Rooftops of Lijiang Old Town
Lijiang (麗江 or if you prefer the bastardised version: 丽江) means “beautiful river”. I'm pretty sure the name refers to the Jinsha river (Gold Sand river), which is quite a signifant river as it flows into and forms the Yangtze river (a.k.a. Chang Jiang/Long river) in Sichuan province. The Jinsha itself is formed in Qinghai province and is used heavily for hydro power. Interestingly, Lijiang is bordered in the East and West by the Jinsha river.
Street in Hekou, China
A had checked the weather for Lijiang, China and the horizon was not looking good. The rain was forecast to start on Sunday, and he really really wanted to do Tiger Leaping Gorge in good weather (well, there's just no other way to do it, really) so we have to vamos and get out of Vietnam. It's supposedly rainy season around this time of the year for Lijiang (which looked like it would start this Sunday). Sigh, there goes my plan of staying in Sa Pa town for 2 more days :\
So… goodbye South East Asia. It's been fun. I'll miss you!
HELL-OH China! We will be spending a TONNE of time in the Middle Kingdom.
