Almost no one had heard of Lijiang, a city in Yunnan province, until an earthquake in 1996 attracted news media - which led to the discovery of a lost gem of an ancient city (actually, a series of them), still mostly intact. Some people claim that subsequent development has turned it into an amusement park. But while there are pockets of commercialisation - 'Would you like to take a photo with my falcon?' - much beauty and culture remains.
It's clean and peaceful, and easily accessible on foot. The dominant ethnic minority is the Naxi, a people whose cuisine is rich and pungent, and heavy on vegetable dishes using peppers and pumpkins and all manner of cabbage. The produce is extraordinary. Talk to a local about organic agriculture, and he'll say: 'That's how we've always done it.'
Winters are cold but ultra-dry and sunny - a time when meat is air-dried and green vegetables hang from everything from fire hydrants to bicycles, in preparation for being preserved. Vegetables are at their peak in summer, the rainy season; and early autumn is when wild mushroom foraging takes place.
The dining is delightful, and here are a few notable examples.
Ya Jun Xiao Chao Wang
For many this will be a first time in a restaurant featuring Qinghai cuisine. The floor requires constant sweeping, the air carries wafts of cigarette smoke, and it is noisy - but, oh my, the food. The signature dish is 'big plate chicken' - or, in a smaller group, 'small plate chicken' - but the name offers no idea of the complexities to come. This dish is basically potato, and the poorer provinces surely know how to make humble vegetables delicious. In this case, the quartered potatoes are slow-cooked in a gently spiced gravy of tomato, cumin, ginger and onion, and combined with diced chicken, long fresh green chillis and long dried red chillis.
912-5 Hua Ma Street, Lijiang. Tel: +86 (888) 513 9869
