China: The Final Days - Part 1

Supermarket automatic doors open for me; therefore, I am.
Craig Bruce

The end was nigh for our long and rather untiring China trip. Manufactured tourist experiences appealed to neither of us, so we spend large parts of the day looking at the real Lijiang - tarred roads, department stores, hair-dressing saloons and supermarkets.

Tip for the traveller -
If you ever wish to buy a memento for your travels, the supermarkets are the best place to do so. 

The supermarkets were way too large for a small town. It was heaven for urban folks like me. We frolicked through the aisles, like kids in a candy store, attempting to decipher Chinese products. Not daring to splurge. And yet we did.

We picked ourselves dumplings, only to realize that we need to cook them before we could eat them. Off we went to one of the random eateries on the way and through clever use of sign language that we had now practised for the last many days, we got our hostesses to steam them for us. While they were at it, we ordered another hotpot. This time it was beef. And we did not have any Chinese translations to help us out this time ...

We ended up buying our most expensive meal to day. We felt mildly cheated but we had no way of knowing if we were correct in our accusations. And so we beat a hasty retreat, picking up as many complimentary chopsticks as possible on our way out.

We sauntered through the clean and bright streets, and watched the Chinese as they relaxed on warm sunny  afternoons. This was a week day and we still found many sitting around playing cards and chess. It's a far cry from the reports I hear about Foxconn and others. But I guess tourist towns can afford to be less hectic than the manufacturing towns. And they take full advantage of that. The faces were smiling as the cards were shuffled, and the beer bottles littered all the tables.

I stood watching a game of Chinese Chess, but the rules of the game were as complex as their alphabet.
Next stop - To the supermarket, to buy myself a Chinese Chess board. Some day I shall master it, and return to China and challenge someone on the street, on a nice warm sunny day. Like a boss.

The parks were full of people, and we often found old people dancing in them. Old people dancing away, oblivious to awkward ogling Indian tourists is a sight to treasure. The men seemed meeker than the women, an observation made in every town we visited. And the women were always stylish, with overcoats and high-heeled boots. The streets were filled with the clickety-clackety sounds of heels, each in individual harmony with its owner.

I do not wish to stereotype Chinese women, but the following image plagiarized from the internet is what I truly observed -

 And so it goes.

The absence of private property was conspicuous. The buildings were rigid. All uniform and little soul. But the lack of poverty makes up for it. It really does. Would I rather see mansions and slums, or colonies of average similar homes?
But what would I prefer to live in? Therein lies the debate between capitalism and communism. Sigh.

We would move away from urban Lijiang and continue the last part of our travels in Lijiang Old Town...