Our trip started on the 27.06.2016 from Nanchong in Sichuan with a 2 hours HSR (High Speed Rail) train ride to Chongqing. The city is also reachable through the international airport or by HSR from Chengdu. Because surprised by the size of the city I checked the internet. There I learned that Chongqing is the largest city of the world. Chongqing which is quite unknown outside of China has approximately the size of Austria and a population of unbelievable 35 Mio inhabitants. Usually the weather is subtropical hot and humid. But luckily we arrived there on a rainy day. We spent only one and a half day in the city and visited the old loading docks at the Yantze river and the Hongyadong Riverside Block. The latter one is a business block and scenic spot. It’s built on mountains by the “stilted building” of Chinese traditional architecture features.

Zhazidong prison 

The next day we took a taxi to the Zhazidong prison, a must visit place for domestic Chinese tourists due to the historical importance. Original a coal mine, the site of Zhazidong Prison was covertly set up in 1943 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) with the help of the Sino-American Cooperation Organization (SACO). The prison is located in the Gele Mountains where communists were massacred and tortured by Nationalist Party during the Chinese Civil War between 1945 and 1949.

In the evening we took a walk through the city. Almost in all cities in China I really love the fact that elderly people enjoy every evening dancing, playing music, gym and other activities. They are doing their exercise in huge groups at public places instead of staying alone at home.

Kunming 昆明- the spring city

Yunnan Ethnic Village

Train Trip

As a former train driver and still employee of the German railway – DB Engineering and Consulting, I enjoy always using the train. Especially sleeping trains are a really comfortable and reasonable way of transport in China. Therefore, we took the night train from Kunming to Dali arriving early morning after a seven-hour trip. The train station is located in the new town which required a taxi to bring us to old Dali, several kilometres away.

Dali 大理古城 – the historic city

The taxi driver recommended us a hotel which turned to be out brand new for a very reasonable price of only 100 RMB per night. The Dali area was formerly known as Jumie. The present old town was organized in the late 14th century under the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Although a little bit tired, I couldn’t wait to see the old town and begged my wife to go for a walk with me. After a view minutes we reached the city wall with a nearby monastery. Luckily we arrived in Dali exactly on the day where local women from the city and surrounding villages having their annual celebration of the monastery.

Annual Monastery Celebrations

Everywhere around the monastery people in their colourful traditional dresses could be seen dancing and making music with old Chinese instruments. The monastery itself was covered in big clouds of smoke which burned in the eyes. The some was caused by women putting paper in fireplaces and lighting smoke sticks to thank for the past and for good luck in the coming year. In a corner of the monastery one man was blowing a traditional trumpet. From time to time a small orchestra of about 10 people started playing the typical Tibetan music with mainly percussions and catcall flute sounds. Slightly tired and overwhelmed of the scene, it took some time until I could dive fully into the crowd to see with the lens of my camera.

The whole city Dali was occupied by mostly elderly women and men singing and dancing anywhere where enough space was available.

As very common in China at touristic locations, the main road was crowded and full of shops offering souvenirs and food. However, the number of people was still much less compared to the masses traveling during the national holidays. It is highly recommended to travel in China outside the national public holidays. During the holidays it feels that whole China is traveling and everything is overcrowded. This has also an impact on the prices for transport and accommodation.

The three Pagodas of Dali

On our last (very rainy) day in Dali we did a walk to the three pagodas. To attract more tourists, a whole new park and monastery has been built around the pagodas. Since the rain didn’t stop and the whole area gave us more or less the feeling of being somehow a fake, we decided to walk back to the city. We enjoyed the remaining time by walking to the streets and capturing the street life. In the evening we took the sleeping bus to Shangri-La. The first time that I took such a bus.

Adventure Sleeping Bus

Shangri-La (Zhongdian) 香格里拉 – the lost horizon

We arrived in Shangri-La (Xiānggélǐlā; formerly Zhongdian 中甸 in Chinese, known as Gyalthang in Tibetan) at 2:00 a.m. and checked-in in a hotel. The hotel was located close to the old city centre where most parts have been destroyed in 2014 by a huge fire. Luckily, most of it was already repaired and/or rebuilt. In the second half of the 20th century Shangri-La was called Zhongdian. It was renamed on 17 December 2001 as Shangri-La after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon, in an effort to promote tourism in the area. Same like in Dali, the old town is full of souvenirs and food shops. The architecture of the typical big local houses with their massive wooden beams is more than impressive.

The first thing we did after my wife recovered from the impact of the height, was a visit of the 5 km away located Tibetan Buddhist Ganden Sumtsenling Monastery, also known as Sungtseling and Guihuasi. Built in 1679, the monastery is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan province. It is sometimes referred to as the Little Potala Palace. Rewarded by an amazing view it took us some time to climb up the stairs to the monastery because of the height of about 3,200 m. Gold plated roofs, and statues as well as colorful pennants and paintings are visible everywhere in the monastery. As per Buddhism believing, walking through the halls has to be done clockwise only.

Blue Mountains

The next day we took a taxi to the nearby blue mountains where a cable car brings you up to the hill to a height of 4,500 m. Since the height could be problematic a can of oxygen which can be bought at local stores is very advisable.

The cable car as well as the touristic facilities gave the impression that the peak of touristic activities was some years back. The same we experienced at the Xiagei Hot Springs with the nearby natural rock bridge. However, both are worth to visit and the view from the mountain into the large green valley was simply amazing.

We continued our walk to places where locals offered horse riding and other traditional activities. Even the green of the gras seemed to be more green than else where.

Short after we had been on the road again, we got picked up by a local with his car who just finished his work and brought us back to our hotel. Our last day we rented an electric car – as far as you can call the vehicle a car.

Not having a Chinese driving license, I thought this would be the safest way to visit close by areas without being dependent on public transport. And indeed the vehicle brought us save to the Xiagei hot springs with the natural bridge formation and a huge green valley with a lake and grazing yaks.

Chengdu 成都 – home of the Pandas

With our flight the next day back to Chengdu our trip through Xīnán was almost over. Since Chengdu airport is my usual gate to China, I know already most of the places in the the city. However, before taking the train back to Nanchong we spent another day with visiting the Wenshu Yuan Monastery and Jinli pedestrian street. The latter one is always a good spot for street photography.

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