Lijiang - Jianchuan - Eryuan - Dali
The trip started with a nice climb up to 2600m. At the top there was a view point, from where we saw the Yangtze deep down winding between the mountains. In the background there were the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Haba Shan, both over 5000m high. Really nice view, even though the peaks were hidden in the clouds, but definitely worth the climb. In this part of China most people seem to live on farming, they are mostly growing rice and corn. At this time of the year everybody was busy harvesting the rice. When the sun came out, the rice fields were glowing golden, a beautiful contrast to the lush green grass and trees growing everywhere. People were very friendly, they were all shouting 'Hellos' as soon as the spotted us. One man greeted us with 'Okaaay!!', apparently the only English word that he knew :) In the evening we found a great - and very cheap - room in a hotel in one of the towns on the way. Had the morning started with sunshine, clouds were coming back towards evening and were threateningly towering above us, so we were happy to be safe and warm under a roof. A nice meal completed this perfect day and we happily fell asleep.
The next day was similar. After a breakfast that consisted of Baozi - Chinese dumplings - that we ate on a schoolyard, observed by children from the distance, we faced another steep, 15km-long climb. Luckily a good noodle-soup awaited us at the end of the descent. And in the afternoon we arrived just in time at another nice hotel, before the rain started to pour down. Peter wasn't feeling very well this day and feared to get a cold, so we were happy that there were only 60 km left for the next day.
For a change there was no climb this day, but we rode through a beautiful gorge and finally came to the large Erhai Lake. Dali, our destination lies at the shore of this lake. So we followed the shore for the rest of the day. On the way we passed by a colorful market, where the minorities of the region sold everything from rubber boots to spices to meat. You could even get a haircut here. In the afternoon we saw the three pagodas for which Dali is famous appear in the background and soon after we arrived. Happily we took a shower in the guesthouse and relaxed at a nice dinner.
Talking about these 3 days, we agreed that they were the nicest days of our whole time in China so far.
