Lijiang, Yunnan: My first day in Lijiang has been pretty exhausting. It started with the bus ride during which I shared a mini-bus with: a giant pile of corn-cobs (on my seat), 8 (of 10) smoking passengers, a stinky (really stinky) Tibetan baby and a seatmate blasting the worst (WORST) Chinese pop at full volume on a mini cassete player. No one else seemed to bat an eye, so I didn't either (and calmly removed the corncobs from my seat). Sometimes it's actually the random and ridiculous things that I love the most about travelling...
Once I arrived in Lijiang, things started looking up. It's a beautiful old Naxi town with miles of cobbled streets, winding canals, and hidden courtyards. After an earthquake a few years ago, the old town was rebuilt in the traditional Naxi style and was declared a UNESCO world heritage site. Since then, it's grown exponentially and become the tourist hub of Yunnan. And tourists are everywhere, travelling by the busload behind guides with yellow umbrellas, snapping pictures and adjusting their fanny packs. (please note: contrary to a popular and slanderous rumor, I do not own a fanny pack.)
While the tourism boom has been good for Lijiang's economy, most of the native Naxi and Tibetan minorities see less benefit than the Han Chinese entrepreneurs. The main goal of ETLI, the school I'll be teaching with, is to give minority people from underserved communities the skills to capitalize on all the tourism development. Here in Lijiang, I'm beginning to see how worthy that goal is.
While Lijiang is beautiful, I'm anxious to get away from the hubub and glitzy tourist facades to somewhere more peaceful and closer to my own version of Shangrila.
Once I arrived in Lijiang, things started looking up. It's a beautiful old Naxi town with miles of cobbled streets, winding canals, and hidden courtyards. After an earthquake a few years ago, the old town was rebuilt in the traditional Naxi style and was declared a UNESCO world heritage site. Since then, it's grown exponentially and become the tourist hub of Yunnan. And tourists are everywhere, travelling by the busload behind guides with yellow umbrellas, snapping pictures and adjusting their fanny packs. (please note: contrary to a popular and slanderous rumor, I do not own a fanny pack.)
While the tourism boom has been good for Lijiang's economy, most of the native Naxi and Tibetan minorities see less benefit than the Han Chinese entrepreneurs. The main goal of ETLI, the school I'll be teaching with, is to give minority people from underserved communities the skills to capitalize on all the tourism development. Here in Lijiang, I'm beginning to see how worthy that goal is.
While Lijiang is beautiful, I'm anxious to get away from the hubub and glitzy tourist facades to somewhere more peaceful and closer to my own version of Shangrila.
posted by Lbo at 5:08 AM
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