Sitting on an open verandah, drinking a bottle of Wind Flower Snow and Moon lager, gazing across a garden of deepening shadows to the distant Jade Dragon Snow Mountain range: only a Chinese Coleridge could do this scene justice.
The Bruce Chalet, which is in Shuhe Old Town, on the outskirts of Lijiang, Yunnan province, and is set almost on the edge of a field. Inspired by the architecture of the local Naxi people, the 12-room hotel has stone verandah floors, wooden pillars and grey barrel-tile roofs with arched corners. Built around a green and leafy courtyard, the rooms face inwards to the garden (pictured above) and the line of mountains dominates the horizon.
Hong Kong native Bruce Chan has been seduced by the poetry of wild Yunnan. He started making the trek to Lijiang in 2007 and found it "lovely". He visited again and again, eventually leaving his merchandising job in Hong Kong to move to Yunnan for good in 2009.
Three years ago, after overseeing 12 months of construction work, the 36-year-old opened his chalet. A year ago, he married Bella, who often cooks the hotel's delicious breakfasts of eggs, toast and noodles - there's fruit and Naxi delicacies as well, including a sort of fried cheese arrangement. Guests wanting lunch or dinner, however, will have to walk the five minutes or so into the middle of Shuhe or, if they mention to chalet staff that they're hungry and are lucky, they might be taken around the corner to another house, to be presented with a range of delicacies: cobs of corn, roast pork, a tomato and egg dish and fresh plums. The friendly family providing this unusual service is, apparently, from Anhui province.
Chan has settled into this semi-rural life, a far cry from the skyscrapers of home, and he's on hand most of the time, welcoming guests, dispensing advice and organising tours and car hire. He will send a car to the airport to meet visitors - and it's wise to take advantage of that offer; as we discovered, taxis trying to find the chalet tend to get lost, even with a map and further directions by telephone from hotel staff.
