After incredible performance of Impressions Lijiang we headed up to the top of Yulong Xue Shan. We took a ski lift to the top and we were up in the clouds with the snow in the mountains.
Unfortunately their were tons of clouds, so we couldn't see the top peak.
The kids were excited to see snow and this was actually Angus first time to see snow! He was quite excited as you can see.
Here we are going on our first family sled ride!
Here is a picture of us 4,506 meters high!
I am happy to report that none of us had altitude sickness and I am looking forward to taking the kids a little higher on our next trip exploring China.
On the previous day as we were walking around the old town we found a guide for our trip to Yulong Xue Shan (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain). We did a bit of touring around a temple with frescoes. Frescoes were mural paintings which reflect different religious cultures and artistic forms of Buddhism, Lamaism, and Daoism and the Naxi Dongba religion. I have to say that the temple with frescoes we visited was a disappointment. They had been pretty much been defaced during the Cultural Revaluation, so there wasn't too much to see.
Our guide was another story. I don't think we did a very good job in that department, as we just hired a guy off the street. Everything seemed to be fine until he suggested we go to lunch at this place on the way to the Snow Mountain. It was a little hole in the wall place, we order about 4 bottles of water, some steamed rice, and 5 different dishes. Usually in a Chinese restaurant this will cost you a merely 60 rmb, but they charged us 140 rmb! I know it isn't much money in US dollars, but I really get upset when Westerners are charged Western prices. I am sure our guide got a cut for bringing us to the restaurant too!
After our lunch we headed to see Zhang Yimou's production called Impressions Lijiang. Zhang Yimou is a famous Chinese director known in the US for the movies House of Flying Daggers and Hero. If you haven't seen either of these movies and if your feeling up to subtitles these are beautiful movies filled with passion and action! Impressions Lijiang is performed in an outdoor theater with Yulong Xue Shan as the backdrop for the play. I have to say that the performance was the highlight of Lijiang for me! There were 500 actors and 300 horses in this performance and it was just perfect! If you have ever seen any of Zhang Yimou's movies than you could imagine how incredibly choreographed the show was. Unfortunately I am not entirely sure of what the show was about. I know it had to with 10 of the minority and ethnic races in and around Lijiang including Yi, Musou, Naxi, Tibetan, etc. We had a program printed in English but in true Chinese translation fashion it didn't exactly make that much sense to me. It really didn't matter to me though as too me it was an incredible work of art! Here are a few pictures and video clips of the performance.
The actors in their native dress.
After the performance we had our photos taken with some of the cast in their beautiful dresses.
Brian and I had a half day left in Beijing and it was pouring down rain, so we decided to go to shopping at the Silk Market before we headed to the airport due to it pouring down rain. The Silk Market is a big knock off market, but they also have really nice jewelry and nice Chinese-type gifts. We had a nice shopping trip except for the overly aggressive shop owners. Brian was able to get great gifts and I actually collected quite a few gifts to give as birthday gifts for my friends back in Chengdu (It is slim pickings for these types of things in the Du.).
We headed to the airport for our 3 1/2 hour flight to Lijiang. It was a fairly uneventful flight and we arrived safe and sound in Lijiang. It was much cooler in Lijiang that in Beijing and we were still dressed in our summer clothes. We took a taxi from the airport and were dropped off on the street with 5 bags between us and waited for someone to come and help us with our bags as we weren't exactly sure while we were being dropped off on the street. Two men came and gave us the business card of the hotel and grabbed our bags. It was about a 400 meter walk to the hotel and I was sure glad I didn't have to carry my bags on the old cobblestone street with a step here and there. We arrived at the hotel and were pleasantly surprised. The hotel was beautiful with gorgeous Chinese antique furniture and nice clean rooms. Brian took the room downstairs while I took the room upstairs for my family. Here is the view I saw from outside our room.
It was so beautiful! When I moved to China this is what I thought all of China would look like. Unfortunately that isn't the case.
Brian and I got settled and headed for a bite to eat while we waited for Jonny and the kids to arrive around 10 pm. We found this Belgian Cafe with fabulous Chinese food and sat and waited for Jonny to call. Jonny and I must have got our wires crossed because they were already at the hotel when we got back from dinner. The kids fell asleep on the plane just as they landed in Lijiang and slept all the way into town in the taxi.
Jonny had his hands full with the two kids, so they were kind enough to send a rickshaw to pick them up. Here is a picture of Angus sound asleep in the back of the rickshaw.
