I'm still ambivalent about using WeChat. After living 7 years in China without it, I just started a few days ago. Quickly added contacts and the number of messages increased dramatically to an uncomfortably obnoxious level. If I continue to use it I think I will have a love-hate relationship with the app.
On June 1 I flew from Kunming to Lijiang without green code. My wife used to get me a green code using her phone and entering my name, pp# etc. Discovered the day before the flight that she could no longer get the code for me, that method no longer worked. We decided to go to the airport and see what would happen. There, I had to sign a paper with my data and red thumb print it. My wife chastised me for overdoing the ink and blotting out the signature. Guess I don't get enough practice. After the formality I was allowed to board the plane as normal.
In travels around Lijiang and Shangri-La, wherever people had to take photo of QR code, I just say "foreigner, no WeChat". Often I get waved through, otherwise they take photo of my passport or write down info on paper pad. Most annoying is registering at guest houses in remote areas where they use a computer app to register you. This could take up to half an hour and I was even asked to input my own data directly using the keyboard. In the most remote area I visited, they didn't bother with passport at all.
Returned to Kunming yesterday, no green code needed. But requirements could change any second.
According to the website yowangdu.com:
"As of May 8, 2021, the Tibet Autonomous Region is open for foreigners currently living in China. (You will need proof of residence, a negative nucleic acid test, and a green code.) For now, Tibet remains closed to other foreign travelers."
My current glasses are no longer working, need new ones. They have progressive lenses. Do I go to the eye hospital in Kunming to get a new prescription? It's also been years since I had a routine eye checkup, for macular degeneration, glacucoma, all the usual stuff. Is that done at the hospital? Do I need to make an appointment?
A friend in Lijiang reports that the new Lijiang-Shangri-La highway opened in December 2020. Railway for same still under construction. Friend says no vaccine needed for travel to either city. But tomorrow never knows.
No results found.
Work commences on Lijiang-Shangri-la Railroad
Posted byThank you for this info. Always on the lookout for inexpensive ways to get around in Shangri-La. Last time I used a local driver for a morning drop off at Shika Mt, with a pick up in the afternoon for 50rmb.
Next time I'll look into bus 12. I'm wanting to hike up rather than take the gondola ride at Shika, stay overnight at Consonance Lake (灵犀湖). I'll probably have to doge the gondola people, who kept telling me, you can't hike here, you can't hike there.
Book Review: Lost Horizon
Posted byThe Telegraph article was originally published in China Daily. Here is a link to the original article, "Where is Shangri-La?".
www.chinadaily.com.cn/[...]
The article has a 20 minute video of author Simon Chapman's quest to find the place which inspired HIlton's novel, Lost Horizon. Chapman's conclusion? Yading Nature Reserve in Sichuan, as written about before the area had that name, by Joseph Rock in National Geographic articles of the 1930s.
Cycling in Yunnan: From Tengchong to Lincang
Posted byQuestion for bike campers: I've always wondered how you are supposed to obtain water on an overnight bike tour. Do you carry it from town or the last hostel? I'd be leery about using water from natural streams due to livestock, pollution, etc.
Hiking in Lijiang: Elephant Hill
Posted byLast month my wife heard a news report on Chinese media. Government is encouraging (mandating?) that parks and tourist sites reduce entrance fees. Goal is to encourage more visitation in response to less travel in slowing economy. The price reductions are to take place all over China. Seems to be working. Starting a few weeks ago, the entrance fee to Black Dragon Pool was reduced to 50rmb.
Tiger Leaping Gorge: Yunnan's classic trek
Posted byEntrance fee has been reduced by 30%, down to 45rmb. Half that for seniors. Guards at entrance station emphasized to me that ticket is good for one day only. Don't know how strict they will be on that. Earlier this year I entered the gorge twice on the same ticket a week and a half apart. We shall see.