China – Winter 2016 (Dali, first impressions)

Changshan Range seen through the bathroom window of the Ji Rui Hotel

slope leading to South Gate and the Changshan Range 

     The room we had booked at the Ji Rui for 21 days boasted a mountain view, (the only one with a mountain view in the hotel). But at first, upon getting out from under the electric blanket in the still chilly morning air, the mountain view wasn't in evidence. The windows were all beautifully latticed with wood carving but then I noticed that if you looked through the high latticed windows in the bathroom you could, indeed, see the mountains in the dramatic Cangshan range to the West. The front range was green and wooded, but the high peaks in the back range showed snow and glacier cover sparkling against a cerulean blue sky. The hotel staff kindly served us a Chinese style breakfast and listened to our complaints about the unheated room. (We later learned that unheated rooms in older hotels were the norm.) They were sympathetic and offered to change our room to one, the only one, that had a heater. To which offer we said we would think about and make a decision as soon as possible.

South Gate

section of the Old Town wall

        We had timed our arrival to be after the peak of the Chinese New Year travel, but there were still thousands of tourists in the old town when we finally ventured forth from the hotel for the first time. The weather was sunny and getting warmer as the sun climbed higher towards noon. It was a good kilometer walk upslope from the hotel to the South Gate of the OldTown and we climbed it along with the sun. The south gate was dazzling with its mountain backdrop and its foot planted in yellow and purple flowers. Dali Old Town, inside its still standing wall, is a vibrant, aromatic, colorful and raucous place. The main north/south thoroughfare Fuxing Road is lined with souvenir shops and restaurants. It was super crowded with tourists (this is what 1.3 billion people looks like in a microcosm I thought) with magnificent architecture and color, color, color everywhere, red, of course, predominating.

Fuxing Road - WuHua Building in background

WuHua Building

Food court with mind-boggling array of dishes

nice, quiet tastefully decorated restaurant

more tea?

the bride wore red - who can resist a wedding party?

China - Winter 2016 (A chilling experience)

Hongqaio Airport

working on my notes

     We took the Line 2 subway from People's Square to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. There was an ingenious promotional ad on the subway wall depicting a red dragon composed of consumer products. The 4-hour flight on China Eastern Airlines from Hongqiao to Dali was uneventful until the approach to Dali Airport when high winds gusting off the mountains buffeted the aircraft for a rather bumpy and tense descent and landing (one poor woman had to use an airsick bag). As prearranged, we were met at the airport by a driver from our hotel, the Ji Rui Hotel. 

look closely and you will see the myriad products
cunningly integrated into the design

windmills on hills

       During the approach and landing, despite the buffeting, I noticed many windmills and solar collectors dotting the hillsides. I wondered how much the region was trying to develop renewable energy sources. As we headed into the new city of Dali (called Xiaguan by locals) along the southern shore of Erhai Lake we passed many seemingly abandoned construction sites for large condo complexes many with loose protective tarpaulins torn from the scaffolding and flapping in the wind. They look like ghost towns as a Japanese acquaintance who lives in Dali old town we met later told us. They are apparently government funded housing projects that have come to a halt as a result of the recent downturn in the growth of the Chinese economy.

Erhai Lake - many of the buildings in the background are unfinished and empty  

our driver to the Ji Rui

the Ji Rui Hotel

        It was rush hour and traffic was heavy with bottlenecks impeding progress. The driver did a U-turn at one point to try another approach and we got bogged down in another bottleneck, but we finally arrived at the hotel. The Ji Rui was a charming old style Chinese inn. The hotel desk clerk, a young woman, spoke reasonable English and we were able to understand her and be understood by her. The location of the hotel (which did not serve meals), however, outside the old town wall was quite a long walk to restaurants, shops, etc. We were too tired by then to undertake the walk so went without dinner. Then we were quite dismayed to discover that the room was unheated. The temperature plunges quickly at night and, being old, the building was very drafty, especially with the high gusts of wind that kept buffeting it. There was also much dust borne on the high winds that seeped in through the cracks of the old window frames and walls that left a fine film on our computers and most everything else. Fortunately, there was an electric blanket on the bed but we spent a cold uncomfortable evening shivering and discussing what we should do given the downsides of the otherwise charming hotel.  

sleeping area - bed has an electric blanket

door had to barred
from the inside to lock it

the huge bathroom - latticed windows later
proved to have a nice view of the mountains

this type of ceramic bowl lavatory
 is common in old hotels in China

the sitting area of our room in the Ji Rui Hotel

China - Winter 2016 (Yunnan Province)

     Yunnan Province lies in the southwestern part of China. Its name, Yunnan, literally mean "Southern Cloud" in English. Yunnan's western flanks meet the Eastern Himalaya Mountain foothills. We chose Yunnan for its winter climate. At a relatively low latitude and high elevation (Dali is 2000 meters above sea level--higher than Denver at 1610 meters) the winter has generally mild daytime temperatures averaging 16°C (62°F) in February and cold nights averaging 4°C (39°F) with dry sunny days and occasional rain. We were also interested in seeing a more rural China than we had previously experienced only briefly in Shanghai; and some of Yunnan's “ancient towns” have become popular tourist destinations especially among Chinese travelers: towns such as Dali, Shaxi, Li Jiang, Shuhe, Shangri-la. Furthermore, we learned that towns such as Dali were “Autonomous Prefectures” that contain more than 30% ethnic minorities, the Bai people being the largest minority in Dali. In the two other towns we stayed in, Shaxi and Shuhe (Li Jiang) the largest minority are the Naxi people many of whom have close ties with the people of neighboring Tibet.  

Map: Locations of Dali City (pink) and Dali Prefecture (yellow) within Yunnan and China

China - Winter 2016 (A pit stop in Shanghai)

the Maglev topping at a mere 300 kph

     We got up at the crack of dawn in order to catch an 8:50am flight to Shanghai and arrived still half asleep at Pudong International Airport around 10:30am. Took the Maglev and subway to downtown Shanghai. I was a little disappointed with the Maglev because it only went 300 kph instead of the breathtaking 450 kph experience I remember when we took it eight years ago. Oddly, for such a high speed train, the Maglev only runs a short distance to the Longyang Road subway stop where you have to change trains. The subway entrance isn't clearly marked so it took a little game of hide and seek before we finally found it with the help of some equally confused locals. You can also take the subway all the way from Pudong Airport to downtown Shanghai, but it takes about 40 minutes longer than the Maglev, and you still have to change trains at Guanglan Road since Line 2 (green line) doesn't go all the way to Pudong Airport, but you can change trains on the same platform making it less confusing.

Radisson Blu tower in the background

Shanghai seems to be perpetually shrouded in smog

        The Radisson Blu Hotel, where we were staying for a one-night stopover in Shanghai had a pleasant surprise for us. We chose the hotel for its convenient location on Peoples Square. The two subway lines that we intended to use crossed conveniently at Peoples Square easily accessible from the hotel. When we checked in the desk clerk informed us that we were getting a room upgrade to a Junior Suite on the 29^th floor with a lovely view of smog enshrouded Shanghai. It was still early afternoon so we went down to the pool and jacuzzi for a pleasantly relaxing hour.

beautiful piece of sculpture of dragons carved in Jade in hotel lobby

Zapatas restaurant in the French Concession

       Since we had to stay in Shanghai overnight, we planned to go to Zapatas, one of our favorite Shanghai haunts, for dinner and drinks. Zapatas is a Mexican food restaurant in the old French Concession. We found it through TripAdvisor the last time we were in Shanghai and fell in love with the place. The main attraction, for me, was their Margarita Supreme. It was the most wonderful of alcoholic concoctions based, of course, in Tequila and served in a “glass” the size of a small goldfish bowl. 

Margarita classics at Zapatas

       We took subway Line 1 (red line) to the Henhshan Rd. stop and walked about 500m along Hengshan Road to Zapatas. The building hadn't changed a bit and, the place being empty on a weekday night, we were able to sit at our favorite table. The Margarita Supreme, alas, was no longer on the menu so we ordered classic Margaritas instead. The Fajita I ordered came with a shot of tequila on the side which I added to my dying classic and revived it. The air was warm when we left Zapatas and the buzz from the revivified Margarita made for a pleasant stroll back up Hengshan Road and the subway back to the hotel and a good night's sleep before our flight to Dali.

Line 1 (red line) subway

Shanghai seems smog enshrouded day and night

China – Winter 2016

Preamble:

     People have asked me why I wanted to go to China. The short answer is simple enough, because, like a mountain, it's there. The long answer is another matter. I had been to China only once before and only to Shanghai in 2008, the year of the Beijing Olympics. But that was like peeling only the outer skin of an onion. Shanghai is a bustling, cosmopolitan, smog enshrouded city caught up in China's emergence as a major world power once again.

New Year decoration in hotel lobby -
red is the predominant color in China

        What accounts for the longevity and durability of Chinese civilization, a civilization that has endured for some 4000 years? Gone are the Sumerians and the Babylonians, the Egyptians and the Romans, deflated the Spanish and British Empires and seemingly losing influence the American Empire; yet China as a definable culture with a written history that can still be read in the same characters endures, and like the Phoenix rises again and again with that substratum of culture intact, seemingly indestructible. Maybe China is like a willow that can bend but is strong and doesn't break easily.

New Year building decoration near
People's Square in downtown Shanghai

        I wondered what the “real” China, the hinterlands, would be like. Living in Japan, China is easily accessible by air. It is only a couple hours from Okayama to Shanghai and about four hours from Shanghai to Dali in Yunnan Province in the eastern foothills of the Himalaya Mountains not far from the Tibetan border where we decided to spend the winter months from mid-February (at the end of the Chinese New Year of the Monkey) to early April. From Dali we planned to travel north to Shaxi, Li Jiang (Shuhe) and Shangri La. Whether or not I can learn something about what makes this country “tick”, perhaps my impressions and experiences and thoughts may show.

To be continued...