Lijiang

The old town of Lijiang is a lot like Dali but bigger. It's also a backpacker town and we have seen a lot of the same people we did in Dali. This is probably because everyone uses the same book--Lonely Planet--and because the roads finally cleared so everyone bolted for the next town. (We also heard horror stories of people trying to leave too early, going halfway, getting stuck in the snow and spending 20-30 hours on a freezing bus.)

We arrived in Lijiang on International Women's Day, or something like that. I had never really heard of it as it is not such a big deal in the US, that I know of anyway. But in Lijiang, there were hordes of women dressed in traditional gear line dancing and singing in the squares. I have two theories for this. First, the role of women in the Naxi minority group, which lives in the Lijiang area, is fairly important and so this holiday is huge. Second, this holiday is one of only nine national holidays in China and all Chinese people celebrate it like this--well maybe not all.