It has been too long since I’ve written in this. This past weekend I was visiting Dali, without my computer. Some classmates and I wanted to spend some time away from the city and relax. Dali, having a chill backpacker’s reputation, was the obvious choice. Two friends from UVM, who are visiting Kunming on their roundabout way to English teaching jobs in Shenzhen, also came. Good stuff.
Dali is indeed a very relaxed city. It is the center for the Bai enthnicity and has one of the few intact, though crowded with toursits, old cities in China. I spent my time wandering the streets of the old city, sitting in cafes, climbing mountains and strolling through rice paddies. The city is no stranger to westerners and the many cafes and bannana pancakes are proof of this. Even though the city is touristy it doesn’t feel crowded like Kunming or other larger cities in China. Our first full day we walked towards the tall Cangshan (苍山) mountains that spring up directly next to the city. It was raining and hazy, but we wanted to hike and nothing was going to stop us. The bad weather turned out to be good for us since it meant we had the mountain basically all to ourselves. It is not often that one finds a place in this country where all you hear are bird songs and running water. There is no correct pathway up the Cangshan mountains so we just kept walking up into the clouds.
Part way up the mountain we met an Italian women and a couple Chinese guys living in a cabin on the side of the mountain. They directed us to another pathway that leads…..up. We kept climbing for a couple hours finally reaching a dramatic gorge between two mountains engulfed in clouds. The pathway also lead to a pristine collection of waterfalls that seemed to come from the clouds. We then spent another three hours pressing in as far as we could up this series of waterfalls and dripping forest. It all made for an unforgetable hike. I’ve been trying to upload my photos of the trip to my Flicker page, but the western cafes of Kunming have rather slow wireless and they are not all up yet.
In more local news I am presently searching for an apartment in Kunming. This will be my first apartment in China and I will live with two other American students. I’m ready to settle down in a home rather than in the “International Student’s Dorm”. Yesterday a real estate agent showed us five apartments. They ranged in price, for a three person apartment, from 1500 to 1200 RMB. Not the greatest of apartments but for the price they all seem inviting. We plan to start moving in somewhere late next week. My first term also ends next week and my three week vacation will begin! My summer is about to lose its routine.
