The China Chronicles Day 21, 22 & 23 - Lijiang -> Chengdu & Leshan -> Singapore - Mobile Photo Edition

Tiger Leaping Gorge -> Lijiang -> Fly back to Chengdu

[Day 20 T]
-> Visit Leshan Buddha

Dumplings for breakfast/lunch.



















Ticket to Leshan with Elaine.


RnR  - food and dumpling making.































I parted ways with Shahid and Jordan, I had to return back to Perth earlier than expected.




But to my surprise he came back to Chengdu earlier than expected.

We went exploring in Chengdu. We found a strange noodle place. It was actually quiet taste. No idea how we ordered. @_@ all in chinese.






Touch down in Singapore. Nasi Lemak for Breakfast!















#Chengdu
[Day 21 F]
-> RnR
[Day 22 S]
->Chengdu to Singapore

#Singapore
[Day 23 S]
-> 24hours stop over in Singapore, I got to say hello to some of my friends ^_^

My friends took me around all day. It was very nice of them.
We watched two movies, played basket ball, they bought me some clothes. Thanks Coco, Jiafang, Sharonne.

One last photo from a top of Leshan ^_^

The China Chronicles Day 17,18,19 & 20 - Dali->Lijiang -> Tiger Leaping Gorge - Mobile Photo Edition

#Lijiang
[Day 17 M]
-> We took a bus because trains are to troublesome to grab tickets etc

<- the view from my urinal :)
We are in the middle of Tiger leaping gorge, the half way point.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Wiki - The Tiger Leaping Gorge trek (虎跳峡; Pinyin: Hu Tiao Xia), near Lijiang in Yunnan, is one of the finest treks through some of the most naturally beautiful and diverse landscapes China has to offer. The trail runs high on the northern side of the gorge passing through quiet villages, shady forest, blustery precipice and verdant terraced farmland. The snow covered peaks of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山; YuLong XueShan; 5596m) and Haba Snow Mountain (哈巴雪山; Haba Xueshan, 5396m) shadow either side of the gorge.

View from the halfway house. We stayed over night before we moved onto Tina's

Our cute little room in Lijiang Old Town.

Wiki - The world famous Old Town of Lijiang is located in Lijiang City. It is a UNESCO Heritage Site.

The town has a history going back more than 800 years and was once a confluence for trade along the old tea horse road. The Lijiang old town is famous for its orderly system of waterways and bridges. The old town of Lijiang differs from other ancient Chinese cities in architecture, history and the culture of its traditional residents the Nakhi people, therefore people there are called 胖金哥 and 胖金妹 (pàng jīn gē, pàng jīn mèi, male and female respectively).

The China Chronicles Day 14, 15 & 16 - Dali->Lijiang - Mobile Photo Edition

#Dali
[Day 14 F]
-> Exploring Dali after we spent the night sleeping on the Sofa due to our accommodation being closed :( at 1am. We arrived
-> Checked out some old school medicine market and the Old City of Dali














Bus ride to Dali from Kunming ~3.5hrs :) We got to watch movies, I forgot what movie it was but i had seen it before. It was a Chinese movie.

Out of luck we were sitting opposite of Jordan's bus. He couldn't get a ride to Jinghong, Xishuangbanna for the water festival (I did warn him while in Kunming that it gets booked out extremely early). We happen to cross paths again and explored Yunnan together.

Pancake for breakfast at Dali Old Town (大理古城)

I really wanted to buy these Tibetan light shades, but they were very expensive. Approx 80AUD.










We went horse riding for a few hours up into the mountains of Dali.
The Cangshan (苍山) mountain range.
We didn't take the tourist chairlift because it sounded pricey. So we went 4wd with a horse

A small present from Colin in Dali. Shark was Shahid, she found his name hard to say. Aligator was Jordan because he smile was so big.


















Bus tickets from all the various cities.

The view out of our backpackers. Those were the mountains we would soon trek.

Erhai Lake 洱海 -Wiki Info

Erhai is situated at 1,972 metres (6,470 ft) above sea level. In size, the North-South length of the lake is 40 kilometres (25 mi) and the East-West width is roughly 7–8 kilometres (4.3–5.0 mi). Its area is 250 square kilometres (97 sq mi), making it the second largest highland lake of China, after Dianchi Lake. Its circumference reaches 116 kilometres (72 mi), its average depth is of 11 metres (36 ft) and the total storage capacity of 2.5 billion cubic metres (2,000,000 acre·ft).

[Day 15 S]
-> Lets ride around Erhai! After getting extremely lost we made it to the other side or Erhai and hired some bikes
[Day 16 S]
-> Loved Dali so much so we stayed another day
-> Took some horses up the mountain 'Cangshan' then hiked a 'Cloudy Tourist Road' to an epic pool of crystal blue waters 'Seven Dragon Maidens Pond'
-> Said bye to Jessica and moved to Lijiang

The China Chronicles Day 11, 12 & 13 - Guilin -> Kunming -> Dali - Mobile Photo Edition

Waiting for the train line to open up. Out of every city we decided to take the train in Guilin. Imagine KL or Singapore without aircon. Lots of people and very humid. But some how we made it :)

#Guilin -> Kunming
[Day 11 T]

-> City Walkabout and RnR

-> Train to Kunming!





We decide to go all out and get the highest level. A soft sleeper.
Its a cabin with 4 beds.
There are 3 levels below this from memory. Hard sleeper. Sitting and Standing.









First meal in Kunming and arrival at hump hostel.





















Some information around the guest house.









While in Kunming, what do you do? Take a bus to Shillin!

And no its not called HUMP because people hump here. It is called hump due to the difficult route over the Himalayas that the war pilots would fly over.
It was very treacherous and many died.
The myth was that if someone crashed they would go to a small town within the mist of the mountains.

<- not in prison but a taxi in Kunming @_@



#Kunming
[Day 12 W]
-> Walkabout - We arrived around midday and decided to explore the famous city Kunming where many people move to due to the perfect weather
[Day 13 T]
-> Stone Forrest
-> Then bus to Dali in the arvo
-> We met Jordan in the Stone Forrest and then later met him again on the bus opposite us going to Dali.

Hump hostel

Shillin Stone Forrest, we took two public buses and some walking to get here. I believe it was the east bus station we had to take the Shillin bus from. Another adventure that we returned safely on. And met a new friend from Idaho, Jordan ^_^

The China Chronicles Day 9 & 10 - YangShuo -> Guilin -> Longji - Mobile Photo Edition

[Day 9 S]
-> Yangshuo Walkabout
-> Took a boat back then a bus back to Guilin passing through XingPing (super lucky to make it back to Guilin, no idea how we did it)
-> Dinner in Guilin with some friends we met in Yangshuo






Map of guilin (above)

#Guilin
[Day 10 M]
-> Longsheng/Longji Rice Fields
-> Yao Village people

Some strange congee i found when in Guilin and vegetables. I should have take a photo of the menu. It was filled with strange things. The most normal one i found was century egg. Other items sounds like wierd off cuts from horses and other animals.

Above is the Stonehenge Guesthouse in Yangshuo

River cruise from Yangshuo up to Xingping then by bus back to Guilin.

Longji Rice Terraces. It was a really long drive. The road was closed adding an extra hour or so and then the clutch slave cylinder failed (from my understanding) resulting in another hour or two @_@