I Love Mountains

I know this is my third post about going up on the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain...but I really do love mountains.  I couldn't pick just three or four photos...so here's another post just to post some more. 

We spent a couple of hours up on the peak.  We hiked up to the top to look at the glacier first, and to enjoy the highest view we could, and then came back down to the big deck near the cable car station.  At any and every sight that is in any way picturesque or touristy in China, there is a stand that rents out traditional or "traditional" (varying degrees of authenticity) costumes for people to take pictures of themselves dressed up in front of the whatever-tourist-sight-happens-to-be-in-the-background.  I first saw them by the city wall back in Jingzhou, and everywhere else since.  Even up here at 15000 feet, there was the predictable stand.  Here at least the costumes weren't the usual ye olde silk robes; they were going for the costumes of the local minority people, the Naxi.  I'm no expert on traditional costumes, so I don't know how close they got it, but at least they were interesting, with especially fancy headgear of fur and silver.  None of us foreigners dressed up, but several Chinese girls in costume happily agreed to pose for photos for us. 

After we took the cable car down, we loaded back onto the bus, went back to the Visitors Center to return to coats, and then loaded up again for a trip down to the Blue Valley.