China Entry the Eleventh: Jade Mountain and Drinking Games

Before you start reading this, don't get yourself confused that this entry spans multiple days. We really did all of the following in one quick day: switched hotels, went to Yak meadow on Jade Snow mountain, visited a traditional Naxi village, saw some really old scrolls, saw the Naxi symphony, got confused by Chinese drinking games. That was all one day. THOSE KIDS NEED NO SLEEP I'M TELLING YOU.

Okay, so, we take a bus to Lijiang. By bus, let me say, I mean bus for small, Chinese folk. Lisa and I both ran for aisle seats, which I usually don't do, but the only was I was going to fit in this bus was to be able to put my legs in the aisle. The.only.way. I manage to sleep the whole way there, which apparently is a mistake, because I'm later told that the Chinese comedy film that was playing on the bus was so funny people couldn't stop laughing at it. Sadly, I missed these things.

When we get to Lijiang, we head to a hostel that has been recommended to us. Lisa and I are so excited to be staying somewhere recommended because it can't be very bad. Until Ho says this, "Well, I mean, he recommended it because it's in old town and its supposed to have amazing views of old town from the rooms, so ... "

And indeed it did have fantastic views. Check it out.








And we get into the room. And at first it appears to be a winner. Clean, not too damp, beds more closely resembling beds than what we've been seeing that trip. Hopes begin to spark.

Until we enter the bathroom.

"Where's the shower?" we say. And then we realize how the bathroom is set up. Not only is there not any kind of stall to separate the toilet and the shower, but there isn't any kind of stall to separate ANYTHING, so when you turn on the shower, which by the way is a hose snaked through a hole in the ceiling, you will flood the entire bathroom floor, so that sucks if somebody, say, needs in there when you're done. BUT ALSO, this is one of those places where you can't flush your used toilet paper. So when you shower, not only is the toilet right there, but so is the wastebasket full of USED TOILET PAPER. Do you feel clean yet? DO YOU?

We head out and explore Lijiang. Oh my goodness, it's lovely. All old and narrow cobblestone streets and tiny stores. We have a delightful meal and walk around just taking it all in. It really is that pretty.





When we get back to the room, I look at Lisa and say, "We're totally moving to a new place tomorrow, right?" Lisa cannot more emphatically answer yes.

Lisa is way more awesome than I am. I hear her leave in the morning before the alarm even goes off at 6:30am. I wake up, amble to the bathroom and stand in despair, neither willing to actually use the bathroom nor take a shower. I opt for a "sink bath." Lisa arrives back sometime as I'm trying to kill my body odor with a paper towel and tiny soaps. She has moved us to the Grand Lijiang. It has real bathrooms, a breakfast buffet, no humidity, clean ass linens, an actual alarm clock in the room, and did I mention a breakfast buffet? Suddenly, Lijiang became very, very heavenly for the bargain price of $50 US a night!

So, we head out with our local guide: First stop is breakfast, and it ends up being my favorite meal of the trip. We go to this very local -- and by local I mean that I watch a many carry some plates to customers while the ash from his cigarette drops into the food. That said, the dumplings are amazing. AMAZING. And, of course, our entire breakfast cost less than $1 US, which is also nice. I cannot even describe the love that I have for these dumplings, so instead I treat you once again to pictures of food. As Tom Cruise would say, "Much love."







And then we are off. After a twenty minute debate on jackets (do we need them, do we not, should we rent them, go back to the hotel for them, will I really be okay without them), we head out to a Naxi village to take a tour. Naxi are the majority minority population (ha) of this area. We begin by learning about the Naxi written language, which is obviously image based. It's one of the prettiest image based languages I've ever seen, not that I'm an expert. We also learn the Naxi version of the Noah's Ark legend, which goes something like this:

A man is told of an impending flood. To save himself, he sews himself inside of a giant drum along with a knife and some seeds. When the flood has ended, he cuts himself out of the drum and replants the earth with his seeds. Impressed with him, the daughter of the local god who has also survived the flood marries him and they re-populate the earth and eventually ascend to become gods themselves. The large drum when hit is said to bring luck and prosperity and is used in many traditional Naxi music and dance numbers.





Next up, a Naxi coming of age ritual is demonstrated in which a man climbs a huge ladder made of blades. Ouch.



And then the history of competitive swinging. Ho can swing.



Next up is a Mosu complex. The Naxi may be matriarchal too, but the Mosu are definitely matriarchal and practice the fine art of the walk-away marriage. What, you may ask, is a walk away marriage? Sons stay with their mothers until it's time to marry. Then they marry, and stay with their wives until their wives have a son. Once the wife has a son, the husband returns to his mother's home to take care of her into her old age.

Yes, men, at first that may sound fantastic, but take some time to really think about it.

And kids, I don't think it's even noon yet. We leave the Naxi village and head to Jade Snow mountain.

Prefacing this by saying that most of the good pictures from Jade Snow mountain are on Ho's camera, so there will probably be a photo only update later. But I'll work with what I have.

We're heading up Jade Snow Mountain to Yak Meadow, and the scenery is spectacular. But let me just say that it's on this ride up the mountain that I really start to understand and get impacted by by how poor many of the people around us are. I mean -- they actually herd goat, and not just for show for tourists. They children are all very dirty and unsupervised. Old, old, old people cary huge bundles of dirt on their backs. As was said at one point, it definitely is more of a peasant nation than we thought.

However, that knowledge doesn't stop me from handing over my white folk cash so I can right the posh incline to Yak Meadow.

We hit Yak Meadow and it starts to drizzle. We're not deterred because there are yaks! Yaks!



And Yak butter, even though you can barely see it in this picture. In an effort to not have a moment during the trip where I'm not shoving food into my mouth, I have some. It's so good! Like a lemon-tinged curd cheese, and you put it on a stick and dip it into sugar. So good.



Food here is good.



We begin to hike Yak Meadow, which is stunningly beautiful. It's also at an extremely high altitude, which we all begin to feel immediately. AND it starts to rain ... like real rain. And even though at the beginning, I had been the only one who wanted to ride horses in Yak Meadow, suddenly we are all on board with the horseback riding. And it turns out to be the most awesome thing ever.

It's dumping rain now, but that doesn't stop us, or our lovely horse guides. My horse is named Little Flower and he's wonderful. Ho and I use the same horse guide, and we try to teach her to count to ten in English during the trip. We are not as successful at this as Lisa's guide is at teaching her how to count to 100 in tens in Mandarin during the trip. He picks wild flowers for her and uses them to demonstrate numbers. Then he makes fun of her accent. It's the most delightful thing you'll ever see.

The ride is perfect, even in the rain because in so many ways the rain makes everything more beautiful. There's snow on the mountain top and yaks and goat and birds and flowers. I'm really not even going to try to do this justice in words. Hopefully Ho's photos will do it justice.

When we get back to the horse stable, our female guide's brothers try to sell her to Ho. It was so cute.

It's my favorite day of the trip.





We finally head back down the mountain and into the car -- I think to go home. But no! There's one more stop to see some ancient murals painted in the mid 1300's. Even though I've been near things that old before, these aren't behind any kind of glass or velvet rope, and it's a little awe-inspiring to be in a room with something that old.

Back at the hotel, we take quick showers and change, and then we're off to the evening's activity, which is a performance by teh Naxi orchestra. Lots of drums, bells, flutes and a virtually endless array of string instruments. There are some lovely solo performances including a flute solo (my favorite), a mouth harp solo and a solo song by a velvety baritone who, I later find out, is actually from a small town in the mountains where there is barely any educaiton -- yet he achieved his doctorate in music. Impressive.

In between each musical piece, the orchestra conductor tells stories in Mandarin for ten minutes. I'm told that they're quite engaging stories, but really I'd have no way of knowing.



After the performance, we agree to eat and overpriced dinner so we can experience the insanity that is this weird Chinese party strip (tm Felix) in the middle of old town. The food and beer are not the best we experience, but the local entertainment is top notch.

Behind us, six student-age kids are playing a Chinese drinking game. We can't figure out all of the rules for the game, but it involves tongue twisters and random standing up and banging on the table. The side of the table that messes up firsts has to drink.

There is also another local drinking game that everybody plays that's a singing game. First, a random group sings a song and then challenges another table by yelling "Ya-so, Ya-so, Ya Ya So". The other table then has to respond by singing a song that's in some way related to the first song. AND THIS GOES ON ALL NIGHT LONG. As Ho said, "The Chinese are a very musical people." As Felix said, "They're flirting in groups. It's a very comunist way to flirt."

The Chinese have drinking games that involve singing and verbal trickery. We have quarters. I think they may have won this round.

And if you think this journal entry is long, please believe me when I say that we started at 8am again the next day, and it goes just as long!