Lijiang, Yunnan, China
pretty temple.
So pretty!
This was the view from our hotel.
A view of old town and the mountains from a restaurant. The restaurant was awful, but hey, look at that old stuff! Most of the restaurants in Lijiang were great, but this one was a little unaccustomed to making food and giving it to people in exchange for money. That's a generous assessment.
I don't believe evidence of dinosaurs could have been planted as a plot by archeologists to validate their profession, but you might be able to convince me that folk dancers around the world weren't made in a factory and exported to rural areas all around the world to validate anthropology. Sarah remembers this dance from her trip to Peru last summer, which Gretchen had also said reminded her of the Swiss Alps...
the dude to my right played a mean sax for a Chinese dude and had a nice touch as a spanish guitarist.
Look at this bridge! Let's go back!
We lost all of the chotchkies we bought from these guys, but we'll never forget this sales-duo. Sarah would try on a shirt and the daughter would say, with sincere surprise, "oh! so pretty! piaoliang!" and the dad would be right there to bolster the pitch with an ever-heart-felt though clearly knee-jerk "okay! okay!"
Aaron goes fan-boy for the conductor of the Naxi Orchestra.
Look at these guys! Can you believe it?
I'm like a total Mah Jong savant. Look at that blinding speed! I won so much money that night...
So Sarah and I wandered around Lijiang one night looking for someone to teach us Mah Jong. Store and restaurant owners either didn't know the game, didn't have one on them, or didn't know what the hell we were talking about. Many hours and false leads later, Sarah and I fell upon a game in a quaint little tourist shop near the temple at the top of the hill. We sat in with the kids table for a while before Sarah got into the adult game and learned the ropes. Hours later, a legend was created in Lijiang!
People came out in droves to witness my masterful technique. (Wo de ji shu fei chang gao). Really, the guy behind me played the game for me by yelling either, "hao" or "bu yao!" when I picked up a tile from the middle. At one point, the lady across from me (the one who chirped "hello" at me any time it was my turn, pointing to the tile I was supposed to grab next) laughed and put four tiles down, rolled dice and pointed at me with the rest of the table joining in the laughter. Apparently in the middle of a game of Mah Jong something can happen that can cause one of the players of the table to have to give everone else a lot of money before continuing the game. I still came out ahead. A gift, I tell you, I have a gift!
Chendgu, Sichuan, China
Flowers are pretty.
That's Jorin and our new friend Josh playing automatic Mah Jong. When the game was over, you press a button and circle in the middle of the table rises up exposing a rotating, grumbling pit where you push all of the tiles. When you're done with that, the circle sinks back into the table and new tiles -- a new color! -- come up in front of you from secret panels in the table. Very hi-tech.
The feathers that are part of this woman's headdress, along with her hands and face, are her primary tools of expression when singing her Sichuan Opera arias. The costumes, make-up, music and dance of Sichuan Opera make it totally unique and a quite exsquisite medium. I wish I could understand what they were talking about, but it was still cool.
So pretty!
Fish are cool.
Flowers are pretty.
This hotel offers Put Up, Tea Shop, OK Hall, Chess Cards and Bath Foot among other things.
Pandas do sleep a lot, but this top sign has to be wrong at least 15% of the time. The middle sign is for Shane. We miss you! The last sign is just awesome.
Most of our Panda footage is in video format. Pandas are sooooo cute.
Hot boots! This is about as close to Tibet as we'll get from China.
I love giving stool samples. This is me preparing for one of at least 5 I've given in the past month. I love it!
Jesse missed out on the frosting nose game, but he's still cool.
Liza professed to us before visiting China that Liang Ning is her favorite person ever. High praise well deserved! We love you, Ning!
Happle New Year, everyone. -sincerely, the Ass Club
minutes later, we'd have an audience for our game of "Beat the Landlord," an awesome 3 person card game we thought was called "er su da su." The flowers in that pot are tea. Yum!
Du Fu's thatched cottage has been turned into a city park with temples and tourist shops and museum-like buildings. We had a fun couple hours of it with Liza and Jorin. Circles are fun.