Hello from Tanzania!

Day 1: Seattle

Updated: November 22, 2014

I have had a long-standing, semi-serious plot to drive to Alaska someday. So a couple months ago, when the parents informed me “we’re going to Alaska next summer,” that was my cue. Technically, they replaced the driving part with flying, but that’s probably for the best. The travel blog is now back open for business for our trip to the 49th state.

The plan… First week will be Juneau and Glacier Bay. Second week will be Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. After that, the parents hop a train to Denali, but Nicole and I hop a plane back to Chicago. By the way, Nicole brings her blogging skills to the Land of the Midnight Sun during the second week. Until then, I’m all you got!

Day 1 however, is a stop in Seattle, Washington – a function of coordinating a Sunday-morning flight to Juneau with my parents. More important, spending a day in Seattle afforded me a rendezvous with Bernard, who lived in the Emerald City a couple years ago, and returned to meet me at the airport (after driving up from Portland).

Bernard once lived in Seattle, but not in the Bernard Apartments

From SeaTac Airport, we made the short drive up Interstate 5 (which is a freeway that should appear next to the word “bottleneck” in the dictionary) and found a parking garage that hadn’t been taken over by Mexican and/or Equador soccer fans in town to watch the game at Qwest Field (why are Mexico and Equador playing in Seattle???). Our first order of business was to walk north along Puget Sound and find lunch.

Fresh fish tastes better

Continuing north, we walked up from the water toward the Space Needle. Today’s fantastic weather thwarted us here, as the line to take the elevator to the top wasn’t worth the hour wait. Instead, we decided to throw a bone to our old boss Paul Allen and check out his Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum, featuring exhibits on Nirvana and Battlestar Galactica, respectively. Good hunting, indeed.

Space Needle on a clear day best viewed from here

A portion of the EMP building as designed by Frank Gehry

Critics say the EMP is ugly, but they don't say it isn't shiny

After the museums, we stumbled upon Seattle’s Folk Festival. An annual gathering featuring music, food and entertainment”¦ or perhaps a gigantic excuse for the population of Seattle to dress up like hippies and get high? Probably the latter.

Folk Festival and Queen Anne Hill in the distance

Bernard wishes to hide from the Folk Festival folk

Heading back south, we walked along 1st Avenue to the Pike Place Fish Market, where we saw some Salmon get tossed around in dramatic fashion (a la the Monday Night Football cut-ins) and we ordered some more tasty seafood-based dishes, including a hilariously expensive Cobb salad.

Throw the fish already!

Hey Bernard, just get something cheap like a Cobb salad

Hunger quenched, we continued our walking tour south through “Old Seattle” — a more artistic, bar-hopping part of town. After a free tea-tasting and a pit-stop in a local sports bar, we walked a couple more blocks to SafeCo Field for the Yankees-Mariners game. Thanks to the great weather and the influx of Yankee fans, the scalpers looked realtively busy.

Great Seattle skyline view from our section

My primary objective in attending a Mariners game at SafeCo was tracking down and eating an Ichiroll, which is a spicy tuna sushi roll named after good ‘ol Ichiro. Mission accomplished. It was better tasting and more filling than I expected. The only problem is that Ichiro’s face is not plastered all over the Ichiroll box. Hey Mariners marketing staff, what gives? You’re not gonna trade him, are you? So just put his face on the box already!

First watch Ichiro bat...

...then eat an Ichiroll!

Later in the game — at least four times — fans decided to “enter the field of play” for a chance to greatly disappoint the public address announcer who solemnly reminded us each time that fans who do such a thing will be escorted from the stadium and subject to arrest. I subscribe to the theory Keith Olbermann tweeted later, which suggests a reasonable portion of the paid attendance might have been comprised of the pot-smoking hippies from Folk Fest.

and BONUS...then rush the field to meet Ichiro!

This guy was glad the crowd booed A-Rod more vociferously

SafeCo's outer walkway offers a cool view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula

We left the game in the 8th inning, walked to the car and drove to our Super 8 near SeaTac. Leaving the game early turned out for the best because it went into extras and I had an early-ish flight to catch to Juneau the next day. Plus, I didn’t want to make Bernard watch any more Yankee baseball than he had already been forced to watch.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Alaska.

Straight to the Sound

Day 16: Beijing

by Nicole

Updated: July 2, 2012

2 Comments

This morning we took the train to Beijing’s National Center of the Performing Arts located near the Forbidden City. We had tickets to a performance later that evening but since we weren’t going to be able to take our cameras in, we wanted to get some pictures of the theater during the day. Opened in 2007, the theater is known as “The Egg” due to its elliptical dome shape and is completely surrounded by a man-made lake. Its construction was a considerable source of controversy due to its proximity to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City; the architect defended his design, saying that as the capital and an important international city, Beijing needed both modern and traditional Chinese architecture.

The theater is designed to look like it’s floating on water

Entrance to the theaters via a long hall under the lake

Hall leading to theaters

The NCPA has three separate performance halls for opera, musical performances, and theater. The Beijing Opera performs here, as well as the National Ballet of China. It is located immediately west of Tiananmen Square and the Great Hall of the People.

Poster for “Raise the Red Lantern”, the ballet we were going to see

Great Hall of the People

Kids playing shoot-em up (!) around the theater perimeter

We wanted to walk back to the hotel past Tiananmen Square, but we were stopped by a massive security line leading to the entrance for both the square and the Forbidden City. Even the underground tunnel that runs along the length of the square had a long line for security, so we gave up, headed back to the subway and got off at Wangfujing, the famous shopping street near the Peninsula.

Thankfully we saw Tiananmen last year and avoided this mess

Beijing’s trains are packed at all hours of the day, every day of the week

The famous “Wangfujing Shopping Street”

Along Wangfujing, we did some shopping and snacking, including a stop at a store selling an incredible number of different candies (we think?) – too bad we couldn’t tell what any of them were!

Kid in a candy store (what IS all this?)

Snack 1: Caramel-coated strawberry kebabs

Snack 2: Jasmine tea soft-serve

Snack 3: New flavor! Just as tasty as taro and banana!

Back at the hotel, we started packing while watching TV coverage of the Japan earthquake until it was time to leave for our show. We had tickets to the National Ballet of China’s performance of “Raise the Red Lantern”, a ballet version of the famous Chinese film. It tells the story of a young woman who becomes the third concubine of a wealthy man, her subsequent affair with her former lover, and the repercussions when they are found out. The ballet has toured around the world to international acclaim and was only in Beijing for two nights. This was the first ballet I have seen – it was an outstanding performance and a lovely end to our trip.

Sneaky iPhone pic inside theater

Our flight back to Chicago was leaving at 6:30 the next morning, so we decided to stay up until it was time to leave for the airport. We enjoyed our first McDonald’s dinner in Asia (we had money to spend and it was the only place open!) and spent the rest of the night packing and relaxing. By 3:30 AM we were in a cab to the airport, and fifteen hours later we landed in Chicago.

Leaving in the middle of the night

Our plane home

We enjoyed this China trip just as much, if not more, than last year’s. A little research beforehand, more-than-a-little patience during, and an open-minded sense of adventure are all called for when visiting this country, but the rewards are totally worth it. It’s a fascinating place to travel, and we would return in a heartbeat. And if we do, we’ll blog it all over again!

Day 15: Beijing

by Nicole

Updated: July 2, 2012

Day 14: Hangzhou/Beijing

by Nicole

Updated: July 2, 2012

3 Comments

This morning we had breakfast in the Hyatt’s Regency Club lounge before leaving for the airport. Our room had a view of Hangzhou’s famous West Lake – unfortunately, no time to sightsee in this city!

Hazy view of West Lake from our window

This is false: Every lane in China is an “overtaking” lane

After a comfortable flight to Beijing on China Southern, we took a taxi to the Peninsula. We flew with three different domestic airlines this trip – Sichuan Airlines, China Eastern, and China Southern – all have been excellent (and very inexpensive). Service is incredibly efficient, you always get a meal, and they nicely (and kind of hilariously) remind you at even the mildest turbulence that an airsick bag is in the back of your seat should you need it. (Chinese travelers treat turbulence like a roller coaster ride, complete with gasps and shouts at particularly bumpy spots.) Matt also appreciates being able to leave his shoes on as he passes through Chinese airport security.

At a standstill in Beijing

Watching the traffic start to move again

Upon check-in we were pleased to learn that our stay included breakfast – a first at any of the Peninsulas we’ve stayed in. Usually we just eat all the delicious fruit they give us!

Welcome amenity

Behind on the blog after a few days without internet, we spent the afternoon catching up. News of the Japan earthquake/tsunami had just broken – we were in the air when it happened, though it was reported to have been felt in Beijing.

Even Chicago is under threat of a tsunami! Looks like the safest place is Beijing.

Another quake – this one near Lijiang the day after we left

Once the trip to the mountains had been properly documented, we walked to Da Dong, a restaurant near the hotel famous for its roast duck. After waiting twenty minutes for a table and another twenty for our server, we were informed that the duck we ordered would be ready in 80 minutes. Uh, no. So much for that visit.

By now it was nearly 10:00, we were hungry, and our options were limited. We stopped at a nearby convenience store, stocked up on snacks, and went back to the hotel for a tasty dinner of ramen noodles, cookies, and the bottle of wine from the Peninsula Shanghai we’d been carrying all over China.

Take that, Da Dong! And your ridiculous 80-minute wait!

A toast to a wonderful trip so far

Day 13: Huang Shan

by Nicole

Updated: July 1, 2012

5 Comments

Note: Back from the internet-less mountains — days 11, 12 and 13 posted…

This morning we woke up before dawn to see the sunrise. We made hot chocolate and ate the breakfast we brought along – fruit, muffins, and granola bars. Our hotel provided red down coats for all the guests – we’d brought our own jackets, but we wore the hotel’s so we fit in with all the other Chinese tourists.

The coffee shop wouldn’t give us empty cups, so the hot chocolate went into our empty soda bottles

Less than ten minutes from the hotel is one of the best spots on the entire mountain to watch the sunrise. We followed the red-coated crowd up to the Refreshing Terrace, where we staked out our spot and waited. When we heard shouts and gasps from people watching higher up, we knew it was almost time, and suddenly a sliver of orange appeared behind one of the peaks.

Here comes the sun

Worth the early wake-up call

Morning on the summit

After the sunrise, we walked back to the hotel to check out and plan our route down the mountain. There are two sets of steps on Huang Shan – the Eastern Steps, described by Lonely Planet as “long and hard”, and the Western Steps, described as “longer and harder”. Our cable car trip brought us up the eastern side, so we decided to walk across the summit and go down the western side, climbing a couple of the peaks along the way.

On the way to Bright Top Peak

Morning haze across the mountains

At Bright Top Peak, second-highest peak of Huang Shan

This hike was no walk in the park; it was nonstop steps with very few flat paths. Almost every Chinese tourist carried the standard-issue, sold-everywhere, wooden walking stick, but we were too tall for them to be effective. We stopped frequently to catch our breath and check out the amazing views.

You can see our path down the mountain in the background

Looking west from Turtle Rock

Some steps carved right into mountainside

Climbing up the “One Hundred Ladders”

We passed by Lotus Flower Peak, the tallest on the mountain (its narrow stairway was lined with tour groups) and kept going toward the challenge of Celestial Capital Peak and its even narrower and steeper stairway. Eventually we reached the top of the western cable car, Jade Screen Peak, Greeting-Guests-Pine, and all the tour groups just arriving on the mountain. We pushed our way through the crowds and continued our descent in near solitude.

The beginning of endless steps downward

Look closely and you can see the path we’re taking down the mountain

When we arrived at Celestial Capital Peak (which, according to Frommer’s, features a narrow, 85-degree snaking staircase called the “Carp’s Backbone”) we found it closed for maintenance. We were disappointed – this peak featured a precariously narrow bridge at the top that we were looking forward to braving, but based on the posted sign, it has been closed since December 2009 so apparently nobody has braved it in quite a while.

The “no-fun” crew informs us “No carp for you!”

Many unique-looking trees up here

Where’s the “Rocks are napping” sign?

We swear, this was not taken against a fake background.

The mountain is kept in great condition; we saw many workers sweeping paths, patching steps, etc. Everything on the mountain – food, drinks, supplies – is brought up on foot by porters, who hang the loads from long wooden poles balanced on their shoulders. You can hire porters to carry your luggage up, and if you get really tired, you can hire them to carry YOU up in sedan chairs. We saw some bags being carried up, but no people.

Keeping the mountain clean

This is why everything up here is so expensive

Down, down, down we climbed; once we left the summit area, the path was almost continuously downhill via endless sets of stairs. Another way to think of it: take the elevator to the top of the Sears Tower, walk down, ride up again, walk down again, ride up once more, walk halfway down. Four hours from when we started, we arrived at Mercy Light Temple (the start of the western steps) with shaky legs and aching calves. (OK, by “we” I mean me. OMG.)

SO MANY STEPS

At Mercy Light Temple – where is the bus!!!

We took a bus down to the front gate then walked along Tangkou’s main street back toward Mr. Hu’s place. A block away, Mr. Hu himself greeted us and made sure we turned down the right alley. We were positively starving and had been looking forward to lunch all morning. Over a delicious meal of fried noodles and braised beef with potatoes, carrots, and onions, we talked with Mr. Hu about our trip and left an appreciative message in his notebook.

We inhaled this meal after our l-o-n-g hike

1200 ml of beer for $1.60 really hits the spot – Cowboy Matt approves

Our bus back to Hangzhou was scheduled to leave at 4:30, but we’d made good time down the mountain and had Mr. Hu arrange for us to get on the 2:30 bus instead. At 2:30 we were led out to the main street where the bus stopped to let us on; it was completely full save for two seats in the very back. No matter – we were happy to be heading back earlier than expected and arrived in Hangzhou around 6:30.

Another successful navigation of China’s public transportation system

We caught a cab back to the Hyatt (again, thanks Mom and Dad!) and enjoyed a lovely meal of appetizers and drinks in the Regency Club lounge. Huang Shan was an incredible place to visit and was absolutely worth all the pain I’m currently feeling in my calves. 🙂 Tomorrow we leave for Beijing and the last leg of our trip!

Day 12: Huang Shan

by Nicole

Updated: July 1, 2012

2 Comments

Today we set out for Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain), a mountain range in the southern Anhui province located about 200 km west of Hangzhou. Known for its scenery, sunrises/sunsets, and strangely shaped granite peaks (there are 72), it’s one of the most popular tourist destinations in China. After breakfast, we left our suitcases with the Hyatt concierge (we would return there on Thursday) and took a cab to Hangzhou’s bus station. We arrived five minutes late for the 8:00 bus, so we bought tickets ($15/each) for the 9:50 bus instead.

At the bus station in Hangzhou

The bus was a comfortable Greyhound-style coach and the trip to the Huang Shan scenic area was about three hours, mostly via expressway.

Yeah! We’re on the right bus!

When we arrived in Tangkou (the town at the base of Huang Shan), the bus stopped in front of a restaurant and everybody got off. This was definitely not the entrance to the scenic area. A man hopped on the bus, asked us if we spoke English, introduced himself as Mr. Hu, and invited us to his restaurant where we could have lunch, book return bus tickets, and figure out how to get to Huang Shan. We were a little confused, but by that point the bus had emptied, so we accepted his offer.

Walking with Mr. Hu to his hotel/restaurant

As it turned out, Mr. Hu is well-known within Tangkou for helping foreigners navigate the area; he’d been mentioned in Lonely Planet’s guidebook and showed us notebooks filled with messages from travelers all over the world who’d been recipients of his assistance. Mr. Hu told us someone on our bus notified him that we were on the way, which was why he was there to meet us. We ate some delicious noodles while he arranged our return bus tickets, and after lunch he drove us to the Huang Shan transit center. He left us with his business card and instructions to come back to his restaurant the next day to catch the bus back to Hangzhou. The whole encounter was so unexpected yet so pleasant – we would have eventually figured things out on our own, but Mr. Hu made everything so much easier.

We bought bus tickets to the base of the mountain and ended up in a taxi when we were the only two people waiting when it was time to leave. Twenty minutes of winding mountain road later, we arrived at Huang Shan’s front gate.

Winding roads a little easier to stomach in a car vs. a bus

At the museum, checking out a scale model of the mountain range

There were conflicting reports on whether or not the cable cars up the mountain were running this early in the season, and we were pleased (OK, I was incredibly relieved) to discover that they were, since we’d been prepared to hike up to our hotel. We took an amazing ten-minute ride up the eastern side of the mountain – this was the coolest cable-car ride we’ve taken so far in China.

Forgot the Yellowstone hat, so took a page from Nate’s playbook

Great views of some of Huang Shan’s 72 peaks

More great views of Huang Shan

At the summit (approx. 1600 m, or 5250 feet) we followed the signs to Beginning-to-Believe Peak, the nearest one to our hotel. The sign at the top of the peak, in its typically odd English translation, said this: “It’s so fantastic you don’t believe your eyes; seeing it with your eyes you believe it’s really fantastic.” Indeed it was.

At the top of aptly-named “Beginning-to-Believe Peak”

Not wanting to have to find our hotel in the dark, we decided to go check in before heading back out to catch the sunset.

On the path to the hotel – gorgeous views everywhere

Hey, this is awesome!

The Beihai Hotel is the oldest of all the summit hotels and is thought to have the best location on the mountain for the sunrise. Our room on the top floor was really nice but absolutely freezing; we turned on the little electric heater and hoped for the best. Dinner was kung pao chicken, camping style – Matt brought along a Backpacker’s Pantry meal, and after we added boiled water and waited fifteen minutes, we ate a tasty (and free) meal in our hotel room.

Thanks, Annamarie!

After checking the card posted in the room for the sunset time, we put on our coats and hats and hurried halfway up one of the nearby peaks to catch a view. The weather was chilly, probably around 35 degrees, but all the uphill climbing kept us warm!

Sunset

Just about gone

Back in our ridiculously cold room, we bundled up and made up our beds with the thick down comforters we found in a cupboard. We were asleep by 7:30 – the sunrise was at 6:15 the next morning and we were planning to scale a few peaks and hike all the way back down the mountain, so we needed our rest!

Beihai Hotel at dusk

Day 11: Lijiang/Hangzhou

by Nicole

Updated: June 30, 2012

1 Comment

This morning we woke up early, said one more goodbye to Anna (who sent us off with banana bread and orange juice), and were in a cab to the airport by 6:00 AM.

Chinese driving + darkness + unfinished road = Pure excitement

When we got there, we appeared to be the first non-employees in the whole place — it seems the suggested arrive-two-hours-early doesn’t really apply for Lijiang’s little airport. We kept our hats and mittens on — the place was freezing!

Flying Aruba-style!

Lijiang is great, but maybe next time we visit in the summer.

We landed in Kunming at 9:00, having finally warmed up on the short flight.

Arriving in Kunming

Since our next flight wasn’t until 4:30, we tried to book an earlier flight. It is not easy to fly standby when you do not speak any Chinese. It is also not easy to fly standby when every single plane is packed full. Oh well — we tried.

Unsuccessful, we found seats near a power outlet and settled in for a long day of waiting. We’d gone grocery shopping in Lijiang for a plethora of snacks (instant noodles, cookies, etc.) to eat, instead of paying the inflated prices for food at the airport.

Our intended airport picnic — total cost: $2.50

After an hour in some really uncomfortable seats, we upgraded to the airport’s huge KFC and enjoyed a selection of menu items while catching up on the blog.

Spicy chicken sandwiches, convenient power outlets, comfortable seats — what else do you need?

Bouquets of flowers are common carry-on items in China

Windows are clean; sky is still hazy

Our flight to Hangzhou left thirty minutes late but still arrived on time at 7:00. Outside, the first guy we saw offered us a way-overpriced $45 trip to our hotel – we declined and found the official taxi stand. Forty minutes and $15 later, we arrived at the Hyatt Regency Hangzhou (thanks, Mom and Dad!) We tried making some arrangements with the concierge for our trip to Huangshan the next day, but after their best option was a $600 private driver, we gathered they wouldn’t be much help and decided to figure it out on our own using a combination of Google and our guidebooks.

Who needs the concierge?

Day 10: Lijiang

by Nicole

Updated: June 30, 2012

4 Comments

Note: Shaky internet access lately, so today’s a two-fer! Days 9 & 10 posted back-to-back…

Today was our last day in Lijiang, and we were thrilled to wake up to blue skies and a stunning view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain — our first clear view of it since we’d arrived. A quick taxi ride took us to Black Dragon Pool Park, which lies just north of Lijiang’s old town. In addition to being beautiful, the crystal-clear water from the mountains is also the village’s main water source. The reservoir feeds a series of canals that run through the village streets and flow into three wells that are designated for drinking, washing vegetables, and washing clothes.

Entrance to Shuhe village in the morning

The picture on the cover of our guidebook was taken here!

Finally a clear view of the mountain

Various translations of “Keep off the grass” – from straightforward to philosophical

Within the park was Elephant Hill; after an hour of climbing we were rewarded with great views of the city in all directions.

Great view of Lijiang from up here

View of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain from Elephant Hill

Matt returning from peak of Elephant Hill

We followed the rushing canals from the park into Lijiang’s old town. The entrance to the town is marked by two large (ornamental) water wheels, and there is a huge main square that frequently features Naxi dancing and music.

Giant water wheels just for show

Naxi dancing in old town square

Get into the groove

The old town is a maze of winding alleys, fish-filled streams, Naxi houses with their unique tiled rooftops, and a million shops and restaurants (all selling the same stuff). We spent a few hours walking along the cobblestone streets, shopping and people-watching.

Weaving beautiful shawls

Delicious walnut cakes – check out the conveyor belt baking method!

Lijiang’s old town is similar to Shuhe, only bigger and much busier; we were glad we visited but were happy to be staying in a similarly charming but quieter location.

Why is he watering the bridge?

Dongba graffiti

This picture is so great.

Back in Shuhe, we did a little more strolling and shopping into the early evening. Having not eaten much during the day, we stopped at Shuhe’s “finest Italian restaurant” and had a dinner of pizza and beer. It was so delicious we didn’t feel the slightest bit bad about having a very non-Chinese meal in the middle of China.

OMG so delicious…

Shuhe village at night

Our flight was leaving very early in the morning, so we said our goodbyes to everyone when we got back from dinner. We loved Lijiang and are so happy to have stayed at the Maple Leaf Inn — Wil and Anna were so friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable, and thanks to them we experienced more of Lijiang than we almost certainly would have on our own. Tomorrow we head back east to Hangzhou and nearby Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain).

Anna (in white hat), Wil, their four kids, and another guest

Day 9: Lijiang

by Nicole

Updated: June 30, 2012

2 Comments

Today we set out to see Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the tallest peak in the mountain range that runs to the west of Lijiang. Our hotel arranged a private driver which made for a very easy day of sightseeing. Our itinerary included a performance of “Impression Lijiang”, a cable car trip up the mountain, and a visit to Blue Moon Valley.

Map of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Scenic Area

“Impression Lijiang” is a musical performance featuring hundreds of local performers and the mountain as its backdrop. The show tells the story of Lijiang’s Dongba and other minority cultures through singing and dancing. It was created and choreographed by the same man responsible for the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Last year in Yangshuo, we saw “Impression Sanjie Liu” by the same artist and loved it. This show was equally as impressive.

Cool stage setup

Many different ethnic minorities represented

The stage setup was striking with the mountain in the background. Beautiful costumes, hundreds of horses, elaborate choreography — all together a fantastic show.

Drummers in the audience for part of the show

After the show, we managed to find our driver among the hundreds of tour buses and headed for Glacier Park and our trip up to the peak. The mountain was shrouded in clouds but we held out hope that maybe the cable car would take us above them and it would be clear (spoiler alert: nope).

About to go up!

We took a bus to the cable car station and then an awesome ten-minute ride to 14,000 feet. The second half of the trip was in the aforementioned clouds; everything was white after we crossed the tree line until we got to the station at the top.

Not the best day for clear views, but still pretty awesome

At the tree line

When we exited the cable car, we were greeted with a white-out — a snowy, hazy fog with little visibility. We dressed successfully for this weather, but down coats and hats were available to rent for those poor folks who hadn’t. Oxygen canisters were also available for purchase. Plenty of people buy them, although we think it’s a bit of a mind-trick, money-making scheme rather than a true necessity for most visitors. (Especially since we saw people start huffing them at the bottom of the mountain.)

Up in the clouds!

The elevation at the top of the cable car (the area dubbed “Glacier Park”) is 4506 meters, or 14,785 feet. We tacked on another 100 or 200 feet after we staggered up and down the sledding hill in the blowing snow (which was unsurprisingly closed due to the extreme lack of visibility). All these numbers sound quite impressive, until we considered that Everest Base Camp is at 5150 meters, or 16,890 feet, and Mount Everest itself is at 8846 meters or ~ 29,020 feet.

Plenty of snow up here

Although we couldn’t see much, it was pretty cool to visit the top of a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm. While walking around, we saw a couple bravely having wedding photos taken. They looked beautiful. And they looked like they were freezing.

Into the abyss

Extreme wedding photography

As close to Everest as Nicole will likely ever get

On the trip back down, we had some better views of the valley as we descended below the clouds.

Good views of the valley on the way down

Matt stuck his camera out the cable car window for a couple raindrop-free shots

This sign is grrrrrrrreat

Next up was a visit to Blue Moon Valley, a pretty scenic area known for its sparkling clear blue lakes and waterfalls (although Matt suspects the multi-terraced landscape may be somewhat man-made).

Blue Moon Valley with mountain in background

Matt at Mirror Lake

Based on its performance, that windshield wiper is rarely used

When we got back to the inn, Anna took us to a restaurant for the local dish of “over-bridge” noodles. These get their name from the thin film of oil on top of the broth that keeps it piping hot — women would bring soup noodles to their working husbands and needed a way to keep them hot on the way. Besides the noodles, our soup had chicken, ham, greens, and an egg — everything but the noodles went in raw but cooked almost instantly in the hot broth. It was great!

Over-bridge noodles – delicious!

After dinner we spent the evening in the inn’s courtyard, blogging and visiting with Wil, Anna, and their kids.

Day 8: Lijiang

by Nicole

Updated: June 30, 2012

5 Comments

Today we took a trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge, a canyon on the Yangtze River 40 miles north of Lijiang. One of China’s deepest gorges, it’s supposedly named after a tiger escaped hunters by leaping it at its narrowest point. The peaks on either side reach an average of 13,000 feet, the canyon reaches a depth of over 9,800 feet, and an 18-mile trail that runs along the ridge is extremely popular among hikers. The two-hour drive took us to the middle part of the trail along a winding mountain road.

Terraced fields on road to the gorge

Bridge over the Yangtze River

We stopped for lunch halfway and being the only two Westerners in the group, we were offered forks with our meal which we did not use. 🙂

Delicious multi-course lunch

After lunch, we switched from our large coach bus to smaller vans for the rest of the drive.

Matt here… let me take this one. Holy s**t. That ride was insane. Hey, driver, sure you don’t want to use the extra foot-and-a-half of open road to your right before it drops straight off into the 9000-foot canyon? Good thing it rained earlier today for the first time in a month. Judging by the sounds this bus makes, I bet you have new tires circa 1995. Oh, wow. Now it’s a gravel road. Just be careful to avoid those day laborers and random piles of gravel as you seem to be practicing your drifting technique on those hairpin turns. OK. We are there now? Thank god.

All that’s between us and a few-thousand-foot drop

We’d been catching glimpses of the gorge looking out the van’s windows, and when we finally arrived at our starting hiking spot the views were even more impressive. Our guide motioned for everyone to follow him, and we started the hike unsure of what we were in for. The descent was immediately steep, with “steps” sometimes of stone and other times just dirt carved into the path. Amazingly, some of the Chinese tourists in our group were dressed in skirts and heeled shoes, while Matt and I were lamenting our tennis shoes and wishing we had hiking boots.

Starting the descent into the gorge

Halfway down the mountainside

The views were incredible, but we had to concentrate so hard on our footing that we only looked up once in a while. Earlier rains made some of the rocks slippery, and chains strung along parts of the path helped a little but not much. We safely reached the river and were awed by its roaring rapids and beautiful turquoise color.

Made it!

At the mid-point of Tiger Leaping Gorge

In the middle of the river near where we’d ended our descent was Tiger Leaping Rock, a large rock supposedly used by the legendary tiger to cross from the east bank to the west bank. Looking at the width of the river we doubted a tiger could have made such a leap, but who knows? We stayed for a while at the bottom of the gorge, taking pictures and enjoying the views.

Beware of the suppy rocks

What goes up must come down, or in this case, what goes down must come up, and we headed back up the same path, stopping to rest often; the steepness and unevenness of the steps made for a rather exhausting trek. About halfway up, our guide gathered us all for a brief discussion (in Chinese, of course), pointing to one path and then to another. Luckily, there was an English speaker in the group who told us that from where we stood, there were two options for the rest of the way up: one was apparently a shortcut, but we didn’t understand which was which.

We opted to stay with the guide and about half our group, and our helpful translator asked us if we were afraid of heights, which should have been a sign of things to come. We walked for a while along a relatively flat path before coming to a ladder made of short planks and thick metal wire that went up the mountainside at approximately an 80-degree angle. (If this was their idea of a shortcut, a little more explanation would have been nice.) One at a time, we slowly climbed up – I could not look up or down, only straight ahead, and I have never concentrated so hard on anything in my life. There were no guardrails or safety harnesses of any kind – if you slipped, that was it.

“OH MY GOD, MATT, THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR ME TO SMILE.”

After about fifty steps, the ladder ended (to my great relief). However, about twenty feet further along the path, we came up on another one. Fifty more steps straight up, another short walk, and one more ladder and we’d made it back to where we’d started, tired but exhilarated. We estimated we’d climbed about 4000 feet from the bottom of the gorge to the top, though we’re not really sure.

View from top of second ladder

Matt found a bamboo walking stick

We didn’t fall into the gorge!

The drive back was equally winding and nerve-wracking but uneventful, and we arrived back in Lijiang around 5:30 PM. We wandered through the village, enjoying some street food snacks and checking out the souvenir stalls.

Back at the entrance to the Shuhe village

Dog-tired

Every night in the village square, there is a bonfire and a performance of Naxi singing and dancing. Some of the people in the large crowd joined hands and danced along – it was sort of like Chinese line dancing. Afterward, we came back to the inn for a lovely meal of fried rice before turning in for the night.

Naxi dancers in traditional costumes

Dancing in the village square

Anna’s secret recipe!

What an incredible day – the guidebooks describe Tiger Leaping Gorge as an impressive site, but words don’t do this place justice and we’re so glad we made the trip to see it (and lived to blog about it!)