old naxi ladies dancing

pretty much did nothing today but visit the mu mansion. the mu family used to be the richest family in lijiang and built a huge estate to show everyone they meant business. i'm surprised the town wasn't renamed to "mu town" or something.

mu library

mansion interior

"let's build a tao temple in our courtyard..."

the other exciting thing i did today was to sent a package back to the US, 18 lbs. worth of no-longer-used traveling gear and souvenirs. to send it back by plane would've cost US$100 - even then it'd take 15-20 days. so i went with the cheapest option, via surface routes (trucks and boats) which costs around US$20, but it's going to take 2 months before it arrives. i'll be long at home by then.

old school hotpots

in the evening after i got back from a day of just wandering around, the two backpacking boys i met from litang-to-daocheng came to visit me. they'd just arrived in lijiang after a grueling 9 day hike through the yading national park to lugu lake.