Shaxi

To get away from the Chinese tourists and on advice from the Lonely Planet we took a 4 hour bus ride and 1 hour taxi to the small and secluded Shaxi village.
We were dropped off at the Dragonfly Guesthouse, a Ming dynasty house with a cobbled courtyard and even though we were the only guests the owner cooked us up a feast of half a dozen plates of meat and veg for dinner, including fried goat's cheese and sweet bamboo grubs. We were careful not to finish all the food and by extension question our host's generosity. We were still waiting on news of whether we would have a guide the next day for a 2 day hike along an ancient salt road and we sat around, had some rice wine and watched a film.
In the morning we were woken up and told that breakfast was ready and a guide was waiting for us. His name was (probably not) Dwan and he spoke no English, was shy and patient and turned out to be a fast walker.
A hot sunny day and the path full of dust and hard climbs and fresh water streams which we drank from with the donkeys. 15km later and we arrived in a small village with 1 toilet in the school for it's 8 children. The fastest way back was the way we had come. We were to stay in Dwan's farmhouse with his family. Kae impressed Dwan's folks with some drawings of the local temple while I played connect 5 with Dwan on a 'Go' board.
In the evening a friend of Dwan's made his arrival in the village known by setting off a string of firecrackers, and he was invited over. The 4 of us played a mix between dominos and a card game, and with the Chinese telling us which moves to make instead of what the rules were, we became supreme champions!
The whole family huddled around some hot coals as the night got colder. Dwan's father smoking from the typical gigantic pipe (between 2 and 3 foot in height, made of a metal tube, and smoked while squatting next to it) and everyone singing along to their 1 DVD, Chinese folk song kareoke.
We creeped outside at midnight to check the stars and there wasn't a light on in the village.
The next morning we woke up late and saw the old man peering though our bedroom window. We left, walked back the same way and on returning to Dragonfly to pick up our bags, made our way North to Lijiang.