Much better day today. After more noodles for breakfast we walked through a big food market in search of the public bus that would take us up to Yulong Snow Mountain.

We found it and were on our way. The journey took about an hour and Millie listened to music for the ride. She listened to about 3 songs from Taylor Swift’s new album before saying “I don’t like it much, the songs are too fast for me.” The reviews are in, folks.

As we drove I started to see the mountains.

We were dropped off at the very large visitor’s center. Most of the other tourists had oxygen canisters, like hairspray bottles, that they would take hits from to counteract the altitude. We decided against getting them, but could feel the lack of oxygen when going up stairs.

We unfortunately couldn’t book anything ahead of time because we don’t have a Chinese phone number, and by the time we got to the desk they told us that every cable car to the top of the mountain was sold out for the day. So instead as bought a ticket to take a bus about 10 minutes away to see a big blue lake.

Everything was very, very packed. I assume it’s always kind of busy, but it’s especially busy this week for the holidays. It’s not a great week to be a tourist in China. That said, everything here is very efficient and orderly. Every process in place is logical and optimized.

We got to the lake. I imagined how peaceful it would be without people shoving me out of the way for photos.

Millie insisted on taking this one of us.

We walked the perimeter of the lake. There was a tourist trap set up where you could pay to sit on a yak and take a photo. Millie wanted to do it but then got very scared at the last moment. She cried for a while about wanting to go on the yak but not wanting to go on the yak. Courage lost and we left without the yak photo.

We made our way back to the bus. Every 100ft or so on the drive, a bride and groom were having a photo shoot.

Back at the visitor’s center we remembered it was Friday and got the first ice cream we saw. Huge milestone: Millie’s first McDonald’s ice cream.

I went to the bathroom and waited literally 20 minutes in a line to pee. When I finally got to the front I found that people were leaving the western toilets unused and opting to use the hole-in-the-ground ones. Do people prefer the holes? Or is this a politeness thing where they leave the better ones for those who need them? Chinese friends, sound off in the comments.

We hung out for a bit to wait for our next event, the Lijiang Impression show. This is a performance to showcase the local Naxi culture.

I wisely took one of the free hats as we were walking in. We sat in the direct mountain sunlight for an hour. The crowd and I were giving MAGA rally.

We couldn’t understand a word of the show but it was an impressive performance. I think it had about 250 people (plus a bunch of horses) in it. I kept wondering if the cast was larger than the audience.

After this was over we spent a while trying to find the return bus stop. When we finally did we realized the line was about an hour long in direct sunlight. A woman came up to us offering us a private car for $12. Probably a ripoff for a local but was money well spent for us. We sat in traffic for a while and she dropped us off at the gate to the old city.

We got lost trying to find our way back to our hotel. Google maps doesn’t work here and the various Chinese map apps we downloaded aren’t much better, or maybe they are and it’s user error. The old town is full of very quaint and beautiful alleys that look identical.

Eventually we found the hotel and were greeted with a late afternoon snack and tea. This little hotel has been so great.

We walked just a few doors down and had a great dinner. We’ve been eating mostly street food so it was good to eat something substantial. Millie ate only white rice. I hope when we get to Korea or Japan we can get her eating better again.

We had Yunnan sweet & sour snow fish soup, stir fried mushrooms & vegetables, and an egg soup I ordered hoping Millie would eat but she did not touch.

We went right back to the hotel tonight to avoid the crowds.