Lijiang

Having had enough of uninspiring cities we headed on an overnight bus to lijiang. This was a first for us, a sleeper bus with rows of bunk beds instead of reclining seats. It was actually a pretty good nights sleep. We stopped in a bus station at 4.30am assuming a driver change as we were not due to arrive until 6.30am. At 6am the driver turned the lights on and said we had arrived even though we had not moved for two hours! We worked out that as no public transport runs that early people stay on board to get some more sleep.

After wandering around before sunrise down the unlit streets we eventually found a nice hostel. It was on a hill with a fantastic roof top view of the old town which is especially beautiful at night when all lit up.

Lijiang is one of the major tourist destinations in Southern China due to its wll preserved old buildings, cobbled streets and canals. It was the first time we had encountered Chinese tour groups on mass. We found one of our favourite restaurants in China, Well Bistro - great food, super friendly staff and a place to escape the crowds.

We took a taxi minivan one afternoon to Bashia, a small village home to some impressive ( so the guide book said) religious frescos from the 15th and 16th Century. They were ok but not our cup of tea and at that point we resolved to take a break from sightseeing every mentioned attraction.

We tried to get a bus to Leaping Tiger Gorge but it broke down before we even left town. So instead we hired a taxi ( a female driver so we felt safer) to the nearer attraction of Yulong Xueshan mountains. At the first stop we rode what must be the worlds longest and steepest cable car up to 4506m with heated seats no less! At the top we walked further up a walkway which took us right up close to a glacier. It was very, very cold and our new hats were a godsend. Although its expensive as they had whacked some hefty ticket prices on the park and cable car we would still recommend this trip as really gets you up close and personal to the snow fields, mountains and the glacier.

Sadly the day turned sour at this point. Without going into too much detail we got into an argument with the taxi driver who refused to drive us to the other agreed places and at some point during the discussion she whisked away our camera (the one we brought only a week earlier to replace the lost one). To compound things when we tried to report it at the Police station we just got blank faces as nobody including the Tourist Info office next door spoke a word of English. It was clearly time for us to move on.