往沙溪去！We have made it to Shaxi 沙溪, a wee town nestled in the mountains of north-western Yunnan 云南 province. Shaxi is one of the few trading towns of the old Tea Horse Route 茶马道 still in existence. This route transported tea and horses between Tibet and Burma for swapsies.
So, we left the hostel in Dali around 10:30 and wandered through Old Town to the main road, where we proceeded to flail madly at buses going our way. Although it's always appeared as if Chinese wannabe-passengers simply stand by the road and wave to make the bus stop, it turns out there are actually pre-determined points of passenger collection. To put it basically, we only got a bus once we realised there was a stop 30m down the road. Once on, the bus was already full, although no one was standing (shock for a Chinese bus). The floor was packed with luggage though, so we spent an uncomfortable five minutes twisting around sacks of gods-know-what until the conductor/man-with-money-bag forced Lou between a peasant and a teenager, then gave me a 5" high stool on the floor (HA). The conductor balanced himself precariously on the door mechanics, which looked massively uncomfortable, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it.
After an hour, all four people around me decided to light up and blow smoke at me (seriously, how do four people sitting in completely different directions manage to all blow their smoke in to the centre of the bus?!). ANYWAY. As a Brit, I have been spoilt by the smoking ban disallowing any form of passive smoking, so I passively-aggressively blew the smoke back as effectively as possible, then puffed on inhalers for a while as my lungs seized up -_- Cold Weather + Smoke = Dead Me.
The bus drove on to the Yunnan-Tibet Highway, which is, rather interestingly, still being built. The bus driver managed to navigate us up mounds of rubble with the bus tilting to, what felt like, a 90° angle. After the highway we were on to the mountain roads, which sounds more dramatic than they are. The roads around Dali are relatively new, so are in good condition, the only worrying part is that they twist so much that the cars don't bother staying on the right side of the road. Also although the roads are well made, anything outside of the road is none of the council's concern, including that 50ft drop down the mountain on to farmland
It was a good chance to see some normal countryside (Dali is quite tourist-orientated). It seems that most country people live in, what we'd term, traditional Chinese houses. That is a courtyard house, with no windows facing the outside, just a door and high walls, life being conducted within the courtyard. In contrast to Dali, the houses are also quite old, the decorative door lintels are bending and straining under the weight of the tiles and the rooves have moss and plant life growing out of them (similiar to slate rooves). There were also different sizes, some people have a one storey/ two room deal, whilst others had three stories and gods-know how many rooms. Tres interesting.
The bus stopped several times (sometimes in the middle of fields) to let people off. After the first woman got off I had a fight with the conductor about who should sit in the free chair. I maintained I was very comfortable on my stool so he should sit down, but he kept giggling and ignored me -_- Eventually I legged it over three suitcases and occupied the chair. If he wasn't going to take it, I may as well ^^
The bus didn't go directly to Shaxi, it first stopped at Jianchuan 剑川, then we took a mini-mini-bus to Shaxi. The mini-bus was crowded at first, then the driver decided to take on 10 boxes of, what looked like, medicine. Then the women sitting in the boot had to move in to the front. It was squishy. That is all I will say. They all spoke the Bai language, which definitely sounds a lot like Japanese. Bugger me, I can definitely believe these areas were once independent countries.
After a quick drive over a mountain we hit Shaxi. First impression was: Ooo, this is cute (old architecture, furnishings etc), second was: why are the hostel directions so insubstantial? We walked around Shaxi for about 40 minutes trying to find a "town square", "cobbled street" and "primary school". After going round in circles we eventually found a paved street with an elementary school and a town square that will hopefully show signs of life in a few days *fingers crossed* Although there's an authentic Qing Dynasty temple (survived the Cultural Revolution, no less) and very old buildings in the square, the area looks deserted. There are a few guest houses and shops further up the road, but the "town square" shops are all boarded up. Hopefully they'll be alive at the weekend at least. Outside the temple there are temple gods with weapons and big hair etc. Right opposite is a raised stage, where I assume people made announcements... either that or there's another type of Chinese opera waiting to be discovered
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