An cient cities, the be aten track mountai ns an d a go od ...
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the times Saturday August 27 2016 26 Travel W e’re perched on low-slung chairs in a teahouse in Lijiang’s old town and our “tea master”, a studious-looking twentysomething with designer glasses, is pouring the contents of a teapot over a porcelain frog. The liquid spills off the frog’s back on to a table with a ridge around the edge and a drain. “If the frog gets tea, we all get rich!” says Diana Hu, who runs the little Fu Xing Chan tea house. Frogs appear to be a lucky charm in this part of southwestern China. Our group nods in approval. Hu smiles, Zen-like, and the tea master gazes at the table, deep in concentration as he delicately separates leaves for our drinks. Time ticks by. The frog gets another dousing. Tea clearly means more than merely brewing a cuppa round here . . . it’s an important ritual, a key part of the way of life. So begins our traditional tea ceremony in one of the most important tea centres in China. Lijiang was once a key stop on an ancient network of trails that spreads like a spider’s web for more than 2,100 miles, linking plantations in southern Yunnan province to Tibet and Sichuan province farther north. It earned itself the name the Tea Horse Road — and, as we are about to find out, it’s fast turning into a popular tourist route. For many centuries until the mid-20th century, when vehicles took over, caravans of horses transported tea in this region. At Lijiang, horses and horsemen were changed. “High altitude is a big problem for people from the south,” says Hu. “So they carried the tea this far and then Naxi men took over using local horses with very strong legs.” The Naxi are the mountain people, an ethnic minority in northern Yunnan that numbers about 300,000. The city became a bustling trading post with a labyrinth of cobbled lanes twisting between streams with narrow bridges sur- rounded by low, grey-stone buildings with curly-topped roofs. This is much as Lijiang looks today, despite a devastating earth- quake in 1996 that flattened many build- ings, causing 300 deaths and injuring China Ancient cities, mountains and a good cup of tea Hit the historic Tea Horse Road in the southwestern province of Yunnan to explore old trading routes, and stay at chic hotels along the way, says Tom Chesshyre 17,000. Thankfully the lure of creating a new modern city was resisted and the old town was reconstructed as before. “Actual- ly, it’s better now,” confides one local, who says structures are sturdier and that once crumbling parts have been smartened. Lijiang has a fantasy feel, especially after dark, when red lanterns illuminate the maze-like alleys. You might have stepped back a thousand years or more, if you ignore all the tourist shops selling pashmina-style scarves, bongo drums and jade jewellery, that is. The city is certain- ly not a secret to holidaymakers; Banyan Tree, Aman and InterCon- tinental hotels have been here a while. The hope is, however, that new improved highways to the tea plantations in the south, about 500 miles away, and north- wards to the border with Tibet, about 100 miles away, will create a trail that attracts more overseas travellers. Plenty of domestic Chi- nese tourists already come, and now boutique hotels are springing up out- side Lijiang to appeal to westerners intending to stay in style. So what is there to see and do on the Tea Horse Road? Well, the first thing of course is: drink tea. There is a subtle bittersweet taste to Pu’er tea, the special tea from the south of Yunnan province that is not treat- ed immediately after being picked, as most tea is to prevent deterioration in the leaves. Instead, the tea is left to ferment, tied up in discus-like packages made from bamboo leaves. The result is that the flavour gets better with age. Tibetans particularly adore the drink, which is low in caffeine and provides vitamins and minerals that make up for a lack of vegetables and fruit in their winter diet. Health consciousness is big in these parts, where there is a flourishing Chinese medicine industry. To find out more we visit Baisha, a village on the edge of Lijiang, where we pass elderly women dancing jauntily for exercise in a courtyard, duck into a 700-year-old temple with beautiful frescoes, and meet Dr Ho. We are not the first people to make the acquaintance of Dr Ho. Far from it. Michael Palin and the travel writer Bruce Chatwin have been here before us; Palin had been following in the footsteps of Chatwin, who had labelled Dr Ho “the Tom Chesshyre was a guest of Cox & Kings (020 3642 0861, coxandkings.co.uk), which has a nine-day, seven-night B&B package to Lijiang from £2,595pp. The tour covers Chengdu (in Sichuan province), Lijiang, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangri-La and Benzilan. This includes all flights, transfers, and nights in LUX* Lijiang, LUX* Benzilan and the Grand Hyatt Lijiang Mountain Lodge. Further reading: Tea Horse Road: China’s Ancient Trade Road to Tibet by Michael Freeman and Selena Ahmed (River Books, £25) Taoist physician in the Jade Dragon Mountains”. His evocative description of Dr Ho’s little ramshackle Chinese herbal medicine clinic and his recommendation of Baisha have meant many others have since dropped by; the village has become a regular stop-off on the Tea Horse Road. Dr Ho is tiny, aged 94, with inscrutable marbleised eyes and hunched shoulders. His clinic’s walls are plastered with yellow- ing cuttings of articles about him; proof of his worldwide fame. In a corner sits a kettle and tea cups (everybody seems addicted to tea in Yunnan province). After prescribing medicine to an Israeli couple seeking fer- tility treatment, he offers our group catch- all advice for good health. “Optimism is the best medicine,” he whispers. Feeling lucky, we depart for Jade Drag- on Snow Mountain, about 40 minutes’ drive to the north. After queueing for an hour amid hundreds of Chinese tourists dressed in long red padded gowns hired for the trip to the top — which we mistakenly decide not to rent — we board a packed cable car. This whisks us from 3,356m to 4,506m amid what seems like a gale; the peak of the mountain is at 5,596m. It is a long way up. Some fellow passen- gers have brought oxygen canisters (sold in a shop at the base), while others turn a bit green — a few are so queasy they stay on the cable car and go straight back down. Bear in mind that the village of the highest resort in the European Alps is at 2,300m. The view at the top is of a flash of granite peaks amid sweeping clouds and a snow- swept terrace. We are freezing. There is not a whole lot to see in these conditions. We queue to go back down, crammed between hundreds of Chinese wrapped in their pad- ded gowns who are not shy about taking selfies of themselves . . . and us. Don’t miss the marvellous 90-minute show at the foot of the mountain that tells the history of the Naxi people. This is in an outdoor auditorium with terraces on which horses gallop (some carrying old tea satchels), drums beat and great choruses break out. There must be 500 or more dancing actors. It’s one of the most memo- rable live performances of any sort I’ve witnessed — in a spectacular setting. The clouds part and sunshine bathes the jagged mountain peaks; it’s staggering to think that real horseback traders once passed this inhospitable way. Need to know CHINA YUNNAN SICHUAN BURMA TIBET VIETNAM 100 miles Lijiang Shangri-La Adong Benzilan Tea Horse Road Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Tiger Leaping Gorge A teashop in Lijiang the times Saturday August 27 2016 Travel 27 Great ways to see China — off the beaten track Hike and bike the Great Wall Take a week-long hike-and-bike journey around the lesser-known parts of the Great Wall of China, below. Setting off from Beijing, you’ll cycle up to 60 miles a day, or hike for two to seven hours, with stops at Panjiakou, Huangyaguan and Gubeikou. Accommodation includes a night in a “Quan”, a former military barracks that now serves as guest houses. Details A seven-night trip is from £1,590pp, including all meals, bike hire, entry fees into some attractions, and guiding but not flights (020 8875 5060, worldexpeditions.co.uk) China by rail Set off on a train odyssey from Beijing to Shanghai, more than 700 miles away. This private, ten-night tour starts with two days in the capital before heading south in first class. Stop at Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors and the towers and temples of Wuhan and Nanjing before arriving in the modern metropolis of Shanghai. Details A ten-night trip is from £2,995pp, including flights, private transfers, high-speed rail tickets and B&B (020 3642 0861, coxandkings.co.uk) Cruise the Yangtze Set sail down Asia’s longest river, the Yangtze, as part of a ten-day trip travelling from Beijing to Shanghai via Chengdu. The three-night cruise is on the five-star Sanctuary Yangzi Explorer, with 62 suites. You’ll anchor at Fengdu to meet local families and pause at a farmers’ market, and visit the scenic Bamboo Gorge by “pea pod” boat. Non water-based highlights include visiting the Terracotta Warriors. Details The nine-night trip is from £4,800pp, including most meals and guiding, but excluding flights (01242 547892, abercrombiekent.co.uk) Walk through the rice terraces How about hiking through the magnificent rice terraces of Longsheng? This rural China trip takes in some of the most scenic spots between Shanghai and Hong Kong. Spend a couple of days exploring these sloping layers of green before wandering through the cobbled streets of Lijiang Old Town. You’ll also be able to spend the afternoon in an ancient teahouse, visit Shangri-La and stop at Songzanlin Monastery, the largest Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Yunnan. Details The 13-night trip costs from £4,400pp, including flights, transfers and B&B (0208 682 5060, scottdunn.com) Ellie Ross Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, seen from Lijiang Benzilan is the next stopover on our Tea Horse Road adventure. We are staying at the new LUX* hotel, which is on the banks of the gurgling, brown Yangtze River. This is a good-value design hotel, a mixture of minimalism and comfort with an infinity pool and a teahouse serving the best Pu’er. It’s one of a planned eight cheap-but-chic properties on the Tea Horse Road, includ- ing one we stayed at in Lijiang, and another due to open in Shangri-La in 2018. To experience what life might have been like on a remote part of the old tea-trading route we take a day trip from Benzilan across a snowy 4,292m pass to Adong, a village within a dozen miles of Tibet. Here we drink cups of welcome tea at a local guesthouse that offers meals when booked in advance. Horses are still used in the village; one trots by as we enjoy a fine lunch of spicy pork, tofu with cabbage, sliced sweet pepper and “tea eggs” (eggs boiled in tea, with a smoky taste I could see taking off at home). The owner, Sonam Dorje, says there are two remaining (long-ago retired) tea horsemen in Adong, but they are too elderly to be visited. We sit for a while with Dorje talking about life in the mountains, drinking Dali beers followed by fiery shots of a local liquor and then more tea. Outside, overnight snow slowly melts on the mountain slopes. More hoofs clat- ter by on the narrow track. Then silence descends. This is what the Tea Horse Road is all about, high on the hills away from the clamour of the tourist crowds. Onwards, northwards. The drive to the city of Shangri-La — as Zhongdian was renamed in 2001 — takes a couple of hours. “Shangri-La” began as the fictional Himalayan place described by James Hil- ton in his book Lost Horizon, which subse- quently became synonymous with “para- dise”. Canny local officials decided to nab the name to attract visitors. On the way in- to town we stop at Tiger Leaping Gorge, a 3,700m deep gorge (one of the world’s deepest), with a raging river at the bottom. A zigzagging path plunges steeply to plat- forms by the water, one with a snarling sculpture of the legendary dragon that was said to have leapt across mountains here. Shangri-La City, once another key call- ing point on the Tea Horse Road, is a pecu- liar place with a run of higgledy-piggledy shops selling more shawls, bongos and packets of maca, a root that grows locally and is said to be an aphrodisiac. The old town area is small, with a square with a museum telling the story of the tea horse- men (displays show old saddles and har- nesses), plus a fabulous Buddhist monas- tery on a hill with a giant golden prayer wheel. At night the city is lit with glowing lanterns and is busy with restaurants serv- ing hotpot meals, where people sit at a table with a bubbling cauldron of spicy broth into which you drop meat, fish and vegetables. There are some interesting choices, such as yak tongue, “mare beef testicles”, “pig throat”, “bat foot”, and “fresh goose intestines”, although I stick to cuttle- fish and seaweed with noddles (very tasty). Open-air perfomance at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain SUTTIPONG SUTIRATANACHAI/GETTY IMAGES; TOM CHESSHYRE
Transcript of An cient cities, the be aten track mountai ns an d a go od ...
the times Saturday August 27 2016
26 Travel
We’re perched onlow-slung chairsin a teahousein Lijiang’s oldtown and our“tea master”, astudious-looking
twentysomething with designer glasses, ispouring the contents of a teapot over aporcelain frog. The liquid spills off thefrog’sbackon toa tablewitha ridgearoundthe edge and a drain.“If the frog gets tea, we all get rich!”
saysDianaHu,who runs the littleFuXing Chan tea house. Frogs appearto be a lucky charm in this part ofsouthwestern China. Our groupnods in approval. Hu smiles,Zen-like, and the tea mastergazes at the table, deep inconcentration as he delicatelyseparates leaves for our drinks.Time ticks by. The frog getsanother dousing. Tea clearlymeans more than merely brewing acuppa round here . . . it’s an importantritual, a key part of the way of life.So begins our traditional tea ceremony
in one of themost important tea centres inChina. Lijiang was once a key stop on anancient network of trails that spreads likea spider’s web for more than 2,100 miles,linking plantations in southern Yunnanprovince to Tibet and Sichuan provincefarther north. It earned itself the name theTeaHorse Road—and, as we are about tofind out, it’s fast turning into a populartourist route.For many centuries until the mid-20th
century,whenvehicles tookover, caravansof horses transported tea in this region. AtLijiang, horses and horsemen werechanged. “High altitude is a big problemfor people from the south,” says Hu. “Sothey carried the tea this far and then Naximen tookoverusing local horseswith verystrong legs.” The Naxi are the mountainpeople, an ethnic minority in northernYunnan that numbers about 300,000.The city became a bustling trading post
with a labyrinth of cobbled lanes twistingbetween streamswith narrow bridges sur-rounded by low, grey-stone buildings withcurly-topped roofs. This ismuch as Lijianglooks today, despite a devastating earth-quake in 1996 that flattened many build-ings, causing 300 deaths and injuring
China
Ancient cities,mountains and agood cup of teaHit the historic Tea Horse Road in the southwesternprovince of Yunnan to explore old trading routes, andstay at chic hotels along the way, says Tom Chesshyre
17,000. Thankfully the lure of creating anew modern city was resisted and the oldtownwas reconstructedasbefore. “Actual-ly, it’s better now,” confides one local, whosays structures are sturdier and that oncecrumbling parts have been smartened.Lijianghasa fantasy feel, especially after
dark, when red lanterns illuminate themaze-like alleys. You might have steppedback a thousand years or more, if youignore all the tourist shops sellingpashmina-style scarves, bongo drums and
jade jewellery, that is.Thecity is certain-ly not a secret to holidaymakers;Banyan Tree, Aman and InterCon-tinental hotels have been here awhile. The hope is, however, thatnew improved highways to thetea plantations in the south,about 500miles away, andnorth-wards to the border with Tibet,about 100miles away,will create atrail that attracts more overseastravellers. Plenty of domestic Chi-
nese tourists already come, and nowboutique hotels are springing up out-
side Lijiang to appeal to westernersintending to stay in style.Sowhat is there to see and do on theTea
Horse Road?Well, the first thing of courseis: drink tea. There is a subtle bittersweettaste to Pu’er tea, the special tea from thesouth ofYunnanprovince that is not treat-ed immediately after being picked, asmosttea is topreventdeterioration in the leaves.Instead, the tea is left to ferment, tied up indiscus-like packages made from bambooleaves. The result is that the flavour getsbetter with age. Tibetans particularlyadore the drink, which is low in caffeineand provides vitamins and minerals thatmake up for a lack of vegetables and fruitin their winter diet.Health consciousness is big in these
parts, where there is a flourishing Chinesemedicine industry. To find out more wevisitBaisha, avillageon theedgeofLijiang,where we pass elderly women dancingjauntily for exercise in a courtyard, duckinto a 700-year-old temple with beautifulfrescoes, and meet Dr Ho.We are not the first people to make the
acquaintance of Dr Ho. Far from it.Michael Palin and the travel writer BruceChatwin have been here before us; Palinhad been following in the footsteps ofChatwin, who had labelled Dr Ho “the
Tom Chesshyre was aguest of Cox & Kings(020 3642 0861,coxandkings.co.uk),which has a nine-day,seven-night B&B packageto Lijiang from £2,595pp.The tour covers Chengdu(in Sichuan province),Lijiang, Jade DragonSnow Mountain, TigerLeaping Gorge,Shangri-La and Benzilan.This includes all flights,transfers, and nights inLUX* Lijiang, LUX*Benzilan and the GrandHyatt Lijiang MountainLodge. Further reading:Tea Horse Road: China’sAncient Trade Road toTibet by Michael Freemanand Selena Ahmed (RiverBooks, £25)
Taoist physician in the Jade DragonMountains”. His evocative description ofDr Ho’s little ramshackle Chinese herbalmedicine clinic and his recommendationof Baisha have meant many others havesince dropped by; the village has become aregular stop-off on the Tea Horse Road.Dr Ho is tiny, aged 94, with inscrutable
marbleised eyes and hunched shoulders.His clinic’swalls are plasteredwithyellow-ing cuttings of articles about him; proof ofhisworldwide fame. Inacorner sits akettleand tea cups (everybody seemsaddicted totea in Yunnan province). After prescribingmedicine to an Israeli couple seeking fer-tility treatment, he offers our group catch-all advice for good health. “Optimism isthe best medicine,” he whispers.Feeling lucky, we depart for Jade Drag-
on Snow Mountain, about 40 minutes’
drive to the north. After queueing for anhour amid hundreds of Chinese touristsdressed in long redpaddedgownshired forthe trip to the top—which wemistakenlydecide not to rent — we board a packedcable car. This whisks us from 3,356m to4,506m amid what seems like a gale; thepeak of the mountain is at 5,596m.It is a long way up. Some fellow passen-
gers have brought oxygen canisters (soldin a shop at the base), while others turn abit green — a few are so queasy they stayon thecable car andgo straightbackdown.Bear inmind that the village of the highestresort in the European Alps is at 2,300m.The viewat the top is of a flash of granite
peaks amid sweeping clouds and a snow-swept terrace.Weare freezing.There isnota whole lot to see in these conditions. Wequeue togobackdown, crammedbetweenhundredsofChinesewrapped in theirpad-ded gowns who are not shy about takingselfies of themselves . . . and us.Don’t miss the marvellous 90-minute
show at the foot of the mountain that tellsthe history of theNaxi people. This is in anoutdoor auditorium with terraces onwhichhorses gallop (somecarryingold teasatchels), drums beat and great chorusesbreak out. There must be 500 or moredancing actors. It’s one of themostmemo-rable live performances of any sort I’vewitnessed — in a spectacular setting. Theclouds part and sunshine bathes thejagged mountain peaks; it’s staggeringto think that real horseback tradersonce passed this inhospitable way.
Need toknow
CHINA
YUNNAN
SICHUAN
BURMA
TIBET
VIETNAM100 miles
Lijiang
Shangri-LaAdong
Benzilan
Tea HorseRoad
Jade DragonSnow Mountain
Tiger LeapingGorge
A teashop in Lijiang
the times Saturday August 27 2016
Travel 27
Great ways tosee China — offthe beaten trackHike and bike the Great WallTake a week-long hike-and-bikejourney around the lesser-knownparts of the Great Wall of China, below.Setting off from Beijing, you’ll cycleup to 60 miles a day, or hike for two toseven hours, with stops at Panjiakou,Huangyaguan and Gubeikou.Accommodation includes a night in a“Quan”, a former military barracks thatnow serves as guest houses.Details A seven-night trip is from£1,590pp, including all meals, bike hire,entry fees into some attractions, andguiding but not flights (020 8875 5060,worldexpeditions.co.uk)
China by railSet off on a train odyssey from Beijingto Shanghai, more than 700 miles away.This private, ten-night tour starts withtwo days in the capital before headingsouth in first class. Stop at Xian to seethe Terracotta Warriors and the towersand temples of Wuhan and Nanjingbefore arriving in the modernmetropolis of Shanghai.Details A ten-night trip is from £2,995pp,including flights, private transfers,high-speed rail tickets and B&B(020 3642 0861, coxandkings.co.uk)
Cruise the YangtzeSet sail down Asia’s longest river, theYangtze, as part of a ten-day triptravelling from Beijing to Shanghai viaChengdu. The three-night cruise is onthe five-star Sanctuary Yangzi Explorer,with 62 suites. You’ll anchor at Fengduto meet local families and pause at afarmers’ market, and visit the scenicBamboo Gorge by “pea pod” boat. Nonwater-based highlights include visitingthe Terracotta Warriors.Details The nine-night trip is from£4,800pp, including most meals andguiding, but excluding flights (01242547892, abercrombiekent.co.uk)
Walk through the rice terracesHow about hiking through themagnificent rice terraces of Longsheng?This rural China trip takes in some of themost scenic spots between Shanghaiand Hong Kong. Spend a couple of daysexploring these sloping layers of greenbefore wandering through the cobbledstreets of Lijiang Old Town. You’ll alsobe able to spend the afternoon inan ancient teahouse, visit Shangri-Laand stop at Songzanlin Monastery,the largest Tibetan BuddhistMonastery in Yunnan.Details The 13-night trip costs from£4,400pp, including flights,transfers and B&B (0208 682 5060,scottdunn.com)Ellie Ross
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain,seen from Lijiang
Benzilan is the next stopover on our TeaHorse Road adventure. We are staying atthe newLUX*hotel, which is on the banksof the gurgling, brown Yangtze River. Thisis a good-value design hotel, a mixture ofminimalism and comfort with an infinitypool and a teahouse serving the best Pu’er.It’s one of a planned eight cheap-but-chicproperties on the TeaHorse Road, includ-ing one we stayed at in Lijiang, andanother due to open in Shangri-La in 2018.Toexperiencewhat lifemighthavebeen
like on a remote part of the old tea-tradingroute we take a day trip from Benzilanacross a snowy 4,292m pass to Adong, avillage within a dozenmiles of Tibet. Herewe drink cups of welcome tea at a localguesthouse that offersmealswhenbookedin advance. Horses are still used in thevillage; one trots by as we enjoy a finelunch of spicy pork, tofu with cabbage,sliced sweet pepper and “tea eggs” (eggsboiled in tea,with a smoky taste I could seetaking off at home).The owner, SonamDorje, says there are
two remaining (long-ago retired) teahorsemen in Adong, but they are tooelderly to be visited.We sit for awhile withDorje talking about life in the mountains,drinkingDali beers followed by fiery shotsof a local liquor and then more tea.Outside, overnight snow slowly melts
on the mountain slopes. More hoofs clat-ter by on the narrow track. Then silencedescends. This iswhat theTeaHorseRoadis all about, high on the hills away from theclamour of the tourist crowds.
Onwards, northwards. The drive to thecity of Shangri-La — as Zhongdian wasrenamed in 2001 — takes a couple ofhours. “Shangri-La” began as the fictionalHimalayan place described by James Hil-ton in his book Lost Horizon, which subse-quently became synonymous with “para-dise”. Canny local officials decided to nabthename to attract visitors.On theway in-to town we stop at Tiger Leaping Gorge, a3,700m deep gorge (one of the world’sdeepest), with a raging river at the bottom.A zigzagging path plunges steeply to plat-forms by the water, one with a snarlingsculptureof the legendarydragon thatwassaid to have leapt across mountains here.Shangri-La City, once another key call-
ing point on theTeaHorseRoad, is a pecu-liar place with a run of higgledy-piggledyshops selling more shawls, bongos andpackets of maca, a root that grows locallyand is said to be an aphrodisiac. The oldtown area is small, with a square with amuseum telling the story of the tea horse-men (displays show old saddles and har-nesses), plus a fabulous Buddhist monas-tery on a hill with a giant golden prayerwheel. At night the city is lit with glowinglanterns and is busy with restaurants serv-ing hotpot meals, where people sit at atable with a bubbling cauldron of spicybroth into which you drop meat, fish andvegetables. There are some interestingchoices, such as yak tongue, “mare beeftesticles”, “pig throat”, “bat foot”, and“freshgoose intestines”, althoughI stick tocuttle-fish and seaweedwith noddles (very tasty).
Open-air perfomance atthe foot of Jade DragonSnow Mountain
SUTTIPONG SUTIRATANACHAI/GETTY IMAGES; TOM CHESSHYRE
