22nd December: Kunming, China to Lijiang, China
Older train stations in China are a bit more haphazard than the giant modern high-speed ones. However, this is often a good thing as they have more options for local food, with established vendors and street food stalls instead of fast food franchises. This was the case at Kunming Station, where many of the vendors also wore impressive looking colourful dress. We picked up some millet porridge, delicious bread with spring onion, and brown sugar baos to go with coffee.
This was definitely a tourist train. For routes like this, one criticism of some of these high speed trains is that they could do with bigger luggage racks. The overhead units take a lot but people’s giant suitcases have nowhere to go. The attendants deal with them very well and position them neatly, but they still have to go in the vestibule. The journey was picturesque as we gained more altitude, passing fields and forests. The sky has the shade of blue only found at elevation and it was especially resplendent reflected in the waters of the sacred Lake Erhai. Approaching Lijiang, a snow-capped mountain appeared beyond the hills. Announcements on the train warned of altitude as we neared 2,400 metres above sea level.
On the taxi ride into Lijiang, it was bizarre to be at such altitude but to see palm trees. The previous time we’d been on a 2,000 metre-plus plateau in Armenia it had been utterly barren. In Yunnan, a microclimate is created by the Yun Mountains which keep the cold air of the Tibetan Plateau to the north and allow the humid air from tropical southeast Asia to the south to permeate this region.
Our hotel is really nice here. It’s no more expensive than we usually go for but it feels like it should be! They’ve also told us that there is a free breakfast, which we were not expecting at all. The spectacular, 5,600 metre, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is visible out of the window. It’s amazing how much the pot luck of hotel rooms makes a difference to our first impressions of a place. The bed is also comically big at 3 metres across! How do you get sheets and duvets this size?!
There were 3 hours of daylight and beautiful warm sunshine left before the temperatures were set to plummet, so we got out to stretch our legs. The maze of alleyways in ancient Lijiang were lovely to wander with flowers, such as orange trumpet vine, still blooming. This is a very popular spot with Chinese tourists although it certainly didn’t feel too busy away from the main streets.
To complete our perfect spot to spend a few days, there was a vegetarian buffet very close to our hotel and it was fantastic! We had a great dinner with various tasty dishes which were new to us. The stewed beans and the ginger tofu particularly delicious. A friendly guy also came and sat with us and gave us lots of advice about the region both in person and chatting on WeChat into the evening. To top it off, there was a knock on our room door. One of the hotel staff had brought us some fruit! Lijiang feels like the perfect place for some adventures in Northern Yunnan and to spend Christmas too. The weather is set fair, albeit with frosty nights at this altitude.
