Day 6 and 7: Kunming to Dali to Lijiang

We're in Lijiang! It's been hard to find both internet bars and also places where blogspot works, so I'll quickly update before the website fails on me.

Yesterday, we drove for 5 hours from Kunming to Dali. The drive was really bumpy but I got to see a lot of the countryside. I saw many many rice paddies, terraced landscapes for farming, and small villages. In Dali, we had a tea tasting, and then explored the old city. The Bai people are the largest minority group here, and the women dress in their traditional clothing on the street. Very colorful and modest.

Here is a picture of my monkey with another money. :)

This is a long river inside the new part of Dali where we stayed at. There are also a lot of monuments dedicated to their political causes. They are quite interesting to look at.

Today, it started raining and we drove from Dali to Lijiang, which is farther north in the Yunnan province. We toured the old city, which was jam packed with both locals and tourists. The Naxi people are the big minority group here, and they also wear their traditional clothes proudly on the street or in their shops. Here is a picture I took overlooking the center of Lijiang. I love all the old building rooftops; it reminds me of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and makes me want to jump from roof to roof. For the rest of the day we just went around the city, and it's quite unfortunate that it's still raining because that affects places we'll be able to visit. But we're having fun for the most part. Everyone in our group is really friendly and our tour guide Kwan is really nice.

That's all for now, but I'll try to write more and add more pictures later!

-b