We're in a cafe at Lijiang airport. Seems to be free wireless everywhere in China. Around us Chinese men are playing cards and smoking like chimneys, whilst the waitresses stomp on cockroaches. We're surrounded by tacky souvenirs generally ripping off local cultures, ala plastic tikis. We're flying to Chengdu in an hour.Today we visited Black dragon pool, which was very nice. Will put up some pictures later.
Got a bit tired of being tourists with the hordes sightseeing at all the attractions, so we're both looking forward to disappearing in a big city again and just seeing normal and real life, not a blatant simulation of other peoples' culture. The portrayal and usage for tourism is very heavyhanded. Must be somewhat like how it was in NZ up until I guess the 70s/80s - with regard to portrayal of Maori culture for tourism. However we've found interacting with people here - locals and touri
sts - alot of fun. A girl perhaps 8 years old was chatting to me in Chinese, and I managed to say "I dont speak Mandarin" to her in Mandarin. She proceeded to give me a lesson, pointing at things and telling me the words for them. Fish in the canal, statue of dragon etc. She was entertained by the fact she was smarter than me I think.
