Here and there

I never tire of the streets of Shanghai.


The girls getting their toes done! What fun pampering!
Our friend Amy Tan and her husband Lou diMatteo were in town for a bit with Lisa See, another wonderful author of things Chinese. We got to have a yummy dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, M on the Bund, where Michelle, the owner, hosted us all. (Amy foreground, Lisa in the back.)
The spectacular dessert that we love that is just a bit of about everything!
Lou with a new friend I made that night, Han Feng, who did the costumes for Amy's opera, Bonesetter's Daughter, that opened in San Francisco. She is a young designer now working on films and operas around the world. Really fun gal who lives right down the street from us. Our neighbor!

(Sorry. I can't find a way to take away the underlining!)

Last day in Shangri-la

Here we are, our last day of our trip in Yunnan. We were driven over harrowing roads that dropped thousands of feet down the mountain side (while the driver is wildly passing other cars on blind curves!) to a village that produces black pottery. We were taken to this particular home, where the potter is very famous. 90% of the villagers are potters, and as we came into the village, at the top of the hillside, there were stores selling the black pottery. This particular artists work, so we were told!, only goes out to stores and commissions.This is a typical home with the inner courtyard where the animals are kept, grass/hay is dried on the ground level.
I had to use the facilities after our long ride, and this is it! A nice stone hole in the floor. I have to say that is was much cleaner and devoid of stench, unlike most other depositories!
The second floor is the living/working space. The wood carving on the home was beautiful.
We entered into the main room where the potter and his son-in-law (on the right) were busy at work. We watched them for quite a while. They were incredible adept and moved the clay with such incredible facility. The clay is all from the surrounding mountains, which is why the village is famous. It sure didn't appear as though they received many tourists, though. Maybe that is yet to come.
It was the middle of the afternoon and they worked just by the light from this window that faced west. There were no lights on in the room. Not even sure if they had electricity in the room. The pots were spun by their feet. We were very curious about his process and the pots and asked lots of questions. That endeared us to him and he offered to tour us around the house.
The potter's brother is a monk, which is a source of great pride. He happened to be visiting from his monastery while we were there. We kept catching glimpses of him as he would peak his head out of his room. The potter took us into a large, beautiful room - their shrine to Buddha where his brother prays (and the whole family must also) while he is there. The whole room was immaculately kept, large and light. Nicer than any other room in the house. Kept just for prayer. We finally made our way to the attic where there were pots that he was "willing" to sell us! Imagine that! Of course we found some that we couldn't live without!
This is the village and we went walking a bit down the road and villages were walking about, too.

Beautiful, beautiful people.
Looking back down at the village as we were leaving.
After having dinner in the old part of Shangri-la, we passed a frequent site: dancing in the town square. We have seen this everywhere we go. At night people of all ages come out and dance together. It is really wonderful to see, and we have even entered in and participated a couple of times. They always gladly welcome us in to their group. Nothing is private or exclusive in China - at least for the common man. Those things are changing for the new elite.
As we were waiting for our plane to leave for Kunming and then on to Shanghai, these young people were in the airport waiting to greet the next plane load of tourists. They were all dressed in traditional costume and went to the plane playing music and singing. It was lovely. Better late than never for us!

Back in Shanghai at the Hongqiao airport. Storey and France getting a little rest from the long day of flying! We are home!

Lijiang and Shangri-la - HA!

Ridley working outside of our hotel room in Lijiang, a World Heritage town. A beautiful courtyard hotel, with power!
A little shopping was done after dinner one night. Paige found this patch "cowboy" hat that the hearders wear around here.
One of the courtyards of our hotel.
France and Christophe enjoying breakfast.
Something calming to start your day!
The luscious breakfast buffet.
Storey getting packed up first as we prepare to leave Lijiang. We have really enjoyed our time here, and David our guide is one of the best we have ever had.
Our troupe - ready to roll!
Storey takes the lead.
Following the Yangtze with some beautiful scenery.

A star in the making - with a very serious camera man directing.


We stopped at Stone Drum Town which is at the bend of the Yangtze for a little tour and lunch. The vendor had red pepper cakes which I bought! Yum! Anyone want to come over for dinner??

Our choice of fresh vegetables as we eat with the locals.

There was a great confab over getting to inspect a tuc-tuc up close. Very exciting!

Heading into the mountains.
We have to say good-bye to our lovely guide David as we head into Shangri-la. He is not allowed to guide in this region. We must meet another guide, local to the area. He was fine, but David is a hard act to follow. He was very straight forward and didn't hesitate to answer questions in a somewhat honest fashion. Most guides (they are all employed by the government) really tow the party line. It is interesting how much a guide can effect how you feel about an area.
Our next stop was Tiger Leaping Gorge. We walk for about 2k along this placid river...
go through many tunnels dynamited out of the overhanging rock....
(maybe too many tourists getting taken out by falling rock!)
and slowly we come upon Tiger Leaping Gorge. Gorg - eous!
What do you know? At the end of the walk a nice ice cream treat awaits. More opportunity to buy, buy, buy!


It was stunning and powerful.
Christophe hiding his ice cream treat! No use hiding when I am going to tell, is there?
We made it to Shangri-la and headed right into dinner in a "traditional" restaurant. The guides do all the ordering (to our dismay many times as we like figuring it out) and the food started pouring in. It is always a feast. Shangri-la is very high, over 10,000 feet. Maybe 12,000. It was very cold. France experienced severe altitude sickness later.
We finally made it to our hotel. This is the lobby where we were checking in fairly late at night. We were greeted by lovely women offering warm tea and cookies - of a sort. Knowing that the heat is never turned on until you get there, we had asked for the room heaters to be turned on earlier. They said they were on, but alas, the rooms were freezing when we got there. Another beautiful courtyard hotel - 5 star they say. Well, the night was pretty miserable. Beautiful, but miserable. The bed was situated to that the one air vent blowing out "hot" air, was aimed directly at the bed. It was so cold that by the time the air made it to the bed, it was freezing. There were bed warmer pads we turned on, but for the queen bed, the pad was only in the middle section. I guess we had to cozy up anyway since the duvet on top didn't cover the width of the bed! If someone moved at all, the cover was pulled to them, sending the bed partner into screams of frigid agony! Not a good night. All kinds of complaining went on trying to fix some of these rather large details, but to no avail. Needless to say, we checked out of this quaint, beautiful hotel first thing in the morning and went into town to the standard Chinese huge hotel. It was warm and the beds were softer (oh yes, the other beds were made out of board!) so we were happy. Ahhh. Shangri-la. Not quite living up to its name. And then, of course, we find out why. It has only recently become Shangri-la! Its former name was, and still is known by, Zhongdian. The government decided that this region needed more tourism dollars (or kuai) so they renamed the town to get tourists up there! It is very close to Tibet and is lovely country, but it is certainly no Shangri-la. In fact, lore has it that Lijiang is the town that James Hilton was describing in Lost Horizon. Much more believable!
Off to one of the largest monastery's - off in the distance.
No pictures were allowed inside, but lots of incense, candles, chanting, statues, money offering stations. Very dark with separate rooms for different Buddha statues.
Gold roof shining in the sun. Lots of bells ringing around it to keep the birds away - no defecating here!
A mini city with monks everywhere and the people who service them. Interesting.


Still pretty chilly in our high altitude monastery. The views from this courtyard were astounding, mountains all around.

Time to go!