Banyan Tree - Lijhang

Alas, after an early morning departure from Shanghai we are welcomed by the Banyan Tree in Lijhang. What a delight! We started the morning with some travel challenges as Eastern China Air told us our tickets were canceled and that we would need to rebook our flight as the plane was full. I took a page out of Marco Polo and did not accept the prognosis and filled ourselves with self importance. After 30 minutes of pretending to be royalty they finally found us a seat and we were on our way. Driving though Lijhang, it did not look like much after Shanghai. Though we hope to get a closer look as the the city is latticed with a maze of narrow waterways and canals set at an elevation of 8,000 feet. Our home for the next three days, the Banyan Tree in Lijhang, is all that it is billed to be: elegant, tranquil and sophisticated with oriental magic. All the staff appear to speak in English at all times and the welcome tea is the best Ginsing tea we have ever tasted. We have booked several hours of massage over the next few days and, weather permitting, will go to the fledgling head waters of the Yangzi (the Chinese spelling) river known as the Jinsha (gold sand) River. The area we hope to see, Leaping Tiger Gorge, is billed as one of the deepest and most awe inspiring gorges in the world. It is cloudy now, but as the weather clears tomorrow we expect to be greeted by the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain a 18,000 foot mountain that will be visible from the front door of our villa. More on the gorge and mountain later.

Factoid: Zhongdian, a town 100 miles north of Lijaing has been designated by the Chinese government as the official location of 'Shangri-la'. 'Shangri-la', in a Zhongdian dialect of Tibetan, means "the slope leading to the land of the sun and moon in my heart".

BTW: We have been posting this while all instructions are in Chinese, and it appears that the blog is not on the approved list of URLs in China, so we cannot see what we are posting...hope that these posts are all actually making it. Also, if you have entered any comments it might be awhile until we can actually see them.