Lu Gu Lake 泸沽湖

The journey began in the morning at 0800 hours and we took a 6 hour bus ride to the lake. Along the way, we had our meal for lunch at a local’s house. The backyard tables on which we ate on were covered with flies! We still ate! (This was the meal that got me my food poisoning, as I started to have diarrhoea that very night at Lu Gu Lake.) Sighs! Min Chuan and Huijing followed suit.

On this trip, we encountered various cultures and tribes which were very interesting and native to China. Firstly, there was the Pu Mi 普米 people, which formed the smallest group of people in the world. They fell under the Naxi 纳西 Tribe as did other groups of people like Muo Suo 摩梭 and Dong Ba 东巴. The Muo Suo people were a unique group of people due to their traditions of having the women be the head of the family. A matriarchal society. In that society, the women can “marry ” any man she chooses. A man can also “marry” any women for a single night and be gone by the break of dawn. In mandarin its called èµ°å©š, in crude terms its called a one night stand. Its surprising how such a culture can withstand the test of time and the invasion of tourism on the peaceful Lu Gu Lake. A tradition of that place was to have a fire banquet every evening to celebrate (which I think its mainly for tourism!) and every family must provide one daughter to perform at the banquet. I do hope that even as the place becomes more and more open to tourism, that they culture will continue to live on.

The Lake!

Here are some pictures of the lake as well as the temple on the island right in the middle of the lake. The lake is divided by the border between Yunnan 云南 and Si Chuan 四川. One shore leads you to Yunnan and the other Si Chuan.

Our Hotel at Lu Gu Lake. Cost RMB 60 for the night for 2 persons. Very cold and the shower so don’t work! Was bathing half way and the water pressure was so low that there was no water coming out. Sians!

Min Chuan and I ended off the night in a very very “off” way – by doing our Business case! Yup, we had brought along our laptops to complete our business case as we travelled around.