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  #1  
Old 12-06-2010, 11:01 AM
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Default Back From Tibet -- With 46 Photos

I did a quick, one week trip to and from Shu He Village, in far northwest Yunnan Province, China, just a few clicks from the formal border with the Tibetan Autonomous Region, as it is officially referred to. Nonetheless, this part of China is thoroughly Tibetan Buddhist and dominated by a large clan called the Naxi (nah-SHEE). Here's a woman in traditional dress.



I found this hand-tooled copper "hot pot" in a little shop.



It's all copper with some brass fittings, it appears, and stands about 16 inches tall, and is about 12 inches at widest point. The design is traditionally Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist with the motif being what is called "Dragon Chasing Pearl." You can see two dragons in the photo below, each on one side of a flaming globe, the flaming pearl.



The dragon is auspicious and benevolent, and thus, came to be associated with the Emperor. The connection between serpentine shaped dragons and the pearl is reflected in a legend that states that Chi Liang, the Marquis of Sui, who was a Minister of State, was out walking one day, and found a wounded snake to which he gave medicine and saved its life. Sometime later, he saw the snake with a brilliant pearl in its mouth. The snake said 'I am the son of His Majesty the Dragon, and I am indebted to you for the preservation of my life, and I have brought this pearl to thank you for your kindness.' The Minister accepted the pearl and, being a dutiful subject, presented it to his sovereign, who placed it in his hall.

There are traces of the importance of the pearl in early Taoism, but it is best preserved in Buddhism as the jewel in the lotus, the mani of the mystic, ecstatic, chant or meditation "Om mani padme hum" - the "Jewel that grants all desires," the 'divine pearl' of the Buddhists throughout the Orient. Koreans commonly believe that the yellow (chief) dragon carries on his forehead a pear-shaped pearl having supernatural properties and healing power. The same idea exists in Japan. In Tibet, the dragon holds a pearl in each of its four paws, and the people believe these produce dew. Even so, Tibetan artists often portray dragons as glaring at the flaming 'night-shining pearl' (as is the case here). From Ming times onward, designers made this mystical accessory (the night-shining pearl) of the dragon a significant part of pictures and decorative designs.

Sorry to get all academic on ya, but I find this stuff endlessly fascinating. The pot is antique in design and method of construction, but is only four years old. The shop owner told me it had been sitting unsold for four years and that he'd give me a good price. My Chinese buddy took over and the resulting negotiations (brutal, not a pretty sight to see a grown man cry ) resulted in a sale at 3,800 ¥, or about $575 US.

Getting it back to the States unscathed as checked baggage was not a problem -- double boxed it with three inches of densely crushed newspaper between the outer cardboard and the inner hard-sided traditional silk box, with more crushed newspaper inside the inner box to further protect the pot. China Eastern Airlines offered to find a way to let me take it on board, but I told them I knew they would get it safely to Hong Kong. On the flight home, Delta marked the box fragile many times, and put it into some sort of flat plastic stacking carrier so that it wouldn't get crushed (my only real concern).

Hot pots are used for cooking soup. This one will not be. It's art, in my opinion. Today, they're common, but they're propane powered:



The one I brought back uses natural charcoal, not briquets, as the heat source. You drop some down the stack and it comes to rest on a grate just below the "bundt cake" section of the pot. The central stack rises up through the bundt cake section, so you put your broth, meat, vegetables, noodles, whatever, into the bundt cake section, cook everything to taste, ladle it out, and there you have it -- good eatin', Tibetan and Chinese style.

I've heard stories about people here in these parts cooking with copper pots too, but I take it that when they do, they ain't making soup.


Bullseye

P.S. For Andy Griffith (see Post 4): Why Andy, I am sure y'all must be referring to the local practice of making apple butter!

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Old 12-06-2010, 11:11 AM
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OK, very nice artifact from your trip and all that, but my gosh, you go to a place like Tibet and - aren't there more pictures... ?

There has to be.
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Old 12-06-2010, 11:41 AM
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I've always wanted to go to Tibet.Thanks for a fascinating
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Old 12-06-2010, 11:41 AM
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Originally Posted by Bullseye 2620 View Post



I've heard stories about people here in these parts cooking with copper pots too, but I take it that when they do, they ain't making soup.
Yes, copper pots found in the southeastern U.S. usually involve some copper piping.

Those Tibetians should participate in a "redneck exchange program."

All joking aside, that is beautiful!
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Old 12-06-2010, 11:46 AM
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OK, OK, sorry. . .Here ya go, with a little commentary along the way.

Downtown Shu He Village:



Typical construction. Notice the mud brick on stacked stone piers. This is why things fall down go boom when they have earthquakes in the region. Fortunately, this traditional Tibetan area is outside the earthquake zone:





The area is dominated by the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, (Yu Long Xue Shan), a 16,000 foot tall massif that overlooks the center of the Naxi homeland. If you look you can see the dragon.



Here's a better shot of a traditional hot pot in use, with my negotiator, Yuan Lihua. Qi Qi, as we call her, happens to be a seventh degree wu shu black belt, so she doubles as my security team :



Country ham, Naxi style. I have to tell you, this stuff melts on your tongue and puts the Cappicola to shame.





The Naxi are interesting people. They have their own written language which is neither Tibetan nor Chinese, but which is the only living hieroglyphic language in the world. Here's a street sign in Shu He. The top line is Naxi.



Some of the guys shooting the breeze. The man on the right used to run tea caravans up over the Himalayan escarpment and across the Tibetan plateau into Lhasa from the east-northeast.



That in fact is what makes this village historically important. For a thousand years, maybe, Shu He has been the major jumping off point for the transport of Pu'er tea from central and southern Yunnan up across the Himalayas and into Tibet proper. The bridge at Shu He, from which that journey begins, is over 600 years old. If only these old stones could talk!





Our hotel, the Conifer, at Shu He.






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Old 12-06-2010, 12:15 PM
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I can't help but think that it's all so exotic to us yet it is everyday life for them.
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Old 12-06-2010, 12:46 PM
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It was a pleasure trip, Moondawg. I do it twice a year, early summer and winter. This area has moderate temperatures because is is relatively far south and at about 8,000 feet. I will tell you one thing, Al Gore could learn a few things about a low-carbon lifestyle from these folks. No cars in Shu He, except for very special purposes, ever. They use electric golf carts and motorbikes when they need something externally powered. Here's another downtown street scene, with Tibetan prayer flags prominently displayed.



Here's our friend Yang Qiyan, who likes us to call her Lucy, whose family comes from Lugu Lake, about 40 clicks to the northeast of Shu He:



Naxi woman weaving. The sash around her waist denotes her marital status.



Glad you guys are liking these.


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Old 12-06-2010, 01:11 PM
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Great stories and pics!More,more!!!!
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Old 12-06-2010, 01:44 PM
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LOL. OK, here's a few more. . .

The market:



Street Food:


In this one, she's making two kinds of fried potatoes, and has just made a plate of a delicious, greasy fry bread called "Lijiang Baba."
Wait till my Sioux family finds out that they eat fry bread in Tibet!


From the bridge. The water is low now, because it is winter. Nonetheless, the flow is sufficient to meet the village's needs. In the spring and summer, the glacial melt from the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain will increase the flow considerably. The water is incredibly clean. You can drink from it. Women wash their clothes only in the afternoons because food preparation is done in the mornings.





Dinner at a friend's house:


Bar-be-qued yak with scallions, roasted pork with scallions and chilis, corn with sweet pepper, broccoli with hot pepper,
mushrooms with scallions, and cabbage-melon soup, all with rice, of course.


Any of you guys want to go with me? It would be under $3,000 for week, including everything, maybe less if we can work a package for a group.


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Old 12-06-2010, 02:18 PM
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Thanks for sharing. You do a great job with pictures and narrations. I feel like I was there.
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Old 12-06-2010, 03:20 PM
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Default How to Travel to Shu He for Under $3,000

In response to a couple of PMs, I am posting the following:

This will of course depend on your origin within the US. But, I would get in touch Sooyen Kim at Orient Express Travel, 33130 Pacific Highway South, Suite No. 1, Federal Way, Washington 98003-6479, telephone, (253) 838-9154, email: [email protected]. Tell Sooyen you're a friend of mine, Vic Fischer, in Virginia.

Ask her to get you a round trip non-cancelable fare from your point of origin through Hong Kong to Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China. Mine just ran, $1,086, r/t Roanoke, Virginia to Hong Kong on Delta, and $710 r/t Hong Kong to Lijiang on China Eastern Airlines. You have to change planes in Kunming, both ways. No big problem.

The way it works is that usually you will arrive in Hong Kong in the late afternoon. My suggestion is to blow a few bucks and stay at the Hong Kong Airport in the Regal Airport Hotel. You can get a room for around $200. The place is five stars, and worth the money because you can walk to and from your flight with no hotel to airport hurry-scurry. When you check in, tell them you are a new customer and would appreciate an upgrade to the executive club floors and access to the executive lounge on the eleventh floor. Free booze and food, and a delightful view of the Hong Kong harbor. There are several good restaurants in the hotel as well. The place is pricey, but you are only going to be there for one night. I don't think it is worth saving $50 to $100 by staying in Kowloon. I hate rushing to and from airports.

OK, that gets you to Lijiang. You want to make your reservations at the Shu He Conifer Hotel through sinohotel.com. You can email them at: sales@sino​hotel.com.

You can get more information about the hotel and/or make a reservation through this website: Conifer Lishui Yangguang Hotel, Lijiang - Lijiang Accommodation - China & Global Hotel Reservation

I recommend the Deluxe Room at $76 US or 500 ¥ per night. This includes a kingsize bed, and breakfast for two. The breakfast buffet is great, and there are 10 or 20 places to eat within a stone's throw of the hotel. They are very accommodating, and run a first class operation. Very helpful and communicative. Let them know, and the hotel will have a driver meet you at the gate at the airport. Mine was included in the room rate. It's about a 45 minute drive from the airport to the hotel.

Put this all together and you are under $3,000 for seven days and nights in Shu He, plus one night stopovers at the Hong Kong Airport Regal Hotel coming and going. The only hitch with this is that the low trans-Pacific fare is non-refundable. You can change the dates with a $300 change fee, but you can't change the itinerary and the ticket is non-transferable and non-refundable.

What to do in the area will be the subject of a later post.


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Old 12-06-2010, 07:24 PM
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Thanks for sharing your vacation pics with us.Very interesting.
What started your interest with that part of the world?You sure seem to enjoy their culture.I admit that I'd like to check it out one day but other things (as you probably know,German wife and inlaws) keep me from exploring places so far.One day....maybe.
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Old 12-06-2010, 07:37 PM
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Fascinating! What camera did you use? Language difficulties? Thank you very much for the "trip"!
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Old 12-06-2010, 08:13 PM
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I've got a Sony Cybershot 10.1 MP camera that produces 4-5 megabyte files. The Zeiss lens is great. The newer ones are even better.

This is a tourist area, so there are enough people who speak enough English to handle the basics. Now, if you happen to have a wifi enabled laptop or iPad, most places have free connections or you are within range of one, so all you do is connect to Google Translate, type in in English what you want to say in the box on the left, and it comes out as Chinese on the right side of the display. Thus, "Please direct me to a good restaurant. I want to eat some dumplings." comes out "请直接我很好的餐馆。我要吃饺子。" and if you hit the "Listen" button beneath the translation, the computer will vocalize the Chinese. You can reverse the process so that a Chinese person can use the system to communicate with you. Chinese folks, especially all of the young ones, are techno-geeks, and an iPad draws instant attention, especially when a foreigner uses one to speak Chinese. This system has been field tested and works.

How did I become interested? On one of my first trips to China in 2004 my host suggested I would like to visit this part of China. I did, and I have been going back since. Just north of Shu He is a county, Deqin, that claims title to the name "Shangrila" (actually this is pronounced, "Shan-gree-EE-lah"), and that is the kind of place it is -- gentle climate, stunning scenery, strong agricultural base, deeply religious people, multicultural, and no warfare in over 2,000 years. What's not to like? Oh, yeah, I forgot, there's also the beautiful women, and the food.




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Old 12-06-2010, 08:30 PM
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It sure is a fascinating place.I think if I ever went to Asia it would be tops on my list.

More pics?
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Old 12-06-2010, 09:06 PM
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It sure is a fascinating place.I think if I ever went to Asia it would be tops on my list.

More pics?
A few more. . .


A Naxi girl.



Naxi woman selling peppers at the market.



Roasted corn for 1¥, or about 15¢



This man is doing traditional ink painting, but with his fingers, not a brush.



A street scene.


Enjoy!


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Old 12-06-2010, 11:05 PM
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Thank you for the pictures and info. Very interesting. I have to ask, how is bbq yak?
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Old 12-07-2010, 01:36 AM
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Great pics, my friend. I lived in mainland China for close to 5 years (moved back to the states about 11 months ago) and absolutely loved Yunnan. It can be hard, sometimes, to find an area of China that isn't completely polluted - Yunnan is a gem indeed.
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Old 12-07-2010, 05:19 AM
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Thank you for the pictures and info. Very interesting. I have to ask, how is bbq yak?
Yak is outstanding. Tastes like a very good cut of beef the ways I've had it. Yak milk cheese and yoghurt is good too. The Tibetans make this really strong black Pu'er tea mixed with salted yak butter that is, well, potent, but does the job of delivering warmth and calories at altitude. That desire is the basis of the tea trade across the Himalayas.

Here's a few more photos, then I think I'm done.


Tea ceremony.



Friend Lucy, again, sitting in The Well, a Western-style bistro in the Old City in Lijiang (which is 10 minutes by a $1 US taxi ride
from the Conifer Hotel in Shu He). The Well is a great place, and has better thin crust pizza than you can get most places in the U.S.




Old Naxi man at the market. He told me he was 94.



So, you want to know where hot chili comes from? The best stuff is always home brew.



Store with Naxi hieroglyphic writing on the right side. This is the only actively used hieroglyphic language in the world.
The picture on the left side is a protective image placed there to ward off evil spirits and demons.




Naxi grandmas.



One last shot of the Conifer Hotel in Shu He with the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yu Long Xue Shan) in the background.



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Old 12-07-2010, 06:53 PM
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Here's a few more photos, then I think I'm done.
No sense in stopping now. I'm sure you have MORE pictures!
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Old 12-07-2010, 07:38 PM
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No sense in stopping now. I'm sure you have MORE pictures!
Well, just a few. . .


See Tibet today, in your Chevrolet (made at the GM plant in Shanghai). A car in Shu He, rarely seen because of the restrictions on motorized vehicles.



Ancient streets.



Li Ming, a red sandstone butte, about 4 hours by SUV from Shu He. The Chinese have carved about 2,800 steps into the rock so that you can walk easily to the top.



The top of Li Ming butte is covered with these unusual red sandstone formations, to which the local Buddhists refer to a "1,000 turtles praying to the Sun."



One day we climbed to the top of Li Ming and encountered this guy, singing and beaming radiantly.



Yours truly with my Tibetan flute-maker friend (see the gourds in his shop behind us). They really had a hoot when they gave
me the Mao cap thinking I wouldn't wear it, but I made a lot of friends by putting it on, after removing the little red star, of course.



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Old 12-07-2010, 07:39 PM
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Thank you very much for the information and photos.
That was very informative and enjoyable.
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Old 12-07-2010, 07:47 PM
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Wow. Very cool pics. Always interested when folks visit places other than the typical. Thanks for sharing.
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Old 12-07-2010, 08:29 PM
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Wow! This thread is Awesome, and makes me want to escape to Tibet for awhile. Great Pics.
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Old 12-08-2010, 01:34 AM
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Very interesting and great pictures! Thank You for sharing.
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Old 12-08-2010, 01:58 AM
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wow, what a wonderful set of photos and story. Seeing them really makes me feel that there is so much of the world to see, that we don't realize living here in the states.
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  #27  
Old 12-08-2010, 05:07 PM
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very enjoyable....thanks for the tour
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Old 12-08-2010, 05:31 PM
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Thanks for the beautiful pics, I sent many to family. and many make great desktop backgrounds.
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Old 12-09-2010, 08:13 PM
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Default Things to Do Around Shu He and Lijiang

I've gotten several PMs asking me for recommendations about what to do should you decide to visit this part of China. Here are my top recommendations:

Leaping Tiger Gorge. This is the deepest gorge in the world, about 16,000 feet. It is on the back side of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The gorge has been cut by the river known in the West as the Yangtze, but which is properly called the Changjiang. It is a 4 hour drive by SUV from Shu He through some of the most dramatic landscape I have ever seen. There is an old Chinese expression that describes it: "Territory so rugged that not even a crow can fly over it."




Naxi woman walking the footpath up from Leaping Tiger Gorge.

Old Town Lijiang. Bigger than Shu He, and just 10 minutes away,Old Town Lijiang is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.


The roofs and courtyards of Old Town Lijiang.


Three Naxi in a doorway.

Lugu Lake. Sorry, no photos, but you can Google it. Lugu Lake is about 40 kilometers northeast of Shu He and the home of the Mosuo people, a sub clan of the Naxi. This is a matriarchal culture. The women own all the property and make all of the important decisions. They practice what is called the "walking marriage." Husband and wife continue to live with their families of origin, but in the evening, the husband walks over to the wife's home to spend the evening with her. In the event of a divorce, there is no need for a property settlement, because there is no joint property, and custody of any children is not an issue -- they stay with the mother's family. You can go there and spend two nights and two days, and learn a lot about the culture. The road leading there is the worst I have ever been on, but they are building an airport so that tourists can fly in. I strongly recommend this side trip.


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Last edited by Bullseye 2620; 12-10-2010 at 01:01 PM.
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