Our first stop this morning was a visit to the Black Dragon Pool located at the bottom of Elephant Hill in Lijiang.

The Black Dragon Pool is located in the scenic Jade Spring Park just a short walk from the Old Town of Lijiang. It was built in 1737 during the Qing dynasty offering views to the north of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

The Black Dragon pool is enormous, with an area of 40 hectares and it provides a haven for bird and water-life, with spectacular plants. Surrounding the pool, within the park's landscape, are ancient monuments such as the Longshen Temple, the Deyue Pavilion, the Suocui Bridge and the Hanyue Stage.

On arrival at the park we walked along a colored cobbled lane to reach a white marble bridge over emerald water: the Suocui Bridge. To the north is the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the source of the Jade Spring and its famous white clouds. The Deyue Pavilion rests at the centre of the lake, on the same axis as the Hanyue Stage. At the gate, there is a pair of couplets inscribed by the famous Chinese writer Guo Moruo.

The Longshen Temple is the impressive centre-piece of the park. It consists of a gate-house with two wings and a great hall.

The ambience around the park was very peaceful and relaxing. There were numerous groups meeting to either practice Tai Chi, dance their traditional dances in traditional costumes, young people doing aerobics to chinese music or just playing majong. It was cloudy today so we had no views of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

We continued our journey by bus to the Lijiang Airport where we farewelled our driver Trevor. We passed through four security checks before reaching our gate. Jenny was pulled up at the first security check and had to unpack her bag. She had a small can of hairspray and a lithium battery in her case. Clara packed us her version of a Western Lunch. She had a sandwich which had corn, paste and a salami type of meat, an apple, bottle of water and lollies and crisps. We all loved lunch because we have been eating 7 course chinese banquets for the past week and welcomed the change in diet. Landing in Wulong we were met with our local guide, Jessie and our new coach driver Mr Wong. Mr Wong was a maniac driver, we all felt unsafe. The coach had a loud grinding noise coming from the rear axle. We asked him to stop the coach and have a look and that is exactly what he did. He stopped the coach, walked to the rear, looked and then got back on board and continued to drive. Clara, Jessie and Mr Wong tried to reassure us that there was nothing wrong but we were not convinced. A few days later the coach went in for repairs. On arrival at Wulong we checked into our hotel and had our evening meal at the hotels restuarant. The meal was aweful. After dinner our group went for a walk around Wulong and we found a supermarket that sold crisps and alcohol. I was unable to use my credit card. Apparantly you can only use credit cards in the larger cities and I was told I had to wait till we reached Chengdu to obtain money. The chinese dont like debt. Back to our hotel with our supplies and up to the first floor for a nightcap with our fellow travellers.