Spent the morning exploring the old town of Lijiang including a visit to the Post Office to mail back most of my cold gear (+ some purchases I have made along the way) – this should make some space in my big bag and bring it below 20kg. I went to the barbers in the afternoon and had a shave and the result was a new looking me!! (I think it must be 30 years since my chin last saw the light of day). Hope it doesn’t cause me any problems at any borders with my passport photo!
Lijiang Old Town is a protected tourist site, but how much of it is original is difficult to work out. It is a maze of streets and alleys full of tourist shops, hotels, and eating houses. The main square and the major streets are usually teeming with tourists from mid morning to late evening, however you can see glimpses of the real China as away from the main streets of the Old Town there still remains significant residential areas. It is easy to get lost in the Old Town (even with a map) as the area is so tightly packed there is no distant visibility and the Chinese seem to have difficulty in understanding the tourist maps available, but after a couple of false starts the main streets and the 3 rivers (really streams) running through them usually soon become visible.
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