End of March to first week of April
The International School of Beijing, ISB – where the kids go to school and Dan works, does nothing small and among other things – the school Gala was approaching. After a friend took me out to find shoes – and succeeding, I was kindly told, by multiple people, that my very fancy dress was not fancy enough. I needed a full length gown. Another friend took me to a thrift store, and then to “Jenny’s”. Jenny’s is where many ISB women buy their dresses. Jenny lives in a very large Chinese apartment complex across the street from the school. Jenny has filled a tiny first floor apartment with dresses. You need to squeeze between racks of dresses – and pulling a single one out is tough as they are packed so tight. But if you aren’t too picky – you’ve got to be successful at finding one that will flatter. I found a black one. Nothing I would buy under normal circumstances but with the pressure of the impending Gala I bought one. Then I had to go shoe shopping! So much easier to be a man. Dan had a new tuxedo shirt made and put on his tuxedo.
When I got to the Gala, I was glad I had listened to friends who told me I needed a full length gown. People really did it up for the event – and the space was amazing! – actually the entire evening was amazing. It was so fun to see everyone so done up and the entertainment and the food were great. The high-school orchestra played. I am skeptical there is a more impressive high school orchestra in the world. They were fantastic. There were two student dance performances: one traditional Chinese dance and the second a hip hop dance. The middle school and the high-school choir sang together a couple songs, a parent group (who were also fantastic!), and the professional Beijing Acrobats performed (a much smaller performance than our private performance I spoke about in this blog earlier – but a completely different piece and also jaw dropping amazing).
Dan said a few words (also of course AMAZING!), and an alumni from the first graduating class of 5 students spoke. She spoke of her time at the school and her experience in Beijing just following Tiennamen. It was really interesting to hear about. She was seated next to me and was blown-away with how far the school has come. As the dessert was served, people started dancing and others started leaving – and everyone wanted a picture with Daniel and me. Felt funny that they wanted my picture – but touching and a funny reminder of how being the head of a school here is looked upon very differently than in the U.S. It is as if we are celebrities.
This past Thursday late afternoon the kids and I flew to Lijiang in Yunnan Province. Many people have told me Yunnan is the most beautiful – that we need to visit. After checking into what ended up being a much lovelier hotel than I expected, with a beautiful interior courtyard, Celia and I headed out for an evening stroll/explore.
The hotel sits in a beautiful old neighborhood with winding streets that abuts into the very old touristy area – which was full of women in salons being made up to look of the time period and photographers walking around photographing them once they left the salon. It was interesting, but we wanted to get away from the touristy crowds – which was easy – a block in the opposite direction, the streets were quiet. But by the edge of the touristy area Celia and I came across a street where to proceed everyone needed to go through a turn style that scanned your face before allowing you to proceed. Not sure if this was to keep track of people or a Covid remnant – making sure no one had a fever. It was very odd. We ended up finding some odd snacks before heading back to the hotel.
The next morning I woke early feeling very ill – I assume I had altitude sickness as many Chinese take medication before going to Yunnan to prepare for the high altitude. I postphoned our driver by an hour. I finally got up and the kids and I had the lovely Chinese hotel breakfast – mostly Congee (rice porridge) with things to put in the Congee: egg, pickled vegetables and Morton had some meat. Feeling a little better the driver took us out to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain – which is the most famous site in Lijiang – a mountain with glaciers on the top. I was conflicted about going – one, because I was worried I’d get really sick from the added altitude, and two, because I had heard it can get crazy full of tourists and there can be lines to go up. To deal with the second issue, I had been advised to go up to Yak Meadow – a side area – and not the main area tourists go. To go to Yak Meadow the driver could only take us so far, then we had to get onto a bus. It drove us half hour up the mountain on crazy winedy narrow road up the mountain. It then dropped us at a cable car. The kids wanted snacks so at the bottom of the cable car we stopped at the little snack booth and they bought a Snickers Bar and some chips and then we saw the oxygen bottles we had heard so much about. Apparently everyone brings oxygen bottles to help them breath. We decided we’d get one in case.
As we were getting onto the cable car Celia was directed to the one behind us – apparently only two to a car. Celia went up with a young Chinese man who didn’t speak to her the entire time. The ride up was much longer than I expected and unbelieveably beautiful. When we got to the top we were just below the ice covered peak with only a few tourists and a few goats. A hiking path lead up.
The kids and I walked a good 100 feet before the lack of oxygen made us all dizzy and we had to stop. We sat and took out the Oxygen bottle. Ends up you put it to your mouth and spray the oxygen in as you breath in. The break of sitting and using it helped a little – until we stood again – but I am skeptical about the oxygen. A couple huffs doesn’t seem like it could do much.
We finally made it a few hundred feet more, maybe, to a beautiful Tibetan Buddhist monastery. We spent a bunch of time there, checking it out, enjoying it’s beauty.
We then continued on the path. After maybe another 100 feet I asked if the kids wanted to continue on – none of us felt up for it – the lack of oxygen felt terrible.
We headed back down, this time I went alone on the cable car – and we had another fabulously beautiful ride.
After the cable car ride down, we got on the bus. Ended up the bus ride down was not direct. It dropped us at this series of unbelievable blue lakes completely overrun by tourists. I think Celia and I counted 6 brides getting photos taken. We took an extremely quick look and decided it wasn’t for us, and got onto the next bus continuing down the mountain. We missed the stop where we were supposed to meet the driver, got off at the next stop, and spent the next 45 minutes wandering around, trying to meet up with him. Where we got off seemed to be the Disneyland of mountain viewing – so many tourists and sounded like there was some kind of virtual or fantasy land experiences going on.
By the time we finally got into the car we were exhausted and famished. I asked the driver to take us to a small nearby town that I heard had a bunch of restaurants. Once there we struggled to find a restaurant with vegetarian food -and we were all getting cranky from hunger. The manager of a Tibetan hot pot restaurant told us they could do a yak burger (for Morton) and a vegetarian pizza for Celia and I. We sat down, much relieved. By the time the food came it must have been at least 3:00, maybe 3:30. Morton loved the burger and the pizza may have been the best we’ve had in China – that’s not saying a lot – but it was pretty good. As we sat eating we saw two men, who appeared to be Caucasian walking down the road. They were then followed by their wives wearing habibs. These were the first non Asian appearing people we’d seen since we got to Lijiang. When I came to China around 1994 with my parents and brothers people would stop to see and take pictures with the large white people. It is not as extreme as back then but we are still regularly ogled as we walk down the streets in China, people comment on the “Wei gua ren” (foreigners) and take pictures of us. So we notice when there are other foreigners.
After eating we wandered around the town for a while. Celia found a mango ice cream and I found a guy piecing together recycled clothing and embroidering them. They were lovely. It was the first time I have seen contemporary creative crafts since I’ve gotten to China. Unfortunatley the clothes didn’t fit me. I bought a hat his wife had made – mostly just to support them. I wish he was in Beijing so I could keep checking back.
The kids and I then headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted. As we had eatten lunch so late, we decided to wait for Dan’s arrival for dinner. Unfortunately we couldn’t find a restaurant that both served vegetarian food and would still be serving food by the time we’d be able to get there with Dan (probably 9:30). A woman at the front desk walked me to a sushi restaurant to pick up food. She thought it’d be easier to walk me there than to give me directions- no one at the hotel spoke a word of English. We ended up walking by a restaurant with large glass windows. Inside were the same muslum families we had seen walking down the street in the town we went for lunch. In a town of 1.25 million people was surpring to see them again. Maybe all foreigners stay in the same area?
The woman from the front desk dropped me at the small sushi restaurant. There were two people inside: the owner/chef and one customer. Ends up they both spoke English. The owner/chef was a Chinese man who had lived in Orlando, Florida and had worked in a sushi restaurant there. There wasn’t much variety in fish he could get in this far inland part of China – it was mostly salmon. I ordered a number of salmon rolls, a couple cucumber/avocado rolls for Celia, and a seaweed salad. While he prepared the food he and I and the one customer chatted. Ends up the customer, a young woman from Chengdu – the city we visited Christmas time- was heading out the next morning to hike at River Leaping Gorge – where we were also heading. After quite a while the food was finally ready and I went back to the hotel – arriving just behind Dan coming from the airport. We checked into our second room – we ate our dinner – which although limited- was really good sushi for China.
The next morning we all had our Chinese congee breakfast and then Nate, the owner of the B&B we’d be staying at in ShengriLa, picked us up. He drove us around two and a half hours through spectacular scenery and up frighteningly steep, windy, and narrow roads to the top of River Leaping Gorge.
He dropped us off at the hiking path that went the length of the Gorge.
We were going to hike just a section of it. When we were setting out we noticed a rainbow circle, a halo, around the sun. It was amazing.
The portion of the path we hiked was pretty flat: a narrow path, winding high above the gorge. It was lovely and not too strenuous.
We hiked about two and a half hours until we came to a very small village with a rest house. We stopped and ate lunch.
The view was amazing and as we waited for our food, the woman I met the night before at the sushi restaurant walked in. She had just hiked up to where we were and after her lunch she’d hike what we just did and a little more before spending the night at a rest house mid way on the trail. It was fun to see her again. We on the other hand, after our lunch, we climbed back into Nate’s car.
At last minute we decided to take a two and half hour detour to see an unusual natural phenomenon. The water flowing down a mountain deposits sediment that makes beautiful pools. Chinese people pray there for fertility. It was another amazing sight. We all decided that it was worth the major detour.
After another two and a half hours of driving, we finally drove into the Shangri-La area. There were many large, empty appearing, buildings. I asked Nate why there were so many empty buildings. He explained that they weren’t empty. The Tibetans built large homes to hold their entire families when they came for weddings or other major family events – but they mostly lived in small houses to the side of their big houses. Most of the houses had a large atrium that is completely glass enclosed. I want a house like that! – like having a large central part of your home as a green house!
A few minutes later we drove up a hill and arrived at Nate’s B&B in ShangriLa called Red Hill B&B. It was an old Tibetan House nestled into red clay, snow capped, mountains. Nate had built an indoor rock climbing wall into what looked like a rectangular glass silo. Not fancy – but so beautiful!
Nate and his wife, both midwestern Americans, live there with their four children they home school.
Our room felt like a log cabin bunk room: a large wooden room under the eave with a loft – where Morton slept. We ate dinner there that evening, sat in front of the wood burning stove feeding wood in and playing Spades.
The next morning we woke to a freshly snow covered view. Hard to believe we had left the warm early summer weather of Beijing to snow! Before heading into Shangri-La friends of Nate’s family arrived from Lijiang and mentioned their friends, the Brocks were on their way up to stay at the B &B – they were stopping at River Leaping Gorge on the way. Ends up the Brocks are our neighbors in Beijing. We had no idea they were also coming to this tiny B& B. So funny!
We spent the next few days exploring the area – from the Tibetan monastery in Shangri-La, to mountain biking on Red Hill’s pedal assist bikes, to hiking in the mountains, to eating the best bou-zi we had ever eaten – Celia’s and mine full of pickled vegetables and the boys with meat,- to just chilling at Red Hill – climbing the rock wall, enjoying the amazing view and feeding wood into the wood burning stove – and mostly breathing the clean air.
We definitely hope to get back to Yunnan and Red Hill B& B soon. It was a great trip!