Probably sounds a lot like the last post

We've spent the past week sort of like our first week in mainland China: we spent a few days in a popular, touristy city and the rest of the time in less-visited villages.  The same adjectives to the cities and villages always apply: cobblestone streets, walkable, quaint, traditional architecture...but each place is unique in its own way and we haven't tired yet of visiting these places.

 

Dali

People seem to speak of Dali in the same sentence as Lijiang, as another beautiful city that has become overrun with tourists.  So, we were expecting to arrive to a similar to city to Lijiang, but it's actually seemed completely different.  Dali's walled Old Town has a totally different feel.  Rather than narrow walkways, canals, and all traditional architecture, Dali has wide boulevards, many modern buildings, and vehicles are allowed in most of the city.  There are a few pedestrian streets but they don't have the old-world charm as Lijiang.  On the other hand, whereas Lijiang caters more to Chinese tourists, Dali is a haven for western backpackers.  The Chinese still come in droves; but the government has built a new "old" town outside the western gate and that seems to be where they all congregate.  Inside the old town, it's been pretty quiet, probably since we're out of high season.

 

The big draw to Dali is it's surrounding area, a couple miles from mountains on one side and the third largest lake in China on the other.  We rented bikes and spent a day riding along the lake, stopping in at the farming and fishing villages that dot the area.  We were only several  miles from Dali, but felt worlds away; it was an easy way to get off the beaten path.  People went about their daily business tending the fields, children played games and rode their bikes, and old men played mah jong.  Some villages were quaint with old architecture and some were more modern.  But what struck us was how friendly everyone was everywhere we went, even though our Chinese vocabulary is limited to a couple dozen words.

 

Nuodeng

We've made an effort, especially in China, to get off the main tourist trail when possible.  Our visit to Nuodeng was probably the apex of our efforts, even more than Shaxi.  After a 3.5 hour bus ride to the nearest city, we boarded a 3-wheeled motorbike, crossed a rickety wooden bridge, and traveled 5 miles until the road ended.  Here were a few sets of uneven stairs that marked the entrances to this village.  It's called the 1,000 year old village, but has been in it's current form for the past several hundred years, when it was a major salt mining center.  The village in front of us rose along the hillside.  All we knew was that one of the two guest houses in the villages was near the top of the village.  After about 10 minutes of ascending the narrow pathways of uneven stairs and stones, asking people to point us in the right direction, we found the guesthouse.  The proprietors gave us a simple room off the courtyard.  They were extremely nice but the facilities were as basic as could be.  The "bathroom," consisting of simply a hole in the ground, was outside the courtyard, next to the pig stye (and one of the pigs' bretheren would be our dinner that night).  We spent a lot of time "playing" Charades because the cheerful owner didn't speak any English and we speak very (very) little Chinese.

 

We spent the day as we often do in these villages, just wandering about and admiring the old architecture.  A couple people even invited us into their homes, one of whom turned his home into a mini museum.  We came upon old temples, one of which we found by accidently walking through someone's home.  At times it almost felt like we were the first tourists to see these sites in years.  We also took a long walk in the hills opposite the village, through farm fields and along donkey paths, where we got great views of the entire area. 

 

Whereas Shaxi is attempting to develop its tourist infrastructure through restoration and adding guesthouses, restaurants, etc., Nuodeng seems content to remain a farming village, just one that happens to be beautiful and have a rich history.  There's literally  no restaurants in town, not even the hole-in-the-wall noodle shops we normally find.  So, we ate with the owners who gave us a feast of rice, fried pork, bacon, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, a squash-like vegetable, and beans.

 

Weishan

From Nuodeng we went to another village called Weishan.  This was our first place in China that was a disappointment for us.  It wasn't nearly as charming, had limited and overpriced accomodation, and didn't have much to do.  There was a nice site 7 miles away near the top of a mountain that had lots of temples and palaces to wander around.  Spending a few hours there helped make the trip more worth it, but we were ready to get back to Dali and have a few western comforts (like the best French toast at our guesthouse!). 

 

Tomorrow we fly a few hours east to the Guangxi province for our last week in China.