"Under Construction" a Lijiang Travel Page by raraavis

Lijiang is the home of Naxi people and its Dongba culture. The Naxi people are matriarchal. Dongba has its origin in shamanistic mythology. The Naxi writing is hieroglyphic. The Lijiang Old Town has over 800 years of history. The cobble-stoned streets, running streams, and stone bridges make the old town a charming place. Many other minority groups reside in the area including Tibetan and Bai.

This leg of the trip proved to be the highlight of our China trip filled with stunning sceneries; delicious food; a friendly dog; natural disaster; arguments with a French tour guide and a local taxi driver; Ban Chan the Tibetan living Buddha; and what appeared to be the blossoming romance between an unlikely couple.

Photos can be viewed here.

K and I took the No. 7 public bus to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Park. Even though it is called a public bus, it is essentially a mini-van operated by proprietors who spent a lot of money to obtain a tourist bus license. The van normally sits 7 people, although the driver and guide will try to squeeze in as many as possible. Since this is low season, K and I shared a mini-van with 2 young Chinese couples from Chengdu. En route to the park entrance gate, the guide asked if we want to save some money. After we agreed, she explained that she’s going to hide 3 of us in the mini-van. Instead of paying the 120 RMB normally charged at the park ticket booth, the 3 of us would pay 80 RMB each to her and the driver rather than to the park. It really wasn’t such a big deal to us since that means we would save $5. But it probably helped the 2 Chinese couples.

The driver pulled to the roadside and we all got out of the van according to the guide’s instructions. She picked a small guy and told him to lie down in the storage space in the back. It was a really tiny space, but he was also a tiny guy. She then covered him with a long seat cushion. Afterwards, she told a woman to squat in the space under the passenger side dash board. The woman was covered with a ski jacket.

Then it was my turn. Being slightly bigger than the skinny petite Southern guys and gals, I was instructed to lie down on the seat along the third row. I was covered with another ski jacket. The other Chinese guy from Chengdu sat on my legs. It was a lot of trouble to go through to save not a whole lot of money. The rest of the people were sitting normal in their seats. We were giggling until we arrived at the ticket booth and were told to be quiet.

After the tickets were purchased and we drove past the ticket booth, the stow-aways were told it was safe to see the daylight again.

I was pretty sure the ticket agent saw me because I saw her. The ski jacket wasn’t big enough to properly cover a grown person. Duh! However, the agent didn’t seem to notice the other two stow-aways.

It was exciting to be a stow-away, albeit a very minor one.

When you spend every minute of the day together, you run out of things to say to each other. Every little thing became a topic of intense discussion and analysis. So K and I discussed my stow-away experience in great detail. In China, localism is omnipresent and tolerated. Lijiang is no exception. Locals get ahead of lines, ride taxis for free, and give each other “free passes” on a number of things while outsiders are subject to the real rules. The ticket agent saw me but gave her fellow Naxi woman a free pass so she could make some money. The guide purposely let the ticket agent see me to distract attention away from other two stow-aways. It’s not so bad to have 1 stow-away rather than 3, eh? In the end, the guide and driver made 240 RMB from 3 stow-aways plus 8 RMB from each passenger for the ride.