Dr. Ho's Wisdom

After the trek through the Tiger Leaping Gorge, my friends Katie and Jess and I decided that our last day in Lijiang should be much slower paced.  So we slept in, updated our blogs, and had a western breakfast at our hostel before taking a public bus to the little village of Baisha about 20 minutes from Lijiang.  Lijiang, the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and most of the villages surrounding the two are home to the Naxi (pronounced Nah-Shee) people, one of China's ethnic minorities.  In Lijiang proper, the Naxi influence is mostly filtered through the lens of tourism, with the streets of the old town lined with guesthouses, souvenir shops and young women in Naxi costume.  Baisha was still filled with foreign and domestic tourists the day that we visited, but it managed to retain some of its charm as well.  After wandering through the streets for a while, and bargaining with some venders, we noticed a small building surrounded by signs and posters.  We moved closer to investigate, and were approached by an old Chinese man.  His said hello to us in English and promised to tell us his story.  So we sat down in front of his clinic while he told us about his life.  His name is Dr. Ho, and he is a 91 year old doctor practicing Chinese medicine.  His philosophy is "live simply, eat simply and above all be optimistic," and he kept telling us to be happy.

Dr. Ho, Jess, me and Katie

After our talk with Dr. Ho and a quick meal at a Naxi restaurant, we started to head back to Lijiang. On our way out of town, I noticed some Naxi ladies selling vegetables and wearing traditional clothing.  I wanted to take their picture, so I had Katie and Jess stand near them.

Apparently I wasn't quite sneaky enough, because they started to wave me over and motion to my camera and to me.  They wanted to let me take a picture with them.  They made a space for me and we got a really good picture, but then one of the ladies started to say "qian, qian," which means something about money, and I knew they wanted me to pay them for taking the picture.  I actually thought it was worth it, but still I hadn't suspected such cute old ladies to scam me.  Anyway, after paying them each 1 yuan, Katie, Jess and I left and returned to Lijiang.

We spent a few days in Kunming, where we were lazy and did our laundry and met up with our French and English friends before boarding another overnight bus to Xishuangbanna, the region of Yunnan Province nearest to Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.