We 15 from the conference traveled in a bus tour up from Lijiang along the Jinsha Jiang (river of the golden sand) which is then called the Yangtze further to East. We crossed between the river's first and second bends near Tiger Leaping Gorge. (The river has three giant bends in Yunnan, where it changes direction completely to run a hundred  kilometers North and South along mountain valleys, as it makes its way East.  The land was flooded and in places the road was under repair.

         

 
   
We turned up a tributary, the Milk River, past dam constructions, to push further North to Zhongdian.

   
Our guide's name was "Heaven," and we picked him up as we entered Zhongdian.  He told us that if a man in this region wanted a fine bride, he better know how to sing and dance, and he proceeded to sing us some beautiful songs on the bus. singing movie  (sorry - no sound!) 3.6 Mbyte  (But remember that face...) He took us to the Shudu Lake and asked us to try to understand the beauty of the region by walking along the grounds and just looking and listening. movie 13 Mbytes a pan of the lake and hills.

The people of this region are horsemen and a world-class horse festival  is held each June.
   
Louis and a horseman.
   
Zhong on Yak, Nanyao by pier.

           
The stones were being painted white for a better appearance.
 
Medicinal salamanders.

We hit a cyclist (red cap, below) who miraculously escaped perhaps with only bruises and scratches, but was taken to a nearby hospital (in the police car below) and given a CAT scan later. His group was cycling back from labor  - and the cyclists were spread across the road. Our driver honked but was unable to avoid a collision. When the police arrived, the people told the police in the local language "it was the drivers fault" (likely) but the police told them in Mandarin - "We are the police and we will decide whose fault it is!"  The driver said that the people we very kind with him nonetheless. Members of our group tried to console the boy.
 
   

We were taken by Heaven to what we told would be  music and dance at a local Zang home. But it turned out to be a large hall with a huge audience. I laughed of the idea that with was a Zang house and not an entertainment center. But actually I was wrong - it was both. The Master of Ceremonies to my utter amazement turned out to be Heaven himself, unrecognizable in his costume (he had jumped out of our cab, changed, and then had run the show). He indeed lived upstairs of this large hall with a huge immediate family of about 20 people. We had been watching his brothers, sisters, their spouses and some other relatives dance, sing, and play!
Dancing Movie I (2.5 Mbytes) Dance Movie II (1.9 Mbytes) 

 
At the end of a number the they really liked, the mostly Han audience would chant: "Yazoo, Yazoo, Ya Ya Zoo, Yeah!!" movie 4 Mbytes

     
 Heaven, his son and relatives with some of our group.

The next day was also eventful, with a trip to a visit to a local Lamasery and the vast horse riding fields, a marketplace including a wild mushroom market, and a suburb Cantonese Hot-Pot meal. This day's photos were all lost, but for one below. See my blog for 21 Aug.

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Outside the mushroom market a Zang woman examines a snack.