After our first night in Lijiang we had a small breakfast in our room and headed for a small village north of Lijiang called BaiSha. It was mentioned in our guidebooks as still rural and original, and we would be able to see the real Naxi lifestyle there.

After about 1 hour bus ride with the local bus we arrived and walked through the small main street. Then suddenly we heard music, a group of old man playing self made instruments with a sign saying they were keeping the old traditions alive. We were quickly invited to join them and suddenly we were “playing” music in BaiSha, very nice.

After walking a bite further we soon found out that the guidebooks were definitely dated, this town was also filled with coffee shops and souvenir booths, all having the same stuff. So we had lunch in a not so traditional coffee shop and had the best dumplings we have had so far in China a well as a great noodle soup for Charlotte.

After lunch we came to the house of Dr. Hu, a 95 year old Chinese medicine doctor who is still practicing. He was very sweet, and when he discovered Martijn was from the Netherlands he showed a whole range of business cards from Dutch guests, and even Maxima had been there.

I had to promise to give Maxima the best from him and inform her that he was still alive 🙂 So next time we have tea I will do exactly that.

On leaving the village we decided to take a d-tour with the bus to the local Walmart to get some food for breakfast etc (Marmalade is difficult to get in normal shops) and witnessed something quite interesting there. On the square in front there was a hiphop and break dance contest and the team were really good!

On our way back we got hit by the rain and were very happy we had a bath tub this time, something very rare in the guesthouses we normally stay 🙂