The Road to Tradition: The Excursion

             I haven’t really mentioned the exciting eight-day excursion mainly because there was so much we did that I could write a book about it. I’ve also been procrastinating on this post.

            Our excursion started Monday, July 7^th to Tuesday, July 15^th. Almost each day we were at a different city. Some cities were more urban than others. At these cities we had lectures about medicine and culture. We also got to explore the cities on our own. I have a list of the places we went.

Weibaoshan Daoist Mountain

Here we hiked a really tall mountain while checking out the temples built on top of it. The next morning, we had a Daoist talk on health preservation and a Daoist Taiji and flute music demonstration. This was probably the most tiring day from all the hiking.

Dali

This was an amazing urban city! We rented mopeds and bikes and drove around the countryside. This was my favorite city because I like urban and there were many restaurants and shops to explore. I also got an amazing workout from biking.

Shibaoshan and Shaxi

We saw monkeys and then hiked the Shibaoshan Mountain! Later that night we saw and learned about Bai herbal medicine in Shaxi. The next morning we visited a Shaxi clinic. There were some things that stood out to me about the Shaxi clinic such as no patient privacy. Their names, where they live, cost of treatment and how much the insurance covers are shown on a board in a hallway. However, patients don’t seem to complain about this.

Lijiang

This was an amazing city full of entertainment and food. Here we went to a Naxi ancient music concert. It was really good! The Naxi are an ancient minority group in Yunnan. The next day we had an intro to the Dongba culture which included their ceremonies and chants, which get rid of evil spirits, to preserve health, and to treat sickness. Later we visited a Dongba shaman’s home. I mentioned the Dongba shaman in one of my previous posts about the fortuneteller so you can read more about it on that post.

Zhongdian

Here we were at a really high altitude and it was very rural with huge mountains. We got to ride horses.  I rode one by myself but I didn’t know how to control it and my horse was acting disobedient. When I got off to take pictures, my horse wandered around and I lost him so I had to find a new horse on the way back.

Later we listened to a talk on Tibetan view of health. The next day we visited a Songzanlin monastery. Then we listened to a talk on Tibetan Buddhism, meditation and health. We had a question and answer session with a living Budda. You can read more about it on my post about two wise men. We finished the day by visiting a Tibetan class II hospital and a Tibetan orphanage. The orphanage houses 20 boys and 19 girls. We had fun watching them perform a dance for us. Then we danced with them.

Hot springs

We learned a little about the science behind the therapeutic hot springs. Our professor told us that most people look younger and live longer because of the health benefits when swimming in the hot pools. Also, best place to relax! This was the last place we visited. The next morning we headed back to Kunming.

There is honestly so much to write about each of these places! It was an amazing mini-break from Kunming.