Elephant Mountain

On April 6th five friends and I took a plane to 丽江 "lijiang" which in English literally means pretty river. What normally would of been an eight hour bus ride was cut down to a forty minute plane ride thanks to Lucky Air.

四月六号我和五个朋友一起坐飞机到丽江，在英文的意思是“pretty river.” 如果我们坐车从昆明到丽江八个小时左右，但是我们坐飞机去只需要四十分钟。 感谢幸运民航！




We left from the Kunming Airport where there is a KFC that we ate lunch at as shown in the picture below. Why they painted all the food in color and the people in black and white I'm not sure...

你可以看下面的照片我们在昆明飞机场的肯德鸡吃午饭. 我还不太知道为什么在后面图画上的菜都有颜色但人只有黑和白色的。

Below are some shots of the excited Tom after his first flight!

下面有一些照片你可以了解Tom 有多兴奋因为他第一次坐飞机！

After our triple barrow role double touch down go up come back down landing right past a village we took a short bus ride from the airport to lijiang's new city. On the right is some of the views on the way from the airport.
Upon arrival we were greeted by Mao ze deng as shown in the picture below, then we made our way to the ancient town to find lodging.

我们坐飞机坐得很晕机的。我们的飞机三次翻滚然后降落了在一个村子上。我们到的时候说感谢上帝，所以 明白为什么航空公司叫幸运民航。在丽江的新城毛泽东迎接了我们。












On the right and below is the entrance of the 古城 "gu cheng" or Ancient Town, which is marked off with two water wheels and carved stone walls. Interestingly enough when Lijiang suffered from a tremendous earth quake in 1996 several newly built buildings of the New City collapsed and much of the Ancient town was left unharmed. The earth quake ranked a 7.0 on the ricter scale and left at least 240 people dead, 3,800 seriously injured and 186,000 damaged buildings. Yet Lijiang still remains to be one of the most famous tourist spots in Yunnan and arguably all of China.
Within the Ancient town we found the perfect little hotel, with free wireless internet! So this might not be a big deal for most y'all but it is the first time I've found Wireless internet here yet.


左边和下边可以看到丽江古城的出口。在这边有一个漂亮的水轮(shui(3) lun(2)) 和石雕(shi(2) diao(1)) 的墙。这个古城特别的有意思. 因为在一九九六年丽江有了很厉害的地震。（di(2)zhen(4)）它的新城有很多楼坍陷（tan(1)xian(4)）了, 但是古城不太多坍陷。地震仪测量 这个地震 有7.0级 。 这个地震后有二百四十人死了， 三千八百人受伤（shou(4) shang(1)）的很厉害 和大概有十八万六千栋楼破损 (po(4) sun（3）)。虽然如此 丽江还是中国最有名的一个旅游的好地方。在古城里我们找到了一个最合适的酒店，有无线网！

Below is Tom in the Hotel room still as happy as can be!

下面是Tom，在酒店一只太高兴了！

After a well needed rest we set out the next day for our first journey to climb 象山 "xiangshan" or Elephant mountain. The snow capped mountain actually however is not that mountain. Below is the view of 玉龙雪山 “yulongxueshan" or jade dragon snow mountain. This view could be seen seemingly from about everywhere in Lijiang. However, this will be another post to come soon when we actually climbed the mountain.

我们好好休息了以后一起去爬了象山。 下面的雪山不是这个山是玉龙雪山。在丽江每个地方可以看到玉龙雪山。等一下，可以告诉你这个故事，从我们爬玉龙雪山的时候。



Below is xiangshan. If you look closely you can kind of see why it is called elephant mountain in that it somewhat resembles an elephant without legs, or perhaps walking in deep mud.

在下面是象山。如果你细细（xi(4)xi）的看这个山可以知道为什么叫象山. 因为看就像一只大象。他可能没有腿或者在很深泥巴里走路。




Below is a park located at the foot of the mountain which displays the amazingly clean waters and unique bridges of Lijiang that make it famous.

下面是一个的象山脚下的公园。里面有丽江很有名的干净的水和独一无二 的桥。

Here we are finally beginning to ascend the mountain

在 这儿我们终于(zhong(1)yu(2)) 开始爬山！



We made sure to take pictures every five steps up the mountain as it seemed to just get better and better, and as we seemed to get more and more tired...

每五分钟我们在拍照，因为景色越来越漂亮。






mmm mmm goood! The mountain didn't seem to be that big but its still a 2-3 hour bus ride there from here on a perfectly straight and level road.

嗯嗯好吃！那座山看起来不太大，但是从这儿需要坐车两三个小时到玉龙雪山。






Up at the top of the mountain was a pagoda and some crazy lady who felt the need to walk out on the roof hanging over the mountain to talk on her cell phone...

在山顶我们看到了一个塔 和一个疯狂的女人 在塔上。

Otherwise the view was incredible!

其它的， 景色太惊人的！





Below is Andy and Grace. You may remember Andy from the update in December in Vietnam. Well Andy proposed to Grace on February 23rd , 2008 at "ni er guang chang," a square named after the composer of China's national anthem. The completely unexpecting Grace was out of town coming back to meet Andy at the park to talk. meanwhile Tom and I helped in the proposing process laying out a plethora of gifts out at a park bench in addition to forming the character 爱 “ai" or love in Chinese and in English out of rose pedals for them to stumble upon. Unfortunately, Andy couldn't get on one knee after being attacked by a dog the day before, long story... However, in the end they all lived happily ever after! For she had a dream that one day her boyfriend would take her to Lijiang for the first time and it finally came true!

下面是Andy 和Grace。你可能记得Andy从十二月的外出到越南。在二月二十三号Andy 向 Grace提亲 在大广场。没有预期(yi（1）qi(4)的Grace去了昆明, 回到玉溪的时候完全不 知道。同时Tom 和我在那个公园帮Andy. 我们在一个公园的长椅下边放了很多 的礼物和用华瓣（ban(4) 写中文的爱和英文的“love.”以后，他们 一直幸福地生活因为Grace 以前梦寐以求 （meng(4)mei(4)yi(3) qiu(2) 他的男朋友带他去丽江终于（zhong(1)yu(2) 实现愿望（yuan(4)wang(4)）了.

Well welcome to Lijiang! Elephant mountain was just the beginning, we would be going to hutiaoxia next or the tiger leaping gorge, then finally to the jade dragon snow mountain. I'l be sure to 马上 or get on my horse and make sure to get the other posts up soon!

欢迎到丽江！象山是第一部分， 以后要去虎跳峡 和玉龙雪山。