June 27- Lijiang

Following a restless night (the overhead light in the room wouldn’t turn off so we had to explain to a non-English speaking front desk what the problem was and then explain it to the maintenance man) we departed in the morning for Lijiang. We started the day with visit to ancient cobblestone streets outside of Lijiang. We got to see a wide variety of architectural styles and observed some Taoist buildings ransacked during the Cultural Revolution. We then visited Black Dragon pond and went to a school that taught traditional Dongba language. This is the traditional language of the Naxi people and he is one of 8 scholars who teach the language. We took a quick tour around Black Dragon Pond (nice but nothing spectacular, just a pond), shopped in the old town after dinner, and ended the day with a traditional Naxi music performance. The performance was interesting for the first 20 minutes but after and hour and a half of not understanding a word of what was being said and sitting on REALLY uncomfortable seats, we were more than ready to go. Lijiang, thus far, so-so…