Haven't been doing any exercise for a long while. I rented a mountain bike (Y20/day) this morning, to get to a Naxi village 20km north of Lijiang, it is called Baisha ("White Sand" in Chinese). Although it is significantly smaller than Lijiang, this village is actually established way before Lijiang and somehow escaped the tourism bloom in recent years.


On the way to Baisha


The 5500m Jade Dragon Mountain, seen at the background, provides endless stream of spring water to the surrounding villages




When the East meets West...


There is a very very small museum in the village, they called it "Culture Garden", nice name indeed consider the size and the items being shown. I walked into the entrance and instantly welcomed by group of Naxi young people. They told me I am the only visitor today (and it is already 2pm...) and instantly I am surrounded by them asking all sort of questions from "Where are you from?" to "Are you married yet? (by a girl ;-)" My tiny camera is always the center of attention, which is great that I can have an excuse to take pictures of them. They taught me their Dongba dancing and in return I translated most of Chinese text into English for them.

It turned out that tonight is a special day for them. They called it "Kill Pig Day", which signifies the coming of Winter (oh both the season of Winter and the person of Winter heehee). We had a big dinner together with all the pork dishes from the same pig. It's great.













What a better way to spend a day by playing cards?