Link to Pics

As much as I would like to not admit defeat to Xanga, I must. I tried to post pics using Yahoo and then linking them up w/ Xanga. In fact, I would successfully have all the pictures just like I wanted to in the blog. I would sign out of Xanga then sign back in and I would be able to see everything perfectly as I desired. However, after the passing of a few hours, something would happen and the pics would no longer show up on the blog. I would realize that after returning to the Internet Bar a few days later and seeing the pics have become a square w/ an X and I have nothing but angry comments left on my post. So I'm going to give you the link to my Yahoo pictures page if you really want to look at pictures from China. The site is:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/billybooyeah/album

If you want to see the most recent pics from our travels, go to Win. '07 Traveling. Each other folder is labeled appropriately. To view the pics, select what you want to view and drag them into the 'Drag photos into this tray' window. Then select 'Slideshow'.

Tiger Leaping Gorge & Shangrila

Here comes another photo entry. I think I fixed the last entry so the pics should be viewable. After my last post on the 4th, we travelled south to Xishuangbanna (西双板纳), which is still in Yunnan province and is bordered by Laos and Myanmar. We liked this area because the weather was nice. I'm not going to post anything about that now b/c I didn't bring those pics w/ me to the Internet bar (网巴). After banna, we went to Dali (大理), which was nice. From there, we went to Lijiang (丽江), which is where I am right now. In this post, I'd like to show pictures from our next two destinations. First, we took a 2.5 hour bus from Lijiang to a town called Qiaotou (桥头), which was the beginning point for our hike up the Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡). We had six people in our group and three big packs carrying our goods, so we alternated in carrying the packs up the mountain. Some of the hiking was pretty intense, while other parts were flat. The scenery was amazing in all parts. It was a two day hike. We stayed in a hotel at the halfway point the first night. Here are some pics from the hike:

Views of Jade Snow Mountain (Yunnan)

Below: tough_actin_tinactin, liukai, heybillman, daytosaybye, TheElder, & me on hike up Tiger Leaping Gorge

Below: Our path is blocked by a pride of mountain goats.

Below: View of Tiger Leaping Gorge separated by chang jiang (长江) river

Below: Eating breakfast at our hotel at halfway point: me, TheElder, heybillman, daytosaybye, tough_actin

After the two days of hiking, we took a three hour taxi van to Shangri La (香格里拉), which was originally written about as one of the most beautiful places in the world. Nobody knows where the true Shangri La is. We went to the Chinese Shangri La. The local people are all Tibetan, as it's near Tibet. The area is surrounded by towering mountains. During our time there, we went to a huge Buddist temple and mingled with the locals. Below is a picture of the area from the top of the temple:

Below: Child monks sweeping the floors of the temple.

The picture below can be explained in a short story. Jon, da yu, and I were standing and watching the kid monks sweeping the grounds, and a lama (monk) w/ authority walked up to us. The lama is pictured below. He didn't say anything, he just grabbed Jon's beard and gripped it firmly. As the lama held Jon's beard, I laughed and da yu took out her camera to take a picture (but didn't get a picture). The lama let go of Jon's face, noticed that da yu was trying to photograph him, and proceeded to take a hold of Jon's beard again to pose for the picture. The result is seen below:

Next stop: Back to Dali tomorrow, then to Kunming the next day. Then off to Hunan to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Will update as necessary.

Kunming Picture Post

 Good to be back in China. As promised, Jamie and I did in fact get to Beijing. We stayed in Tony and Lily's living room with Mark and Katherine. I slept on the floor and slept splendidly. The next day, we took a three hour flight to Kunming. Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan province, which is in the south and bordered by Burma and Vietnam. The name Kunming should mean 'spring city'. Flowers are in bloom here year round and it's eternally spring. These few days it's been pretty chilly, getting below zero and snowing for the first time since 1998. In these parts they don't have heaters anywhere, so sleeping at night has been particularly cold. Anyways, I'm gonna post some pics now.

 Eating in Beijing: Tony, Jamie, me, Katherine, Mark, Lily.

Kunming: Red beak (红嘴) birds which migrate from Siberia to Kunming each winter.

Chilling in Kunming: heybillman, daytosaybye, Chad, krystalrock, TheElder, me

Kunming: Minorities singing Chinese Christian worship songs (in Minority Park)

A couple scenic pics from Kunming below:

Me & huge stone

Kunming: Wa nationality men displaying traditional dance (Minority Park)

Kunming: Traditional Tibetan dance (Minority Park)

Kunming: Fierce poses in front of warriors: daytosaybye, heybillman, me, TheElder, krystalrock, Chad

Kunming: TheElder on swing

Next stop: xishuangbanna. More pics to come.

Leaving the states

New Pics Posted