Across the Yunnan-Sichuan border, along Tibetan people

Shangri La was a really great place to get used about high altitude and to do some trekking and bicycle in the 2 main valleys, I liked even if it was crowd of tourist because of the 1 week chinese holiday in beginning of October.

So, after 1 week training on the 3200 mt plateau of Shangri La I was finally ready to start my trip through the high montains on the Tibetan border!

The first destination after 11 hours of bumping bus it was Daocheng, a 3600 mt town as large as my home's street in Italy, quite freezing in the night where I start to see the first Tibetan people in my trip.

After 2 days rest & discovery in Daocheng, I then went to natural reserve of Yading, maybe my main reason of travelling in this area. Yading is a mountain sanctuary and major pilgrimage site comprising three 6000m+ peaks blessed from 5th Dalai Lama, I was very curious to hike around these holy mountains unknown to tourism until the end of 90's. Even if it was a bit expansive, I was both very happy to be there and to celebrate my best hike attempt, from 3700 mt to 4600 mt and back completely alone and without help, 11 hours of hard work but really proud of it! And the landsacpe definitely worth that money!

Then my next destination was Litang and I experienced for the first time the hitchhiking, from Yading to Daocheng and then to Litang, 6 hours in total and very good luck to get 2 different free rides in a row.

Now I am in Litang big bazar city at 4000 mt, with real Tibetan people and a big mess all around, I definitely love it, even if today I saw the worst and ugliest cerimony in my life, the world famous Tibetan sky burial... in few words a dead body is placed on the top of a hill, then there is a man (with a lot of hairs on the stomach I suppose, like people say in Italy) who cut the body in order to allow the birds to eat it, and then the fight between the hundreds of voltures begin to take part of the dead man lunch. A very disgusting experience, but this is the Tibetan way to bury dead people.

Shangri-La

Shangri-La

Shangri-La

Shangri-La

Shangri-La

Best Travel Buddies

Daocheng

Around Daocheng

Yading

Yading

Yading - Milk Lake 4.700 mt

deers on yading

Yading



Litang hard workers



Voltures ready for sky buring

Litang

Litang

Lijiang & Tiger Leaping Gorge

Wow, again a lot of time since last login, this time I had had a lot of problems even to enter my google e-mail, but this is China!

About Lijiang I don't have much to say, it is nice, part of UNESCO and bla bla bla, but it looks fake and it was so crowd of chinese tourist that was a real mess, with lot of loudy bars and so on. I better spent my time in the close old town of Shuhe and even better in the old Baisha village, more authentic experience.

After Lijiang I decided to have a stop on my way to Shangri-La for a 3 days trek on Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest and highest in all China. For the first time since I have start my trip I was really alone, it was not easy, I did not have technical equipment, I did not hire any local guide, I did not buy maps, I did not know what to expect and I get lost few times in the middle of nowhere, I had hot sunny, rains and wind, a lot of wind, but it was one of the best experience I had in China so far.

Now I just arrived in Shangri-La, I can only say that the 3200 mt altitude and the lack of oxygen make me sleep almost 18 hours per day, sooo nice!

Lijiang top view

Road to Baisha

Baisha old lady

Ready for trekking on Tiger Leaping Gorge

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Tiger Leaping Gorge

The King of Tiger Leaping Gorge

Heijing town, happiness is in the air

Just come back in Kunming after a nice weekend in the old town of Heijing, a wonderful place in the mountains not far from Yunnan-Sichuan border. There is not so much to see, but is very nice to see how different and simple can be the life in the little town outside of touristic tours. The big show in Heijing going on Sunday, when the old farmers came from the mountains to sell their goods in the town, just few yuan to collect enough food for the whole week. Even if it seems poor life, you can really see happiness in people's eyes, that is incredible not only for westeners but even for chinese people from big city life. Great weekend and wonderful experience, it is nice to be treated like a superstar only because you are the only foreigner in town!

Keep moving in Yunnan

Wow! a lot of time since last log in, a lot of stuff to say... Yunnan is a great province of China, with a lot of nice places to see! Actually I have been only in Kunming (nice but big city) and I have been in Dali for so loong time... Dali is a very nice, ancient and relaxing town, between the Er Hai Lake and mountains, with very relaxed and easy going people, I really enjoyed all my time here, I had both old & new friends, spending the time with daily excursion around the lake or hiking the mountains or just sitting lazy in some cozy coffee bar... Then for the whole last week I experienced the life in the Buddhist Wu Wei temple, learning Tai Chi, bringing stones in the head at the sunrise, working hard with chinese masters and relaxing myself in the great forest around, reading, writing and thinking a lot... Life is quite different when you don't have electicity and you need to wake up ang go to bed following natural day-time! Life was pretty cool and hard, the only thing I really missed was the food, it is not easy to eat vegan food all days! Anyway I am thinking to go back for another week of hard work in the temple later, now my program is to go to Heijing for the the weekend and then to continue my trip to Lijiang and Shangri-la. The big news is that later I am travelling overland from Shangri-la to Chengdu, seeing all the Tibetans Mountains and villages and enjoying something I am sure I will bring in my mind for a lot of time!

Kunming

Dali

Lazy time in Dali

around Dali

the road to the Wu Wei Buddhist Temple

early morning training

Tai Chi Practice

Buddhist cerimony in the temple

Funniest kid in the temple

Sunrise over Dali frpm the temple

China Time!

I am in China from 3 weeks and I have not been able to enter my blog so far due to Chinese restrictions on internet, for the same reason I am not able to enter my facebook but I don’t complain about it! Now thanks to a proxy server connection I am able to enter at least in my blog and I try to resume all things happened to me since my last login in Hong Kong!

I spent my last day in HK with a daytrip visit to Macau, very nice place, relaxed people and a bit of portoguese flavour in the air! I met some nice local girls who showed me around Macau and hosted me in the rainy afternoon (thanks Agnes & Pat for Macanese hospitality!), then after the dinner I had to run as usual to take last ferry back to Kowloon!

The next day I was ready to go to China, even if I was still thinking about some weird stories from other backpackers with a lot of problems in China... By the way after 40 minutes of metro finally I was in Shenzen, China, and the first person I met was Askan, german guy living there, who kindly hosted me for the next 4 days. Shenzen is a big industrial city of 12 million people, nothing to do in the day, but with a great nightlife, I was very lucky to met Askan, we had a lot of parties and he introduced me the other buddy for the nightlife, Guerric, French guy living in China for more than 5 years. I had from them a lot of advise and tips about my trip and they also changed definitely my original plan to visit China! So after 4 days of big city nightlife, I decided to move to Guilin, even because I knew that if I stayed longer there I would have finish to stay there for a looot of time because of a dangerous evil in woman dresses...BTW, thanks a lot Askan & Guerric, I look forward to travel with you guys!!

In Guilin I just stayed one night, the next early morning I went to the station to take bus to Yangshuo, then into the bus I knew Peter a 50 years old kung fu master and we start a long conversation for the the whole trip. Once in Yangshuo, we met George (Peter twin brother) and a Belgian couple living in Yangshuo from a couple of years teaching English. They helped me with accommodation and I get a great double room in the rof plan with big bathroom and great terrace for a very good price. At first I really liked Yangshuo, but in the next days I have start to love it and finally decided to stay here for more than 2 weeks... After first days of biking in the countryside, I have start to take kung fu class in the morning (in the gym of the 2 twin brothers Peter and George), Chinese class in the middle of the day and I have start to collaborate with an English college just spending a couple of hours conversation with Chinese student in the evening in exchange of free food, free accommodation and free beers, quite a good deal to me!! I had very great moments in Yangshuo, I meet so many people and I had so many buddies for day excursions to countryside, beaches or caves that it is difficult to me to remember all! So, after 2 weeks of easy life in Yangshuo, I am ready now to move tomorrow to Kunming, in Yunnan. My plan now is to go in Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Shangri La and then find the way to go to Chengdu, in Sichuan, probably it will take 1 month to do it slowly as I like, but as usual I am really flexible with my plan. So with a lot of friends in my hearth and the belly of Monkey Jane in my head (Kieran, you know what I mean...) I am ready now to go ahead in the great China!

Shenzen

Snap in Shenzen street

Korean bbq in Shenzen with Askan!

Yamgshuo by bike

Back in School... from other side!

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Yangshuo's Secret beach. Not so secret