Your Daughter is Beautiful, Only 100 Yuan for the Bracelet Please

The theme of our last two adventures is the incessant aggressiveness of the local vendors trying to sell us everything from jade jewelry (which Li loves and wants) to pomegranates (which Li also loves and wants). Lijiang has become such a tourist attraction that a large part of the local economy is built upon the tourism trade, specifically the souvenier side of things. Though we are being increasingly recognized around our local shops as here for the duration, when we go into town we look just like all the other foreign tourists who couldn't possible live without scarves and bracelets. (That's not to say we won't end up with scarves and bracelets of course!) Li's insightful comment was, "I think that man wants you to buy everything on the table."

We spent many hours last Friday wandering the streets and alleys of the Old Town. Lijiang is divided into two distinct halves, the Old Town cobblestone lined streets made with traditional mud brick construction (that survived the 1996 earthquake remarkably well) and the new town which is a rapidly expanding sprawl of concrete buildings. The Old Town is full of delightful restaurants, guest houses and small shops. It is easy to wander for hours. Li is an immediate attraction to many people and we are becoming more adept at explaining that she is our daughter, she is 5 and she was born in Guilin, Guangxi. Li is usually very shy during these interchanges. One of the women merchants tried to coax her 6 year old son out of the back of her shop to say hello to Li and he insisted on hiding under a blanket and peering out occasionally. I guess we are not the only parents forcing our children to do things they don't like!

On the weekend we pedaled our bikes 5K to BaiSha, a small traditional Naxi village. Somehow we missed all the touted sites, like the BaiSha Frescoes, and instead found ourselves pushing our bikes along muddy tracks in search of an elusive temple. At one point we were "redirected" by two stern looking Naxi women, we were clearly on a path towards someone's home! We finally called a halt to our search when faced with miles of uphill switchbacks on our one speed bikes. We retreated back to the village and bounced our way along cobblestones through multiple small villages until returning back to our apartment. Having missed the main sights and having been unable to find the old landing field used by the Flying Tigers (my grandfather was a supply office with the Flying Tigers) we have decided BaiSha merits a return trip.