Oh buddy! This winter break has been a doozy. It started the week of our trip. My city had some Covid cases. I was encouraged not to travel. However, where I was going was considered low risk, whereas (Yunnan and Hunan) the city I was coming from, had 1 high-risk area. So basically, to leave, I needed to have a 48-hour negative covid test on my health code, and the Didi was not allowing people to leave the province, so I had to hire a private driver to go to the airport. The high-risk area was not where I lived, and I had never been in that area. But because I was in the same city, I had an asterisk on my travel health code, which caused me to get regular Covid tests. I had to have negative Covid tests within 48 hours of entering any major attractions like Tiger Leaping Gorge and Jade mountain.
We started the trip in Lijiang, which is in the province of Yunnan. Here we stayed at the Adonis hotel. The family that runs it was great at communicating with me via WeChat. They helped call places to ensure that we could enter and helped us hire drivers. They were great! I would stay there again. They helped us hire a driver to take us to Tiger Leaping Gorge. Now let me tell you…. If you are not in shape, I do not recommend hiking the trail. I struggled climbing the switchbacks, which I think was the worst part of the trail. I believe that the time we went (December) was excellent. It was cool but not too cold, so the trail was pleasant. There also were not many people on the trail. The first day we only saw people when we stopped for lunch. There are a few places to stop, and I think there are places on the trail that sell water and snacks in the summer. But in December, only the little towns were open. So bring water and snacks for the trail! We made it to the most popular stopping spot, “Halfway House,” and spent the night. These places don’t have heating, so it was cold at night, but the beds had heating pads. It was about 13km from start to finish. We were so sore and sweaty that we did not hike the last 2 km down to the water. We just got into the car and returned to our hotel in Lijiang. You do need to have a negative covid test within 48 hours of entering the park and any touristy location in Yunnan.
The next day we took it easy and had a cooking tour with the Lost Plate food tour. It was fun and relaxing. We went to the Lijiang food market and then returned to their home and cooked local foods. It was so good, and I enjoyed it. After we went and got covid tested at the local hospital That evening our friend Fernanda joined us. The next day we went to Jade Mountain. We had to sign our souls away to get into the park, and they even made us use red stamp ink and had us use our thumbprints on the document saying we were not in high-risk areas. When we got into the visitor center, we got bus tickets to the lift and the pools. Then we also rented jackets (which were not needed) and oxygen tanks (which I needed). We took the bus to the lift, went up to the top. I stayed near the lifts because I struggled with oxygen, and my friends climbed to the top. There wasn’t much to eat up there, so pack a snack. When we got back down, we took the bus to the pools where we hired an electric cart to take us down to the water, and walked around, took pictures, and then hopped on the bus back to the visitor center where we had our driver waiting for us to take us back to the hotel. We had the local fish hotpot, which was AMAZING.
The next day we took a train to Dali. When I picked this hotel, I thought it was near all the tourist stuff. But if I were to do it again, I would stay in the old town. We literally stayed on the opposite side of the city, and we were close to the airport and train station, though.
We went to the three pagodas, and while it was cool, I am not sure it was worth the 70/90 kuai to get in. I can’t remember if it was 70 or 90. We also spent a lot of time exploring the old town and had our Christmas dinner at a restaurant near the old town. It was called Backyard or something like that. We also ate at serendipity which is a more US-style diner food.
This is where Fernanda and I split from the others we were traveling with, and we went to Kunming for the day. We took the train. When we were arriving, Kunming announced they had a risk area. That caused me some anxiety so we stayed in the hotel. We woke up at 4 am only to discover that our flight to Zhangjiajie was canceled, so we took the train. We had to stop at a different station and transfer to a different train. When we arrived at the transfer station, we went to the waiting area. IT. WAS. COLD. It had been snowing, and this waiting area was under the tracks of the train station, and we had to wait like 3 hours. After almost 2 we found out that our train was canceled, so we had to book a second train. Then because we were cold, we exited the waiting area, left the station and then re-entered the station. We arrived very late at night. The next day, we got covid tested and then went to Tianmen Mountain, which is in Zhangjiajie proper. It was amazing and cold, very slippery. But not as packed with tourists.
That evening we took a didi to our hotel in Wulingyuan, where the national park is, and spent the night. The roads were icy, and we had to get out of the didi and start walking the rest of the way to the hotel. The hotel sent a driver, and he found us about 500 meters from the hotel. The hotel was very nice! I would stay there again.
The following day we had these soup noodles with eggs and these spicy green peppers. The hotel drove us to the National Park, and they wouldn’t let us in because we had stars on our code. We had to go back to the hotel and hang out. Our hotel person came to us about an hour later and told us we either had to quarantine for 7 days or leave. So they gave us time to pack and get new train tickets out of the city. So I decided to head home, and Fernanda continued with the rest of her trip.
It was very stressful, and it scared me so much that I decided not to go anywhere during the Lunar New Year break.