First we went horse back riding! The horses were pretty small (more like large ponies) but it was really fun. :)
Look I got the only white horse of the bunch hahah. His name was Xiao Bai, literally meaning small white.
Everyone took selfies with their horses. :) I liked Xiao Bai. The only thing was he had a limp, so it made the ride a little rocky, and he sometimes slid down the hill. He also liked to go off the regular trail and take his own path- I thought it was funny. I had to tell him many times "xiao xin," which means be careful!
We stayed in the old town area of Lijiang. It was a little touristy but had a lot of cool aspects like these huge water cogs.
The city was filled with lots of little alley ways, which made it easy to get lost. Making it even more confusing to find our bearings, everywhere we went there were shops that looked identical and sold the same merchandise, like scarves, yak jerky, drums, and flaky moon cakes. Lots of drum venders would play their drums to attract customers to their store and show that their drums were in good condition. Many of them loved to play the same exact song. Must have been a popular Chinese song at the time, but it was quite catchy and definitely got stuck in my head by the end of the trip.
There was a funny llama just laying on one street corner. It wore a bow tie and had a flower on its butt (someone must have put it there!). Haha
Once it got dark, we climbed up enough alley ways to eventually make it to a beautiful lookout of the whole city! One of the coolest views.
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On the last day, we visited a village of the Mosuo people, a group of ethnic minorities.
Traditional singers peeking out the window
An example of one of the typical homes. The Mosuo people preserve pigs for up to 25 years. On a boy's 13th birthday and girl's 16th birthday, they stand on top of the pig wearing traditional clothing (that's why the pig looks so flat). They're then able to eat the meat.
The Mosuo people have an interesting writing system, more pictographic than modern Mandarin. You can almost guess the meaning based off the picture alone. In the middle, there's a yellow person cooking over a little fire and that character means "to cook," there's a green character with two people hugging meaning "love," and a red woman carrying a baby in her stomach, which means "pregnant."
We also saw a music/dance show featuring traditional dances of the Naxi people (another ethnic minority).
On the last day, we hiked up a pagoda and found one last scenic view of the whole city!
Side note: Our last night in Lijiang, we discovered MANGO SIX: seriously the best mango drink in all the land. It's like a mango smoothie with a layer of creamy goodness on top!
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