Let's start with a cat.

So, it's been a while. There's a lot to catch up on, so let's get started. We can start with the life update, and then end on our latest adventures. If you don't care about my personal ramblings (understandable), I'll put an ASCII cat to separate them - so you can scroll down and skip to the fun stuff.

I realize the last blog entry was from Vietnam, which feels like an eternity ago. Well, to state the obvious, we're not there anymore, as we went back to our life in Shanghai. My time since that holiday has been.. well, not so great. Maybe I've mentioned before, maybe not, but I was head of the international department, which closed down after this year. This is not news, as I knew about it before ever coming here. But it's meant an inordinate amount of work for me. In truth about all I could muster up on weekends were social life on Friday/Saturday nights, much less anything more adventurous.

To add onto that, this is the end of our life in Shanghai. Which, even typing that sentence really hits me in the feels. It's been an amazing five years, full of mostly ups, a few downs, but most importantly, lifelong friends. But in order to process our visa for Portugal, we need to do some things in Ella's hometown. I'm sure many people here have moved house before, and all the trouble that involves. Well, I've had the "privilege" of moving counties several times before, and believe you me, that's an even bigger deal. You pretty much need to close out your life, and condense all you own in the world to one suitcase. So, busy busy busy. And actually, we had quite a few friends who decided their China journey was over. So towards the end, it was me trying to close the entire school department, getting our life sorted, and attending farewell parties.

I'm tired, boss.

Which seems a good enough segue to mention I'm 40 now. Not that that's news, as the five people that read this are family, and close friends who also just turned 40. Physically, I feel the same as I did ten years ago (knock on wood). Well, except for maybe one difference - I've heard people compare drinking to "borrowing joy from the future". As I've gotten older, the interest rate on that loan gets higher and higher.

 

 

 

 

 

  

But I've definitely not slowed down, in fact, I've sped up. Of course there's the previously mentioned Portuguese residence visa, which is a ton of work (oddly enough, similar to the amount of work for the tourist visa we applied for last year, which really makes me question the EU's priorities). But also, I'm trying to get my online freelance teaching career off the ground. I've got a few students and contracts already, which is definitely enough for now as our life expenses are zero. But I'm trying to ramp it up to be something sustainable while we ostensibly get settled in Portugal. I've even jumped into Chinese social media, recording videos of myself teaching English in Chinese. This is part me practicing my Chinese, part me trying to recruit new students. I'm really surprised how many views they're getting, so, hopefully something good comes of it. I'll attach a video below, though unless you speak Chinese, you won't understand much. Anyway, if you want to learn English (how are you reading this?) or Chinese, there are two teachers here that are looking for work.

 

 

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And the ASCII cat marks the transition to travel adventures! Since our new home is in Yunnan Province, we're kind of spoiled for choice of places to see. Yunnan is a very diverse place, and has a reputation of being sort of like China's Thailand/Vietnam, but without the flights and language barrier. We had some free time, and for once, we were going to a place that Ella has been before, but I had not - Dali. Dali is not a place most foreigners have heard of, but it's a really big deal for Chinese tourists. It has a long history, actually being its own kingdom from around 950-1250. They controlled a big chunk of modern day Yunnan province, along with northern parts of today's Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. Nowadays, Dali has three sides to it: the first is a fairly modern Chinese city that looks pretty much like every other middle sized Chinese city - it's got tower blocks, a Walmart, and parks full of aunties dancing. The second part is full of villas and water activities. Dali is next to a huge lake, so it's the "Chinese Riviera", but 1/10th the price. The third part, and really the only interesting one to us, is the ancient town.

Now, there is no shortage of ancient towns in China. Like, literally, I'm sure there are hundreds, if not thousands in the country. Heck, there are 4 just in Shanghai, and probably a dozen more within day-trip distance of there. But there's not much reason to see more than a few, because they're pretty much the same - here's the old city wall (renovated in 2005), the traditional snack street (which also features a KFC), the city temple (like every other temple, except crowded), and an infinite number of street vendors (all selling the same refrigerator magnets).

What makes Dali different though, is that all that stuff is just 25% of the ancient town. The other 75% then, is an actual place that actual people live in. It's full of narrow streets full of coffee shops, bars, and local restaurants that locals actually go to. Amazing, I know. But most importantly for me, it's all very walkable. I always said, I wish Shanghai's Tianzifang was a whole city, and Dali comes the closest. To compare it to other places, it's sort of like the peninsular part of Macau, Spain's Toledo, or Italy's Florence. Yes, if you need to haul something, it is possible to bring a car inside. But you better really want to - there is only one through street, and all the others are so narrow, you'll be driving at walking speed. Other streets just have bollards, blocking all access until night so deliveries can come in. It's this strange, foreign concept where it's a city designed for people instead of cars. What will they think of next!? 

Chinese have taken notice, because Dali has gotten a reputation for being the "digital nomad" mecca of China. Sort of like Chiang Mai in Thailand, it has a lot of young people living on shoestring budgets to start their online business, or working remotely. It's very doable, as once you get off the tourist trail, things are much cheaper than Shanghai. In fact, one afternoon we stopped at a coffee shop, and the girl that runs it said her expenses are about 2000 yuan a month (~$280), with 800 (~$110) of that being rent. Now, I'm sure if Ella and I moved there, our expenses would be a bit more, because KFC doesn't grow on trees. But it's nice to know that if I just get tired of life, I could say "to hell with this", teach some kids online for 10 hours a week, and retire today. It's not a Plan B, more like a Plan Z. But a comforting thought nonetheless.

 

In truth, most of our time in Dali was just wandering around the ancient city. It's square-shaped, with each side being around 2km. Google tells me an average American city block is 200m, so if it's easier, 10 blocks by 10 blocks. But when the area is crisscrossed with different lanes, side alleys, and passageways, you could spend a long time there and not see everything. We probably spent 3 full days trying out shops, bars and restaurants, and we were constantly surprised. Oh, and remember when I said earlier this city was designed for people? Well, I lied, because what I meant to say is that this city was designed for cats. There were cats everywhere. After the 10th shop in a row had a cat, it just got to the point where we assumed every place had a cat somewhere, and it was our game to find it. Ella liked this game very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But as great as the ancient town is, we did venture a little further afield. For starters, we did visit the "Chinese Riviera" I mentioned earlier. We took a walk along the shore with some Shanghai friends staying near the lake. They are part of Ella's music group, and were playing a gig at an art festival on some farm. Honestly this festival looked exactly like every other American outdoor festival, which was a bit surreal for me. Also they had a horse name Shilai, which means "Come poop". Apparently this horse will poop every time he finishes walking. If that's not a great horse name, I don't know what is. But we just milled about, eating BBQ while listening to bluegrass music on a farm in the middle of nowhere in southern China (which I think has to be a new sentence).

 

After the surrealness of that situation wore off, we also went to the nearby town of Xizhou. Xizhou is sort of like Dali without nearly the number of tourists, although having an ancient town nonetheless (see, they're everywhere!) They seemed to specialize in snacks and textiles, so we got a chance to eat a lot and tex...tile... a lot? Actually most of the residents are of the Bai minority group, and they have a tradition of this blue tie dye pattern that they put on everything. Like most of Yunnan (and very unique for China), they're big on cheese, often roasting or frying it, then adding rose jam on top. Yeah, jam made from roses. Amazingly good. This place seemed older than Dali but not nearly as busy. It was a nice enough day trip, but a bit too quiet for my tastes.

 

 

And finally, our last stop was to the mountain. I always love me a good mountain, and Dali has a pretty tall one. Cangshan is 4000 meters tall, or roughly half the height of Everest. You can actually take a cable car almost to the top, but we opted for one a bit lower. Mostly because it's rainy season and every day the top of the mountain was covered in clouds, so the view would be pretty blah. Not to mention the price difference - 360 yuan (~$50) a person to go to the top, or 120 yuan (~$17) to go up "only" 3000 meters. Of course I can't compare it to the top, but wow, the view from 3000 meters was amazing. There were lots of bridges back and forth over a fast-moving river, with waterfalls and lots of other vistas. The cable car itself also had some amazing views, so, 10/10 experience, and maybe one of my favorite cable cars ever (gotta still say Maokong in Taipei is the best - I love it up there).

 

 

Wow, this has certainly turned into a long blog! But now you're all caught up on things. The last night in Dali we got to meet another China friend traveling through the area, who was leading a group of 5 others. It was a great send off to a sudden but very welcome trip, as she moves back to her new home in France. And who knows, maybe Ella and I will be a 2-hour plane ride away from her in the future - or we'll drown in this sea of visa paperwork.