Travel over Semester Break -Yunnan

So the school decided it was necessary for us to have a two month break between the Fall and Spring semester. Two months is a long time, especially when I wasn't planning on going back home. So I did a little bit of traveling through two provinces in South China. I spent 8 days in Yunnan with my roommate (Polish guy) and a friend from New Mexico.

The first stop that we made, after a tough 10 hour train ride sitting on a train, was Lijiang.

Chinese country side. It's very pretty and awesome how they make use of the land in this way.

Lijiang Old Town at night. It's funny how they call it old town, but have so much lighting and what not. It's pretty though, and you can go to the top to have a few beers at the bars.

Here it is in Daylight. Just not so pretty.

People going about their daily lives.

The same lady tried selling us blueberries twice. The second time, she realized it was us again and just walked away, it was pretty hilarious. Wasn't this lady though. 

People just washing clothes in the dragon pond, nothing special. 

I don't mean to make fun of their English translations, but what in the world... Tofu selling pregnant... 

White Dragon Lake, or something like that. There's a white dragon in here.

This place was actually very pretty though. 

Oh you know... just two very lonely creatures. Okay, what the heck is going on.

Bamboo with some writing, thought it was pretty cool.

Fleet market. Actually reminded me of all those Hmong fleet markets in MN. Oh how I miss getting dragged along and spending hours walking around bored to death with mom and dad. =[

Next we went to Shangrila. This place was supposed to be full of energy and amazing, but we were a little disappointed. Probably because they had a huge fire two years ago and are still recovering from it. Also, a chunk of the town was without electricity, so we had the hardest time finding a place to stay for the night. All we did here was visit a famous national reserve and make snow angels.

Minnesota roots...?

Got TP'd. Just kidding, don't take offense.

The trees were pretty cool, they had a bunch of moss growing on them.

Other than just visiting these cities and towns, we also did a 2 day hike through the Tiger Leaping Gorge. This was actually a pretty hard hike. I had to carry my friend's bag because it was too heavy, and the bag was like 25 maybe 30 pounds, but after a few miles it felt like it was at least 100 pounds. The first day was straight up a mountain, and I swear my legs have never died like they did there. Luckily, the second day was flat and then straight downhill.

The start.

Not even half way and thought about turning back.

Not there yet, our tired faces.

Slept here.

Goats incoming!

The next stop was Dali. Unfortunately we were super worn out from the hike, so we didn't do much here except walk around and stop by a bar. It was pretty cold and we didn't want to take a bike around the lake. Altough, it was interesting to see women working in construction sites though.

Hahahaha, yup... fuck the police.

It was nice having a burger again, that wasn't Mcdonald's.

Probably the fanciest Mcdonald's I've seen in my life.

I turned back to Chengdu after reaching Kunming. There wasn't much to do in Kunming except pay a bunch of money trying to get to the Airport.