Lijiang

Lijiang 麗江 is the must-go place in Yunnan, and was really one of the main reasons for why I chose to study in Kunming. Unfortunately, I found it to be one of the most overrated places I’ve visited in a long long time.

The problem lies in its popularity. The government have obviously put a lot of effort into making Lijiang Old Town 麗江古城 an attractive tourist destination. The streets are ridiculously clean, the canals that flow through the town are so clear that carp fish seem to thrive in them, and there are gorgeously designed rubbish bins at every corner. As a result, literally thousands of Chinese tourists descend upon this little place, and the narrow streets of the Old Town are often crammed with people.

The crowdedness in itself isn’t too annoying – I come from Kowloon after all – but along with popularity inevitably comes overcommercialisation and rip-off merchants. It was actually pretty difficult to find places to eat here, counter-intuitively, because most shop fronts in the Old Town are tacky souvenir shops, everywhere you turn there is a desperate attempt to sell you something. The classic example was when we asked at the official tourist information centre about where we could find a massage (you can tell I was with peeps from the Hong Kong office) – the lady behind the counter actually left her position and escorted us to what was obviously her mate’s shop!! Even more ridiculous, the average beer in a bar is 40 RMB unless you haggle hard – that’s more than at home!

Don’t get me wrong – I think the Old Town is beautiful, and I guess it is the Chinese entrepreneurial spirit that has caused all this, so I shouldn’t really be complaining. And whenever you manage to get a little lost and venture into the tight alleyways, it really is a charming place, Roger is particularly right that you can just imagine them filming some oldie worldie TVB programme in the backstreets. The view from the top of the hill looking down over the Old Town is also worth the breathless trek up (Lijiang is elevated at 2400m):

I found it harder to find cutesy little places to eat in Lijiang compared to Dali, but there were still a few highlights. The best probably being when I got lost in the South of the Old Town (Lonely Planet’s map conveniently places Sifang Square, the main focal point of the Old Town, in completely the wrong place), and found a little Chengdu-ese place, and in preparation for my trip to Chengdu next week, I had to have a dan dan mein 擔擔麵 (keen readers will know I’m obsessed with dan dan mein). It was a husband and wife and daughter establishment, and the husband was making the noodles from fresh:

The mein itself was so so good – the noodles very fresh, lovely texture, set off by a sauce that had some sesame seeds running through it – not particularly spicy, but very 香. 5 RMB for a huge portion (you can also opt for the ‘add a hat’ version for an extra 1 RMB – which means adding a fried egg on top for those who haven’t watched that silly Cantonese movie from the 1980’s with 周星馳 and 吳君如).

During our stay in Lijiang, we had a mini daytrip to go horse-riding in 美泉. We were treated to a little ride on a steel gondola, where we had some lovely whitebaity fish grilled directly on a boat. We also went to have rainbow trout nearby at 山泉漁府 – it was a bit ridiculously expensive at 150 RMB per jin (about 300 RMB for an average sized fish – even more than rainbow trout at home!), but we did watch them catch it, and it was very fresh.

We also found ourselves in the Lijiang version of Prague Café for breakfast – the owners must think I’m weird, given how much I also go to the Kunming one. We were all very impressed with the Naxi 納西 breakfast – eggs with a huge potato pancake (very good, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside), Naxi ham (very good, lovely texture), toast (weirdly sweet) and Naxi cheese (hmmm, not a fan):

I end with what I think was probably another tourist rip off. Right outside our hotel was a little stand which always had people queuing, serving 青蛙餅, literally frog biscuit, a kind of biscuity/bun thing stuffed with cold sour/spicy rice noodles. We never did figure out why it was called that, I wouldn’t put it pass them naming it something strange like that just to attract the crowds. Given that we didn’t see any other stall selling it, I wonder about its authenticity as a specialty 特產 of Lijiang.

Wow, what a huge post! And so much bile! Lijiang had an effect on me, definitely, mainly allowing me to reflect on how lucky I have been to be able to do so much off-the-beaten-track travelling in the last few months (Sotik in Kenya being probably the most interesting!). Chengdu next week, where I shall be reunited with my long-lost foodie/travel mate, Caris :)