Old Lijiang

Final day here before moving onto Guilin. Our guide, Ali, was born in the old part of the city as was her mother and grandmother, who is now 104 years old (!), so she was able to tell us a lot about the history of the place as well as what life and living here really was like. The old city was delightful; we strolled through a beautiful part where people of all ages were dancing and doing Tai Chi. Men grouped to chat whilst they hung their bird cages up in the trees, to let their feathered friends chirp away. An old man played a stringed instrument that was probably older than him, but this was his practice time, not a busker. We then went along many narrow stone paved streets, alined with shops and stalls selling pretty much anything you could ask for. Fancy some insects? No, we didn't, but we did try a local sweet pastry, that had a rose petal filling; it was really quite good! Then it was goodbye and off to the airport to go onto Guilin and the next part of our adventure, with a boat ride down the River Li.