnShun is about 8 hours away from Kunming by train so a weekend was plenty. It was just me and Karen who planned ever minute of our trip. For once all I had to do was turn up and do as I was told.

It was the usual weekend away routine, Sunday over night train and back again on the Wednesday morning.

We arrived into AnShun early on the Monday morning and jumped into a mini van with a bunch of strangers who were also going to the waterfall scenic area. It was only about an hours drive but it was an hour spent talking to people who just had the stupidest foreigner related questions. "Do all foreigners eat lots of pizza?" "Is there Chinese food in England?" and so on.....



Second area cave

HuangGuoShu waterfall scenic area is actually split into three areas which are about 25Kilometers apart. Our driver had a special licence so he could drive between the areas inside of the park. everyone else jumped on the public buses that run all the time. The first one was a small-ish waterfall and a short walk along a  river.

The second area was similar looking to the Stone Forest and had a fairly large cave also along the river. The cave was full of stalagmite and tites which had all been lit up bright colours so it had a Disney feel to it. Regardless it was impressive and Karen and I spent ages playing with cameras and phones trying to get one to work in the dark.

Second area waterfall

The final area was HuangGuoShu waterfall itself. reports varied but the best we could work out it's the tallest waterfall in China and the widest in Asia. Again we still aren't completely sure on the exact record as even in the park the signs didn't all agree.

There was a purpose built trail that followed one side of the river, went behind the waterfall and then down the other side of the river and finally crossing the river back to the beginning. We climbed hundreds of steps up to the top of the trail (stopping occasionally for a rest and photographs). The whole trail took just under an hour and we were shattered at the end, annoyingly we then had to walk back up to the car park which was a further couple of hundred steps. A very good work out for the legs but which nearly killed Karen.

We stayed in this nasty little hotel by the train station and the phrase "you get what you pay for" definitely applied. We payed £4 each for the night so I am sure the state of the room can be imagined.

HuangGuoShu waterfall