_Thursday, 11 August - Early Afternoon, San Francisco Airport Runway: (Boring introduction - Sorry! Travel SNAFUS- skip to 12 Aug for trip)

I am on board my outbound non-stop to Beijing. The plane is sitting at the gate but about to set off. I have a great seat with China-seasoned seat mates and we have fair weather. I am enjoying the familiar views of the coastal hills on each side of the Bay and Mount Tam the distance. It is a good start today, considering....

The prelude to the trip was a testimony to perseverance. The months before the trip were replete with planning and replanning for me and potential traveling companions, including Mazz, and Kevin. We were joining up together for some parts of the trip and we arranged and rearranged our priorities and our travel itineraries and airline flights together and apart. Mazz, Kevin, and I worked through the question of what our allowed personal touring travel would be acceptable from our institution. Our institution allows some, but not a lot of personal travel to be associated with a conference meeting. I had to consult with higher and higher authorities on this. We also sought out the opinions of friends who had visited Yunnan in the past and we studied carefully travel literature, tour announcements, web blogs, and photo essays. We discovered, to our shock, serendipitously, that some of our "booked" China Eastern and China Southern flights were "not operating" or had silently rescheduled as per their departure times, so we had to rebook and rebook. The JPL Omega travel agent (one Rosali Ko) was very helpful working with us on these matters.

Then, the Thursday before the week of departure, disaster struck! NASA Headquarters "disapproved" travel of all eight folks from my institution scheduled to attend the meeting. NASA would not pay for the trip, although we could attend the conference at our own expense or under other non-NASA funding. The reason we were given for their non-support was that the meeting was too bilateral (mostly Chinese and Americans attending) as it did not have sufficient (greater than 20%) people from elsewhere such as Europe, to qualify as being a true international conference. Had such a mostly bilateral conference been set on US soil, that would have been OK, but holding it in China violated protocol (which required higher mucky-mucks from the US government be present when government representatives are in a country such as China). Despite efforts from many people telling Foreign Affairs folks that the conference was an advantageous one for US astronomy, and despite the fact that we were not actually US Government Civil Servants, all those (only those) from my institution (IPAC/JPL) were "disapproved" for NASA funding. Ironically, many others operating from NASA grants were not subjected to such scrutiny and attended this meeting with support, but the decision for us stuck. So days before the trip, several at my institute simply bailed-out on this trip, including Mazz, cutting their losses. Others of us hustled and (by luck for me) were able to find ways to make the trip still happen. I knew how to make the trip happen - by canceling all my flights arranged by JPL and rebook these with frequent flier miles and rebooking the flights inside China through a local agent, with my own money (I had all along been planning on spending my own money for all my personal touring before and after the conference: paying for all but the minimal airfare and conference days per diem only). But here's the rub: during the two weeks before any conference the typical 11th hour astronomer, like myself, usually works very hard on the results for presentation to his/her peers - I had absolutely no time for this since I was mostly hanging around my phone doing travel replanning or visiting local travel agents. My last ticket was arranged within 24 hours of departure. So, I was re-planning a trip to a science meeting; a meeting for which to which I might travel to - scientifically unprepared - a scary path.

So the day of my flight I had worked all the night before, packing my things and stuffing data onto my computer, and even so, I was late leaving. The van was 1/2 hour late and I was even later. The van driver was unfamiliar with the city of LA (sad but true) and I spent the whole ride reading-out map directions to him. I had to get a flight from LAX to meet my SFO connection to Beijing. LA traffic was bad and my arrival into the United terminal was too late to allow me to board. I was standby for the next flight. But there was a wild jam-up at LAX United security. The several hundred presenting line went over a bridge in the foully polluted air above the airport loop. I stood next to two honeymooners from Australia, who had been to Disneyland and were on their way to Los Vegas and then on to Waikiki, Hawaii. I told them to find secluded beaches on the North shore of Oahu and things would begin to get less weird. I got put on first-class in time to meet my connection. 

OK, back to China.

_Friday night, 12 August: Getting off the plane I saw what seemed to be a field of oil derricks in a broad swath near the airport. It turned out to be the construction cranes for a village of buildings that were booming up around the airport. Both the temperature and humidity were in the nineties at 5 PM and for the next 48 hours Beijing was nothing but a steam bath with a low white sky leading down to a white steamy haze at ground level. August is hot in this city usually but this was the worse it ever gets. Coming into Beijing, one gasps at the sheer number of huge massive buildings that make up a large part of the city landscape. Monstrous buildings - old ugly apartment buildings that look like a scene from Eraser Head (from Hell) with utterly style-less craven cement utilitarian facades. I have learned these are being razed one by one. But also there were more stylized modern enormous buildings, everywhere up or going up (the Olympics is coming in 2008) but the styles of these were affronting in a way that was way over the top - sheer aggressive blocks and angles with little or no elegance. And, I really blew my arrival. I followed my backpacker’s guide that said it is cheap and easy to take the Airport Shuttle Bus rather than a taxi. Well, it _was_ cheap - $2 for the 20 mile into the city, but easy - no. When I arrived at the end-stop near Tiananmen Square and got out, the sky had turned rapidly pitch black, and there was thunder and lightening, and then, the sky opened up in the strongest downpour I have ever been in - except for standing in waterfalls. I figured I should brave it hail a cab before everyone else did. Yeah, good luck! I didn't realize it, but on the fast boulevard between Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, cabs are not allowed to stop. I positioned myself in a convenient pullover area and proceeded to get drenched to the bone while - of all things - the rainfall increased. I donned my raincoat but this was a joke. The street flooded in several inches of rain and my shoes were soaked. It was like walking through a river and a waterfall at once. Finally, I hid in a subway entrance with the expression "too dumb to come in out of the rain" playing my head. With no cabs and two miles to my hotel, how did I get there? I found the driver of a mini-cab - essentially a motorcycle with a wooden box in the back with a door that swung open at leisure. I had a map to the hotel but neither me nor my driver could read it without putting it in front of his headlight and by exchanging my eye glasses back and forth and after many stops we got close. He finally called my hotel with his cell and they zeroed us in. I am good with sign language.

The Te Haoyaun Guest House was wisely chosen and, after presenting a dripping passport, I was ushered into air-conditioned safety. The place was a true delight with traditional Ming dynasty construction outer and inner courtyards and fine modern but ornate suites. There was tea waiting using hot water from the room thermos bottle. I spent most of the night inserting tissue paper between all pages of my books and papers, and blow-drying my shoes at intervals during the night. And yes - I was collecting my conference talk (much of it part of Mazz's talk which I would deliver too). I worked and slept a little. (In China the beds have no true mattresses but some padding on a hard wood pallet. But I did sleep.

_Saturday 13th morning - I had a grand breakfast in the inner quiet inner courtyard replete with caged songbirds and carp pools. Then Kevin came over from his mother's and proceeded to tour me of the Forbidden City. We toured the Forbidden City, the Baihai Park (and White Pagoda) with the Wall of Nine Dragons, the Temple of Heaven, and ate a memorable lunch in the Emperor's Kitchen (which it once really was). The lunch was memorable as it included sea cucumbers and hump of camel and the sweet pea-flour candies of Kevin's childhood, which he used to eat with his mother in the same restaurant. The other spots were very enjoyable, but very hot and very crowded. I will spare the reader most details. The forbidden city is built with high ramparts to try to prevent revolutions. Visiting the chambers of the Emperor, those of his concubines (put into service at 13) and eunuchs. One emperor has over 1000 concubines - he never saw most more than once and they had to remain locked in the city. We saw the ramps along which the Emperor was carried on his sedan chair They strolled the gardens and some became familiar with government operations. One whom advocated government reform was summarily executed by being thrown into a well.

The Temple of Heaven a ways out of town is where the Emperor went to pray for good crops (no drought). I don't believe with all the rain that will be a problem this year. But there was a crush in most places and people pushing a bit to take photos - it was not terribly pleasant. Both Kevin and I were happy to break off touring in mid-afternoon due to the heat. But I was impressed at the Temple of Heaven Park by the number of Chinese on holidays joining up for parallel sessions of 100-strong sing-a-longs. These folks are so happy to be on holiday in their Capitol. Kevin said some were local regulars.

On the way back into town Kevin noted that there was a beautiful wall around Beijing, with an older smaller wall found within - all built during Ming. It was largely razed in the 60's-90's as it was the only place clear to construct the metro stops along its convenient circle. But there are efforts to reconstruct the wall in time for the 2008 Olympics..
 

_Sunday 14th August - The people have interesting manners - it is acceptable to pull off one's shirt while walking along the sidewalk and scratch ones stomach (Kevin recalls in his childhood seeing old ladies half naked in the street. You can spit anywhere - one fellow hawked loudly and spat down on the isle of my plane while boarding - no one cared (well spitting was discouraged during the SARS scare. But try jaywalking.... police and traffic monitors are on the major corners watching for correct traffic flow.

Kevin and I discussed the government. Kevin made the point that it was not so interested in foreign engagements and its most basic role was guardian of agriculture. That is served to offset drought, flood, and famine, and provide social order. .

I got to the Beijing airport in plenty of time (all my stuff was mostly dry - drops still squeezed out of my suitcase handle). But I got swindled! While I was in a 1/2 long line to check-in, a well dressed man came up to me and asked to see my ticket. I let him and he shook his head and said please come with me. He ran me at high speed to an albeit shorter line (check-in for carry-on only) and then waited in line in my place. He handed _my_ passport and ticket to the agent - who accepted them and gave _him_ my boarding pass. (She was in on it!). A well-dressed woman joined him and indicated that I might just catch my flight. They escorted me to security and each of them handed me an "excess Tax Collection" "Officially Authorized" bill/receipt for 200 RMB (12$) which implied a government service. I did not know if I was dealing with a government rip-off or a private rip-off but I decided I could not afford to find out, so I paid. I was one hour early for my flight. Kevin met me for the flight and said the receipts were trash (having no rubber stamps on them) and I had been had. We had a delayed flight through Kunming but kept picking up other travelers to the meeting. We got to the Lijiang airport without trouble and the climate was perfect - cool, and sunny - it was such a relief from Beijing. The countryside was beautiful hills, not unlike Hawaiian topology. We had a dinner with the other participants and I stayed up half the night finishing my talk. Thank God for the help of JM, and JH!

_Monday 15th August: Talk went OK. It's over!

Our conference had an all-day tour of the region around Lijiang. We took a winding bus trip (One English speaking guided bus one Chinese speaking) to the Yak Meadows looking onto the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain where a gondola ride and a hike brought us from 2500m (Lijiang) to 3500m (meadow) looking at the 5000m summit. The hike brought us past grazing yaks and a Zang tribe Buddhist monastery. The trail had wildflowers. We then went down, had a group photo, and went onto the rather controlled rapids of the White River, where the Yi people led Yak rides and inducted me into their kingdom. We went on to a nearby "ancient city" of Shuhe (sadly made-over for tourism) and evening a dinner evening with entertainment singing/dancing by/with the Nazi people and the other tourists. I asked Kevin why the capitol of China was in Beijing (since it is not by the sea). This is not a simple question. But Kevin was kind enough to explain that for one thing it was due to the Manchurian influence. It was on this trip Kevin told me of the recent Chinese dynasties: Yuan < 1200 and then the Mongols invaded - the Ming in 1370, whom by the Han were defeated, and the last emperor of the Ming watched his own overthrow and hung himself in that pagoda on the hill. There was an uncle in Beijing retaking the Empire from his Nephew in Nanjing, and the capitol was moved to Beijing close to the Manchus who were the power coming in from the North. I have lots of this wrong going from Ming to Qing (said "Ching") with a farmers rebellion, and interleaving periods of Civil War. Kevin could easily recite the names, dates, location of 20 dynasties. China was refined in government thousands of years before Christ.

_Thursday 18 August: The meeting is winding down. Flooding to the North may drive me South early. A truck driver has just Tuesday been killed in a one of many landslides. Four days of further rain are forecasted. We had a conference meeting tonight. People were asked to sing. I sang "I've Been Working on the Railroad:" (trad.) and "Oh Lord Won't You buy me a Mercedes Benz" - Joplin. We had songs in Portuguese, from Brazil, and songs from Australia, and classical Chinese songs (and a Chinese version of Happy Birthday which was sung to Kate - who had just turned 30). Drinks in the Tibet Cafe. It was a fine night.

  _Friday 19th August: It was said there have been 65 talks in the four meeting days. The conference ended in the early afternoon. We went to the Black Dragon Pool.- a beautiful lake made from a spring beside an old chestnut tree. This also is the source of one of the rivers that flows into the town. I strolled with Sylvain and Lek. The Central Bridge is the Five-Holes Bridge, and another interesting structure is the Dragon God Temple built in 1737. The crocuses were in bloom. There is a Dongba (Naxi cultural) Research institute and an area featuring the elements of Taoism. The Shield at the entrance features a frog considered to be a powerful being and the interplay (constructive and destructive) of the five elements: wood, water, metal, fire and earth. The interplay forms some of the basis of balance in the world. For example a house should have seventy-one objects of each element. However seventy-one such elements are prescribed for women who wish to be fertile. The Dongba pictograms form the last living hieroglyphic language in use, and some are pretty funny. That night we had pizza as a relief from the hotel food and ate as well fried dragonflies.

  _Saturday 20th August: Early this morning a group of conference attendees set off on a two-day 15-strong conference tour to Zhongdian region located four hours North in a micro-bus. On the road up we passed a market and Pierre was able to buy the two-millennium-old classic, Sun-tzu's The Art of War, written not on paper but on wooden slats that fold up nicely.

When we reached Zhongdian (meaning "buried in the middle" - as in between Yunnan below and Tibet above, with equally disparate peoples to the East and West. Zhongdian was also famous as a meeting and organizing place on the Long March in 1935. I town our tour guide hopped on board the bus - a spry likable young man who welcomed us, said he was the fifth son and that his name meant "heaven." (We would meet his brother's in an unexpected way) He sang us some beautiful songs. He said if a man here could not sing well and dance well, he would not find a good wife. 

Heaven said the land was harsh and cold in the winter with glaciers nearby - so cold that the hotels hibernated and many moved South. In the Spring the region was best known for its huge May horse-racing tournament, and sports and dance festival - when wide the plateau became a flowered meadow.

He said Tibetan Buddhism was a different form of Buddhism, with strong beliefs in supernatural beings - vestiges of past beliefs, and the belief in reincarnation. When one died the corpse would be left to be eaten by birds or fish, which is also one reason they themselves do not eat fish. (Another reason is the myth that that once holy scripture books fell into a lake here and it is thought the fish might have read them.). The land is the origin of the zinnia and sino-camellia plants. The zinnia produces a toxic pollen and sometimes in Spring a whole lake of fish can get drunk eating the wind-blown pollen or even go belly-up. The region has wolves and ancient striped fish and fishing-bears. He spoke of the vastness of the western Tibet region where 10,000 people lived in a region twice the size of France. The Yak lives here and to the north (more than 3.5 million of them), living off plants and nuts. The yak is well-suited for the hard winter with skin in places 2 inches thick. A piece of it's hide can be used as a chopping block and its tongue is so rough it can be used as a comb.

He said you may see the very elderly walking around the stupa obelisks (sacred monuments holding the departed Buddha's essence) spinning a prayer wheel in one hand and pearls in the other (symbolic to the pearls which the corpse of the living Buddha transformed into upon death). They chant the names of the six tears of the misery of the God, who him/herself has misery for not saving all souls (something like this). He said the people don't bath, sometimes but twice a year - when born and when married.

We visited the beautiful Shudu lake, with meadows full of wildflowers, strolled around, and got the feel of things.

On the road back to Zhongdian our mini van driver hit and ran over a cyclist. (It is a hazard here since people are often all over the road). A group of Zang workers were returning from (field?) work and were mostly cycling down the road at us on the wrong side of the road. So our driver went over to _his_ wrong side of the road and started honking indicating everyone should jump out of the way. This one kid was too slow on his bike and our driver was going to fast to stop. I was in front and I saw him directly in front of us trying to pedal out of the way while the driver tried to break to a stop. He was hit at 5-10 mph, bang, and he went down directly under the front of the minibus. Then there was the most terrible crunching noise (I was sure it was bones and I cursed and cursed, but it turned out to be bike parts. I though we would see a corpse when we looked under the truck - but there was no one there - nothing except a crushed bicycle pinned directly under the van's left front wheel. He had gotten out from under with his life - with amazing luck, and was standing beside the road dazed. He was bruised only, perhaps, but would be CAT-scanned later. The police arrived at the scene 40 minutes after being called and investigated the cause of the accident. The Zang police were told by the people in Tibetan: "The driver was at fault." The police replied in Mandarin: "We are the police and _we_ will determine who was at fault!" The driver commented that the Zang people were being very good about it, not getting angry, but, like everyone else, just showing concern for the boy. The police took the boy to the hospital. All news later of his condition later is good but, and a full CAT scan will be run after our departure.

That evening we were taken to hear music at a Zang family's house. Heaven rode in the taxi with me and another. When we got inside we were surprised that the huge lower flour of the house was also a music/ dance hall and there were about 150 tourist seated all around on benches with tables for the floor show. They were all served Zang tea - a sour mix of yak milk and tea, yak cheese - nice - soft with a crisp pleasant sour taste, fried wheat seeds, wheat spirits - Qing Ke Jui (Jui=Spirits) (in a thimble cup) and we were each given a white scarf of greeting (a haha). The show had twirling costumed young women, and energetic males at times doing the dance step that involves galloping in a circle like horses. There were wonderful solos, including ones from audience members from Hunan and Beijing, and several by the the Master-of-Ceremonies, who was a dashing young man with oiled back hair. 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 MC to my amazement turned out to be Heaven himself, unrecognizable in his costume (he had jumped out of the cab, changed, and then had run the show). He lived upstairs of the large hall with a large immediate family of about 20 people. We had been watching his brothers, sisters, their spouses and some other relatives dance, sing, and play! He hopes to enlarge this enterprise using strategically placed internet advertisements and also to cater more toward western backpackers (whose economies differ from the local Chinese).

_Sunday 21st August: This morning we visited the local 300 year old Tibetan-Buddhist monastery. It was one of the 13 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in China and was the third largest. We had a view of the city and countryside. We saw square posts in the monastery and were told that only square posts may be used in monasteries, never in homes. We saw their ancient books. (Buddhism had been brought over from India in part by books. We learned that there were large gatherings of monks there at times and the monastery was also used for teaching. The rise to the top for the students was decided by debates. Top students were allowed to become celibate monks. There were the endless praying in a richly decorated interior with representations of the Buddha and the Tibetan lama. Tibet Buddhism is a bit more extreme than Indian Buddhism with more threatening monsters "to make people serious about the next life." It was explained that there are two lamas - one in Tibet and one in India. With the Indian one is the more powerful. (Some images of former Lamas where puffy-eyed . It was said that they were asked to make diagnoses by examining ill peoples urine - and they developed puffy-eyes through life. We viewed a petite Tibetan Dog on leaving.

We visited the field of the horse race festival, where we rode horses (tamely), mounted Yaks and played archery. There were sheep and lambs. Not the land was almost a bog but in May it is a field of flowers.

A few of us explored the town market where I bought same bells (I had noticed how long their tone persisted ringing on the necks of yaks.) We came across a frenetic mushroom market street and Pierre lamented that if only he could cook some now. We rounded the corner and just there were some of the others in our group inviting us to join their Canton-style "hot-pot" meal which included cooking mushrooms - along with a glorious menu. The pot was split in half with boiling water - by a metal divide - one half spicy, one half not. You threw in stuff as you wished The menu was: Donkey, Donkey Skin, Spiced fermented tofu, mint, black goat, fine-sliced yak, wooden-ears (tree fungus), snow-pea shoots, peanuts, mushrooms, and in the pot for flavor - ginger root and red peppers - and as sauce - a cilantro-garlic-sesame paste, mint topping, beer and tea. It was by far the best meal of the trip.
Had great Granada apples on the ride home.
 

_Monday 22nd August: Lake Lugu near the Sichuan border was the furthest remote place I could get to from where I was, so I was bound to go. Since there were no convenient tours to Lige town on the lake, I hired a driver, Xie, to take me - and he brought his wife and 10-year old son. Kevin had made a Chinese version of "Lord" for the driver. It was a three day trip. Xie drove me to Lige the first day (he stayed there with his family at the guest house where I was staying two nights) and then he drove me to Dali, again along with his wife and child - logging 15 hours of driving total). To get to Lugu we had to cross the Yangtze (further downstream than before) and the "River of the Shining Sands" which flows into it. We also had to cross two fairly vertiginous mountain chains. Lige is a poor and remote town in this region of the Mosu people. The Mosu are the last matriarchal  society left on Earth. Kinship and position passes through the female line. They have the practice of "walking marriages" where if a woman likes a man she lets him into her house and he leaves the next day. Children are raised by the women.

_Tuesday 23 August: The children of the cabin are the grandchildren. The daughter is elsewhere (Geru was present and he was after Netty). The grandmother takes care of the children. Today, inside the cabin we sat around the fire, and the women took an interest in mating me to someone. Sometimes to Netty, and also they told me if I stayed I could have a "wife" in a week - even a 13 year old wife if I wanted (legal here). They said I was better endowed (on their guess work - mind you) then the local men. This day Netty and I ate together, climbed hills, took a swim in the lake. I swam well in the lake (few people here know the luxury of swimming) and later an old man came up to me and through gestures told me he enjoyed watching me swim and he made me feel proud. In the evening we told stories to the kids. Netty asked the grandmother - "Are ghost stories OK?" and the Grandmother replied "They are the best!" - Netty translated mine. (I told the 1001 Nights, and an old camp favorite - "The White Hand," where a mad doctor attempting to bring the dead to life succeeds with a single hand - but being the hand of an executed serial strangler, it relentlessly crawls the ground in search of sleeping person's necks. It was a hit. I show the kids card tricks and also card castle building. I was told when they awoke the next morning the 11 year old girl immediately started building card castles.

 
_Wednesday 24 August: I rode down with Xie, his wife and child, and Netty came along. We had a catfish lunch on the shores of the River of Golden Sands. (We watched the catfish progress from swimming in a bucket, to its slaughter on the kitchen floor, to it being a tasty entre on our table. We had wonderful fried mushrooms. We dropped Netty off in Lijiang where she continues her trip to Shuhe. Then we drove to Dali.
We arrived in Dali in the evening just in time to view the three pagodas in the fading light. The floods had not spared this town and the  main roadway (under construction) was largely washed away. I stayed at a grand hotel, the Asia Star, which is a walk from the old town, but sometimes a needed walk. I was able to do a clothes wash for the first time in a long time.

_Thursday 25 August: Jean came up from Bangkok via Kunming to join me. She had had only had a 1 1/2 day respite after traveling literally around the world. We toured Dali and saw the three Pagodas (majestic 9th century structures) and shopped. It's not as smooth a place to walk around as Lijiang; not the carnival feeling, but a place with more traffic and touts hawking their wares and rides, and yet it was very scenic.

A man wanted to shine my shoes and indicated so. (They needed it.) He said "only 2 RMB!" (Renminbi - literally - the people's money - yuan) i.e., 24 cents US. (Note - in Northwest China, the people are so poor they deal with the fen, 1/10 an RMB - 0.012 cents US.) I had "amusing incident #1" with this man. He asked if he could bring me to his shoe-shine stand. I told Jean I would be back in three minutes - I just wanted to know where the stand was, for later use, and I followed him, not wanting to hold-up nor lose Jean. But after nearly ten minutes of walking several blocks, I gave up on the guy, and I ran back to met Jean. Running was my mistake. To see a middle-aged western tourist run through the streets of Dali was very bizarre to the people (locals and tourist alike). On this short street-run I learned how different our societies are. Everyone was gawking at me.

Jean and I had lunch in a nice outdoor cafe. There occurred "amusing incident #2." There was a tour of Han Chinese whose guide decided that Jean and I were (as a pretty golden-haired western woman and a bearded western man) a worthy attraction. The 30-strong tour group line, led by the guide holding a yellow triangular flag, looped a half block out of their way to give a marching "eyes left" of our little outdoor lunch table scene only to loop back to the main street.

I had my "amusing incident #3" after lunch in getting my shoes shined, and I am still laughing about it. The shoe-shine man came back after lunch, and he meant business. I figured, for 24 cents, how could I loose? Jean gave me her leave and he and I went all the way this time to his stand. While walking, he did not hesitate to laugh about my running through the streets of town earlier.

His stand was on some building steps, and consisted of himself and a cobbler with some tools. I should have known something was up when the cobbler asked me to take off my shoes (not a typical shoeshine procedure). What can you do to a shoe? These were new French Mephisto shoes less than a year old. Answer: everything! The cobbler proceeded to "discover" places where the threads holding the heal and sole to the uppers, needed (obviously) dabs of extra glue. He determined that my walk had worn the top lift of the heel down to a not-level plane and started to glue rubber wedges into the heel. I ripped the wedges out and said "No." He dabbed black color on places he deemed lacking such, and painted lacquer on some threads. Then he did something most amazing to me in its audacity. He threaded a large needle and thrust it into the side of the heel of one shoe, intending to re-sew the heel and sole to the upper.  I grabbed the shoe from him and yanked out the needle, and angrily scolded him that I wanted the shoes shined and no more. This he did. He did an fair job, but clearly shoe-shining was not his forte. He then made me out an itemized bill for many acts of "shoe repair" that totaled  20 RMB (2.40$) I laughed and paid him figuring, I could never get such a performance at any price in the US, and I did get the shoes shined as well. When I related the tale to Jean, she suspected the man if allowed, would eventually have performed open-heart surgery on the shoes.

We shopped for silver and brass work. (The design of the work, however intricate, was not relevant to the price, only the weight mattered. The silver was 3.2 RMB/gram; if you knew the formula - you could bargain with success.) Jean bought prints, and I bought a miniature copper teapot. It was rainy and misty but we had some views of the lake.

_Friday 26th August:_Fri 26th Aug
More Touring of Dali - really walked the streets and the old city wall, and we took a chair lift up the mountain, over an old cemetery to the Zhonghe Temple, and then took a few mile walk along a marvelously paved path along the mountain side. I am not used to hiking the red-tile road with an umbrella! We heard distant notes of an opera recital from town below, and then retreated back along our path when the weather seemed to be worsening. Then we went into town and walked toward the lake as the weather cleared. At one point the town garbage truck came out for garbage collection and much like an ice cream truck, played a repetitious song at high volume so people would bring out their trash. The blaring song was "Happy Birthday to You." We shopped - Later we ate and then explored near an old pagoda till a guard dog and guard warded us away. 

 
_Saturday 27th August: Visited the famous Shilin Stone Forest and the nearby Black Stone Forest and an art museum. It was crowded as expected but we had the Black Stone Forest almost to ourselves, along with our Sani Guide. Our guide from Kunming translated for the Sani Guide. After this we went back to Kunming to the Boyitan National Art Museum (that's the name on the card but it's hard to find on the internet). It was worth the experience, and we were toured of the ethnic dress, weaving, jewelery and art by the General Manager Zou Le Wen who was also a painter. After viewing the traditional costumes one realizes how much time is spent weaving and sewing by the people.
We strolled around the Green Lake Park, where there was singing, massage, and a very happy ambiance. We had a great dinner - and Jean had the "Across the Bridge Noodles" 
 

_Sunday 28th August: I had planned to have a day to pass through Shanghai and also tour a bit in the Garden City of Suzhou. but the rearrangement of flights due to the travel snafus made me have only a limited number of hours. Flying into the old Shanghai Hong Qiao Airport, I think I saw where the Yangtze finally empties into the sea, making my journey seem connected and shorted. And all I could see of the city were highrises near the airport. I took a easy bus ride an hour west to Suzhou. Suzhou is also a silk center. It turned out my hotel the Nanlin Guest was very modern and luxurious. I followed a suggestion of Mazz to purchase some spun silk comforters for home (good for the heat). It was a challenge to my best sign language to get a taxi driver to take me to shop for silk merchandise. (He took me to a silk museum first which had closed, but I found an advertisement in print to point to and was brought to a wonderful all-silk department store.  Later, I went to one of the best gardens - Garden of the Master of the Nets but it was closing in preparation for an evening concert and I was turned back. There were no more gardens open at the times I was there, so I had to leave the Suzhou gardens and the city Shanghai tours for another trip.

_Monday 29th August: Took a 4:00 AM cab ride to the modern Pu Dong Airport, transfered in at Narita Airport Tokyo (excellent flier lounge with great showers) and home.
Fin.