![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/hostel-009.jpg\" "\\"hostel")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0The next day a couple of men appeared and started chipping away at the pavers to give them an “ancient” appearance.\u00a0 The room I booked was not available as the area outside it was having a paver makerover too.\u00a0 Grey pavers were being placed over the shiny white tiles.<\/p>\n
\u00a0I then spent the next few days getting lost in the\u00a0 \u00a0torturous streets and laneways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The main areas which were infested with tourists had You are Here type maps which sometimes helped.\u00a0\u00a0 The hostel had a rudimentary map on the back of its card and in the end I bought a map.\u00a0 However, it didn\u2019t help a great deal as the streets weren\u2019t marked in English.\u00a0 I did advise me of a few interesting places to visit which weren\u2019t tourist infested.\u00a0 Usually it was only me and a handful of students who were drawing old buildings.<\/p>\n This is one of the out of the way places.\u00a0 It is a well.\u00a0 This isn’t clear, but there are three different water sources here. The one at the top with the small wall is for drinking water & 2 people are collecting water. The 2nd is for washing vegetables and one woman is doing that.\u00a0 The 3rd is for washing and a woman is washing dishes.<\/p>\n The hostel arranged a tour to a nearby old town which used to be the centre of the local culture.\u00a0 There were 7 of us in a small mini-van.\u00a0 Baioshi had an embroidery workshop with some magnificent embroideries and a couple of young women working on large pieces.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0I ended up wandering in the old part of town where people lived instead of where they sold things to visitors until the driver found me and hauled me into the approved section.\u00a0<\/p>\n A young man showed me his family\u2019s beautiful textile heritage along with some more modern items.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t clear what was for sale and what wasn\u2019t and when I asked the price of a bag was told, \u201ctoo much.\u201d I could have had another of much lesser quality, which I didn\u2019t want, for a very large amount of money. So the luggage problem was saved yet again.<\/p>\n After travelling along an unpaved road we then reached a small lake and large meadow and got to wander among the critters and wild flowers.\u00a0 (see next post) This was followed by a BBQ late lunch, eaten with chopsticks. After dropping two small pieces of rib I gave up and used my fingers.\u00a0 The young Chinese girl, about 10 years old, also with us then appeared and demonstrated how to do it.\u00a0 You use chopsticks and fingers to steady the meat\/bone.\u00a0 She had limited English and was the liaison between the driver and myself and the 2 Finns also on the trip. We got to have a few more interesting experiences including walking in village fields looking for fruit for tea and a visit to another old town less tourist infested than Lijiang.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>This\u00a0view of rooftops of Lijiang was taken from\u00a0a place called Mu’s Mansion, the home of several centuries of local notables.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>This is some of the \u00a0embroidery under way.\u00a0 The pictures on\u00a0the wall are some of the pictographs of the Naxi language, the only one with\u00a0such symbols still in use.<\/p>\n<\/a>The buildings seem to have a base of stone followed by mud bricks which usually are plastered and painted followed by a wooden layer.<\/p>\n