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This is rice porridge. It is like prison food in a third world country, but the Chinese seem to love it.
This woman (in Dali) is washing the bike tyre with a tooth-brush. The blacker and cleaner the tyres, the easier it is to rent the bike to tourists.
A dentist. This shop is open to the street, so everyone can see you (and hear you, too) whilst the dentist is drilling away. It was next door to a restaurant. I couldn't eat dinner with the sound of a dentists drill buzzing away.
The children are paying Yuan0.5 ($0.08) for a cup of frozen strawberry-flavoured water.
These women are washing their clothes by hand. The twin-tub washing machine on the left was working away (overloaded, as is the Chinese way) for some reason I don't know about.
Stores in Dali. Some are recently built, others seem authentic.
In far north west Queensland, this would be considered good grazing country!
I thought these clothes were for the tourists. Often they are, but I was astounded by how frequently older people wore them. The woman is selling nuts. She'd sell until she was moved on by a policemen, find a new place to sell, and start again.
Click here to see a new 'Chinglish' sign. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
Restaurants left and right. Kitchen in the middle. Check the grass on the roof.
Hot dried chillies. YUMMY! These are laid on the sidewalk to dry.
A hairdressing saloon - open to the street. The hair clippings on the floor will be swept up and sold.
They have BOTH kinds of food additives: hot dried chillies (above) AND hot fresh chillies. Double YUMMY!
Clothes stalls.
A mosque in Dali. I was sitting outside with the women.
These women spend their day doing patchwork for tourists to take home.
She'll get more than $1 for this!
Read the third dish. I was assured this was a typical western breakfast.
Chinese are getting into artworks that the public can interact with. This is a giant Chinese Checkers board. The pieces weigh a mere 70kg, meaning that they are heavier than most Chinese.
A waterfall just out of Dali.
This water was CLEAN (which is amazing for eastern China).
Plants were growing everywhere in this park.
Moss on the walking path.
I have no idea what this boat was doing halfway up this cascade of waterfalls. It took lots of work to get it up here *ask the guys who carried it), and (apparently) adds to the atmosphere. You can see moss growing on the outside of it.
And other things growing on the inside of it.
Pretty shaped leaves.
It was VERY wet up in the park.
These looked delicious, but the price was too high. Almost $0.20 each.
One doesn't see paths like this much in eastern China, because the people trample it into cobbles and mud. I went a little mad photographing any grassed (or weed infested) walk-way.
The Three Pogodas in Dali. Apparently very important.
Whenever our bus or taxi left a city/town, they had to check-in with the transport police. I told them we had fruit-fly in Australia, too. But they looked at me blankly. It seems that the Friendly Olympics don't extend to the outer areas in China.
Our hotel court-yard in Lijiang (Yunnan).
A temple on a hill in Lijiang.
The front of our hotel in Lijiang.
I think Chinese 'roof-scapes' are GREAT! If a giant were to sit down on Lijiang, he'd get a very sore bottom from all the pointy eaves.
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No spouting. Why doesn't Australia have the same?
Lots of canals in Lijiang. Not the hotel hanging the bed linen out to dry on the guest balcony.
Note the door on the far right. This gives access to the water in the canal.
The archway has a large bag of rubbish. The guy on the trike tried to take it (to sell) but was caught by the hotelier.
I ate it without Chillies, and it was delicious.
LiJiang Hotels
Some people complain that these buildings are not authentic. Many are, and many more are recently built in the old manner. I MUCH prefer this stle of building to the Stalinesque style that was built all round China in the 60's and 70's.
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Inside these building there is no rising damp. The provide excellent (not 'adequate') housing at affordable rates, and they are MUCH nicer to live in.
The local 'cop-shop'. This view is from our hotel bathroom window. I didn't hear any screaming or pleas for mercy, so I assume they are civilised (or have sound-proof rooms).
Somebody signing-in with the authorities. When you relocate you are meant to sign-in with the local police. They want to know where you are.
A smaller police station 70 metres down the road.
Big Brother is always watching you in China. although in this instance he was watching the hurdles in the Olympics. China's hurdler pulled out, so the guy isn't too pleased.
More water pouring off the rooves.
Clean (freshly washed) vegetation. I don't see that too often where I live in China.
This part of town in less authentic, but still vastly preferred to the concrete monstrosities in the more heavily populated areas of China. There are restaurants on both sides of the canal.
A restaurantuer negotiates the purchase of vegetables in Lijiang.
He pays the seller.
And takes them away, up the hill.
Hotels, left and right.
The Gents'.
I'm taking the photograph because it is CLEAN! This is rare in China.
To the left is the urinal. There is no splash pan, so most Chinese men splash their feet. To the right are the stalls.
The stalls don't have doors, and are missing over half the wall that you'd anticipate in a western throne room. The waste paper baskets are for the used toilet paper. Chinese don't flush there tissue down with their used food, so someone has to come along and empty the basket by hand. You can see the 'trench' that one straddles during ablutions.
The trench is about 70cm's (two feet) deep. It is intimidating to the first time user. The trench automatically flushes about every ten minutes. If you're over the trench when this happens a rush of water moves through all the cubicles taking the previous ten minutes worth of dinners with it. He can see how healthily (or unhealthily) people have been eating.
NEVER drop a mobile telephone or digital camera down there.
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I really, really, really liked the roof scapes in Lijiang.
Pretty hotels.
Wood carving in a new hotel being built.
No 'Workplace Health & Safety' here. If there was I wouldn't have been able to wander in wearing sandles.
They are rebuilding using old techniques (except for the saw-bench and electricity, of course), which is much more appealing than the stuff in Shangkers.
Not a hard-hat or single pair of steel-caps amongst them. All the timber had to be carried in by hand. I encouraged them.
There was high-speed ADSL in every home, which is more than can be said for Australia.
'GoldHonest'? Was he as honest about the cancer risks when selling to his customers? He was honest. He was only in it for the money (gold).
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The reception desk of our hotel. It has someone on hand 24 hours per day.
I just liked the mud bricks. MANY building in Lijiang were made of mud-brick.
Preparing food at the restaurant where we ate in Lijiang.
The chef working in his kitchen.
A whole new meaning to the term 'roof garden'.
Shops.
Getting a bite between customers in a slipper store.
Making food at a street-side restaurant.
Inside the restaurant.
The bike is electric.
Street scene.
A glimpse inside a family court-yard - cooking lunch.
Fried potato, sweet-potato, dried mushroom, and egg. The 'hairy' thing is an egg.
Something interesting to tell your mates.
New money.
Inside a hotel court-yard.
A restauranteur preparing his potatoes in the street. (It saves you having to clean so much floor in your kitchen.)
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Women carting crushed stone (screenings or blue-metal) to a building site. They work eight hours and are grateful for the work.
Not everyone benefits from the new prosperity in China. I saw the shop-keepers feeding this woman. I think she has a 'round' that she follows to get fed every day.
Potatoes, sweet-potatoes, and taro. They are cooked on the side of the street and you buy them straight out of the pan.
I have little idea what these things are, but anything with that much saturated oils MUST taste great!
I think they are, blood sausage, tofu on sticks, eggs, hash-browns, and fresh-water shrimp on sticks.
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The closest you'll get to a tip-truck/dump-truck/lorry in Lijiang.
The woman in this shop (centre) - who asked not to be photographed, so I didn't - has been making traditional clothes for many decades. She said the business (although not the necessarily the shop) was a thousand years old. She looked old enough to account for more than 30% of those years.
A hotel in Lijiang.
The hotel's name. Perhaps it is targeted for the wealthy tea-farmers (who are loaded).
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Girls of to do some waitressing.
A silversmith concentrates.
Lovely hotel rooms, but the sound of continual running water must make for a restless night.
A hotel room with a great street view.
Carrying in hotel supplies.
Traditional architecture doesn't mean poor communications. texting a friend.
I don't know what this guy does. I just wanted to photograph his face. It looked interesting.
As did his mates.
And their girlfriends.
Some people still dress like there has been no opening-up of China.
She doesn't wear make-up, either.
Carrying some chilly-impregnated dish to very grateful customers.
Either your mouth waters in delight or your eyes water in fear.
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Selling boiled corn cobs at the side of the street. And she's having a good chin-wag (gossip) whilst she's there.
A street.
Well, the rooves really do get to you when you're there.
I can see my hotel from here.
They sell their knitted products and solve all the worlds problems while they're knitting.
A convenience store.
An entrancing entrance to a court-yard.
They have the time to take their time.
It ISN'T a long walk up the hill.
If you ever go there, then you'll understand why these roof shots are sooooooooooooooo appealing.
With the naked eye you can see what people are doing. This city is made for the sticky-nose in all of us.
Display them in water and they don't bruise and always look fresh.
More oil vehicles.
A cake stall.
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Senior citizens are still valued, mostly because they still do things.
Note the white 'crossing' on here chest. I don't know what it is about, but VERY MANY women had this.
It is for free.
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Making paper.
Taking orders.
He had a cigarette in his mouth.
Ride it into town and sell it. We used see this OFTEN in Hangzhou, but it is going now. The 'fun police' don't seem to like it.
The 'coal lady' taking a rest.
Compressed coal for burning in the family stove.
I didn't bother asking if she bought (or sold) any carbon credits with this.
Our hotel lobby.
Dried mushrooms in our favourite restaurant.
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A nearby hill, which you wouldn't see for the pollution if it were in Zhejiang.
Clean clouds!
These guys played in a traditional Lijiang orchestra. They said they totaled more than 480 years between them. I counted more than 800 years in one row, and there were another two and a half row to go! They sounded great.
I'm hear for a good time, not a long time.
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A country lane. All mud-brick walls.
A country village with Lijiang in the distance. I'm walking up to a monastery.
This way to the monastery, and you can call them on your mobile phone to tell them you're on your way.
Prayer flags, signs, and a deeply beaten path show us the way.
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The monastery follows the Gamapa Lama, the third ranked Lama of the Tibetan style of Buddhism.
There were no other visitors that day, and the monks were little seen.
The people here are government sponsored tourist guides. They spoke to us rather than the monks. They were all running a tourist agency in Sichuan when the earthquake hit. There business (like their homes) collapsed. This work (in a province away from there home) was a form of relief work.
These two trees are 'a thousand' years old. They are supported by timbers (that were denied the chance to be 1,000 yo).
In the red building behind is the local Lama is a reincarnation. He spends his time spaced-out on whatever he has contemplating the universe.
This is the holy place. Inside I was not permitted to take photographs or wear shoes. Upstairs only the lama and the Gamapa Lama can go, to read the sacred texts. Lama's probably aren't good librarians, so I figured it would be a mess up there. Inside there is also a photograph of the Gamapa Lama.
Inside be the Lama. I don't know what he was on, but it wouldn't need to be much. This was a pretty cool place to be.
Prayer flags. You write your prayers and the scripture on the flags, and the wind blows them to the gods (or Buddha) to give you a good life - be it this one or the next.
Monks are almost as good at maintenance as they are at being a librarian. The place is falling apart, slowly. The tree in the background is a eucalyptus. It's a long way from home.
This woman (from down the hill) cooks for the monks. With all their navel-gazing they don't seem to have enough time to cook for themselves.
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They don't chop their own firewood, either.
"The answer is blowing in the wind." Well, the scripture is blowing in the wind, at least.
The gardens were totally contrived and very beautiful.
The one on the right is the local reincarnated lama, whom I didn't get to see. [The one on the left is someone else.] This photo was from the Monastery's calendar, available for people to use.
It was a very relaxing place to be.
This is one of the young monks. My guide insisted he was NOT a novice, but a fully fledged monk. If he wasn't a novice, then he seemed to be very naive because he was carrying firewood and not having the hired help do it for him.
Many monks are orphaned children. Rather than have them live in the streets, they are given to the monastery where it is perceived they will receive some caring, love and affection. Being in an all-male environment, I questioned the love and affection they might receive.
My guide, from earth-quake ravaged Sichuan. He could understand my English remarkably easily, but had forgotten how to speak it himself.
Mind you, his English suddenly improved when I mentioned that the Gamapa Lama had gone off to India within the last few years.
The floor consists of many thousands of pebbles set in concrete.
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Mud brick walls in a country lane.
Local farm girl.
The blessing of modern transport. Imagine carrying all your farm produce yourself.
Yunnan is considered to be in China's 'west', so it seems this is country and western attire the world over.
Transport owner-operators in Lijiang waiting for a load to materialise.
Sucking on a 'durrie' (cigarette).
Intricate 'pebble-work'.
A temple/pogoda in Lijiang.
More bloody roofs!
From the top of a pagoda.
The doors to the pagoda. (I entered through a smaller door around the back.)
These are almost a 'prayer trinket'. you pay between RMB20 ($3.00) and RMB80 ($12.00), write your prayer on the trinket, and hang it in the breeze. The whole area rattle when a good gust came through. It must keep the neighbours awake.
Spouting, to keep water off the balcony.
Carpets hanging in the breeze. Have to work fast when a shower comes along.
The pagoda gardens.
Trees taken through lattice-work.
Hotel?
A hotel in the late afternoon.
A hotel court-yard, with the owner's or a guest's laundry hanging to dry.
I don't know why people think that if they're in their room looking at you then you can't see them equally as well.
The view from the guy's room.
A Chinese roof has more uses than just keeping you dry and growing vegetation. They can also be used for airing your (very smelly) shoes.
The old-style and the new-style.
Eating a snack with your mate. Note it is in a throw-away plastic bag.
Another view into a Chinese court-yard.
Keeping your own section of the street clean.
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A couple out for an evening stroll.
Looking at a passing foreigner.
I'm sure he'd like to help, but it is more practicable to watch from down on the ground.
The magazines were all about pre-Deng 'progress'. I think they still think it was a bad idea to invite Nixon over.
Why is it that tourists the world over buy hats?
This man peddles his bike to make fairy floss (candy floss).
This is the power take-off.
Where the locals buy.
What they buy.
Lovely 'mushies' (mushrooms).
Look at all that delicious fat on the bacon. Hardly any meat to contaminate it.
A green-grocer.
Forget the quality. Feel the volume.
They'll ride home again, once the sun sets.
I can't believe what bad habits they're picking up from westerners.
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The blokes (guys) having a chin-way (talk).
A light-industrial park.
Shopkeepers.
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