Black Dragon Cafe

They have torn up the road running through Tiger Leaping Gorge in order to widen it. This means they dynamite regularly and transportation is limited to certain times of the day.

Buses are now running 11am to 1pm, and after 8pm. Otherwise they are blowing up bits of cliff. From Tina’s Guest House at the north end of the gorge you take a minivan half way, then there’s a short walk across a pile of rocks and mud (you have to be a bit careful here, there’s still stones rolling down). Then you get another minivan back to Qiaotou. The entire trip should cost RMB 150 / minivan, and each minivan can seat a maximum of seven people.

Zhang Ahe from Dajie Lane donated 20 yuan
Yang Dingfang from Fucunli donated 20 yuan
Li Shuangmei from Dashi donated 20 yuan…

Kate Griffin, an international consultant in literature and translation amongst many other things, recently visited Dali. Please check out her photography site for stunning photos of her travels in Yemen and Croatia…

www.kategriffin.org

We have about 800 books in the cafe, and here’s a list of what was borrowed and sold in our first three months…

Sold

Pride and Prejudice (digested bilingual) – Jane Austen
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh – Michael Chabon
Blow Out – Catherine Coulter
DK Eyewitness Travel Guides Vienna
DK Eyewitness Travel Guides Covent Garden
Selected Poems – T.S. Eliot
The Last Camel Died at Noon – Elizabeth Peters
Vernon God Little – DBC Pierre
Heart of the Sea – Nora Roberts
The Best Short Works of Mark Twain – Mark Twain

Borrowed

The Stranger – Albert Camus
Persuader – Lee Child
The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
The Living – Annie Dillard
The Seven Sisters – Margaret Drabble
Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse (borrowed twice)
The Undiscovered Self – C.G.Jung
The Fifth Woman – Henning Mankell
Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
Anil’s Ghost – Michael Ondaatje (borrowed twice)
Duino Elegies – Rainer Maria Rilke
Polar Star – Martin Cruz Smith
The Autograph Man – Zadie Smith
The Temple-Goers – Aatish Taseer