Several years ago, when I was still young, fit, childless and responsibility free, I trekked half-way up the foothills of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain near Lijiang, in search of a village called Wenhai. My friend Amir, who had done all of the research about our trek, told us that there was a lake at Wenhai, a lake that was remarkable in that it is a seasonal alpine lake, which means that the lake is dry in some seasons and wet in others. Envisioning soaring snow capped peaks and pristine waters, we started our trek at the foot of the mountain, making our way up a winding road near Baisha. The road was paved, and so this part of the trek was not particularly hazardous, and despite our somewhat late start, we were confident we could make it to Wenhai before dark, having been informed that the trek would take four, perhaps five hours at best.

Photo: Wootang01

However, it quickly became clear that we would not reach our destination before nightfall and we grew nervous about the prospect of being stranded overnight on a remote stretch of road halfway up a mountain. The sky was also growing ominously dark, not with the setting of the sun, but with clouds, threatening rain. We tried to put these negative thoughts aside, however, and kept trekking on, as any good adventurers would do. I should interject, at this point, and say that at that point none of the three of us trekking were particularly experienced mountain climbers. Amir and Wolf, the two guy friends on the trek with me, had more outdoor experience than myself, but I would hardly have classified them as mountaineers. I am sure that, had push come to shove, we could have survived on the side of the mountain overnight, but it would not have been pretty.

So, we were relieved when a Chinese truck came lumbering up the road, carrying a load of farmers on the flatbed in the back, returned, as it so happened, from market day, which happened only once a week. Imagine our luck! We flagged down the truck, jumped rather ungracefully into the flatbed along with farmers, kids, and livestock, and hitched a ride up to Wenhai. So much for the trek, but, we consoled ourselves; we could always make up for it on the way back down. The road was bumpy and several times I felt I would be thrown from the truck, but we made it up in one piece and entered the village of Wenhai.

Photo: dtkuma2

Wenhai, at first glance, looked like any other small Yunnanese village. Mud huts, corn fields, with hemp plants growing practically everywhere, and old women in some semblance of minority – in this case Naxi – garb in the courtyards of the houses, watching the world go by. The famed Wenhai Lake was not visible, neither was the guesthouse, the Wenhai eco-lodge that we’d heard of. We enquired about accommodations and the driver of the truck said we could room in his farmhouse for 30RMB each a night, quite expensive considering our location – at that time you could get a clean room with a bathroom in places like Jinghong or even in Lijiang itself at certain times, for that price. But the man knew he had us cornered, it wasn’t as if hotels and guesthouses lined the streets as they do in Lijiang or Shuhe. So we reluctantly agreed.

Later, we came to find out that the lake was not “in season,” as we had traveled during the October holiday, whereas the lake is at its best in the Spring and Summer months, when rainfall keeps it full and all sorts of wildlife take up residence on its shores. When we walked out to take the look at the lake, it was shallow and unimpressive. Walking around the lake we did find the Wenhai Eco-Lodge, but it was boarded up, apparently only opening to guests who had booked ahead of time, or in high season. The rest of the village did not have much to offer. Amir’s camera had run out of batteries and we attempted to buy some at one of the two small corner stores in the village. The batteries we procured were strangely light, almost as if they were empty, and turned out to be good for one picture and no more. As a consequence we have very few pictures of that trip to Wenhai!

Photo: Ed-meister

We ended up staying 2 nights and then making the trek back. The trek back was more eventful than the stay itself, as we decided to forsake the road and set of down the mountain in roughly the direction of Lashihai, the other lake between Wenhai and the base of the mountain. We walked down for a good three or four hours, as the downhill trek was much quicker than the uphill one, going through mountain streams, coming suddenly upon hidden valleys, and meeting more than one mountain hunter and goatherd along the way. The woods were lush and green and the weather was just right, not hot, not cold, which make the trek pleasant. We were never quite certain where we would come out when we finally got to the bottom of mountain, but as circumstance would have it we’d end up walking down the mountain an directly into Shuhe, a new “Old Town” which had that very year been “opened” and by now has become a must-see stop along the Lijiang route. In this way we discovered Shuhe, which is now a favorite of mine and my preferred place to stay when I end up in Lijiang, and also discovered that trekking up to Wenhai in October was, perhaps, not the best idea we’d ever had.

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