The most important aspect of any restaurant is of course the food. Chef Jonay is from Spain and he has worked in numerous famous restaurants in Spain including the 3 Michelin stars Can Fabes in Barcelona. I am pleased to report the the food did not disappoint. You can certainly see the modern Spanish influence from the style of cooking here. Chef Jonay dishes has creative use of ingredients, and the dishes are all presented well.

The prices here are also very reasonable considering the level of cuisine, service and decor. We tried the 8 courses tasting menu with wine paring. I highly recommend their wine pairing. They give you a different wine for each individual course. That is 8 different wines to match 8 different courses, and some of the wines were quite rare and unconventional but they all matched the different courses rather well. Most restaurants that offer wine paring might match 1 wine to 1.5 courses at best. For those who want to eat less, there is also a 6 courses tasting menu and a la carte of course.

As the restaurant is so new, it is not yet listed in Michelin Guide of course. Compared to the peer standard of Michelin star restaurants in Hong Kong, I would award them with 2 stars.

All photos were shot in RAW with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EOS 50mm f/1.4 USM. The RAW files were converted to TIFF with Capture One Pro, with further processing by Photoshop CS5 before final output to the web. It is a pretty dark restaurant as far as photography is concerned. Most food shots were shot at ISO 6400. I am still amazed at how well ISO 6400 looks with the 5D Mark II.

Mount Satseto, known in Chinese as the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (simplified Chinese: 玉龙雪山; traditional Chinese: 玉龍雪山; pinyin: Yùlóngxuě Shān) is a mountain massif (also identified as a small mountain range) near Lijiang, in Yunnan province, southwestern China. Its highest peak is named Shanzidou (扇子陡) (5,596 m or 18,360 ft). The view of the massif from the gardens at the Black Dragon Pool (Heilong Tan) in Lijiang is noted as one of China’s finest views. The far side of the mountain forms one side of Tiger Leaping Gorge (Hutiao Xia).

Shanzidou has been climbed only once,on May 8, 1987, by an American expedition. The summit team comprised Phil Peralta-Ramos and Eric Perlman. They climbed snow gullies and limestone headwalls, and encountered high avalanche danger and sparse opportunities for protection. They rated the maximum technical difficulty of the rock at YDS 5.7.

The Austro-American botanist and explorer Joseph Rock spent many years living in the vicinity of Mt Satseto, and wrote about the region and the Nakhi people who occupy it. An interest in Rock later drew the travel writer Bruce Chatwin to the mountain, which he wrote about in an article that appeared in the New York Times and later, retitled, in his essay collection What Am I Doing Here?. Chatwin’s article inspired many subsequent travellers, including Michael Palin, to visit the region.

The Jade Water Village is at the foot of the mountain. source : wikipedia.org

As it was only early Autumn, there was not much snow on the mountain yet, but the scene was still quite spectacular. The natural beauty of the mountain and unspoiled surrounding country are well worth the visit.

All photos were shot in RAW with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM and Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM. The RAW files were converted to TIFF with Capture One Pro with further processing by Photoshop CS5 before final output to the web.

You can see a full set of photos at my SmugMug gallery here.

Impression Lijiang (印象·丽江) is a cultural show demonstrating the traditions and lifestyles of the Naxi, Yi and Bai peoples of the area. The show takes place inside Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Park at 3500m in an outdoor theater specifically designed to showcase the mountain which is used as a backdrop. The production itself was designed by Zhang Yimou (director of Hero, House of Flying Daggers), Fan Yue and Wang Chaoge, a cast of over 500 people, and a number of horses. However, the show does not have a plot. source : wikitravel.org

All photos and the movie were shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM. All photos were shot in RAW and converted to TIFF with Capture One Pro with further processing by Photoshop CS5 before final output to the web. The movies were shot in Full HD and processed with Apple iMovie.

Jade Water Village (Chinese: 玉水寨; pinyin: Yǜ Shuǐ Zhài) is a small village in Lijiang City and is a Dongba cultural centre. It is home to the Naxi tribal people. The village is near Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. source : wikipedia.org

We stayed there for a short time only, so not too many photos. All photos were shot in RAW with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM and Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM. The RAW files were converted to TIFF with Capture One Pro with further processing by Photoshop CS5 before final output to the web.

The town has a history going back more than 800 years and was once a confluence for trade along the old tea horse road. The Lijiang old town is famous for its orderly system of waterways and bridges. The old town of Lijiang differs from other ancient Chinese cities in architecture, history and the culture of its traditional residents the Nakhi people, therefore people there are called 胖金哥 and 胖金妹 (male and female respectively).

Lijiang old town (including Dayan, Baisha and Shuhe) was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List on December 4, 1997.^[1] Since then, the local government has taken more responsibility for the development and protection of the old city. Lijiang’s tourism also boomed, and travellers from around the world flooded in; although many locals fear that due to much of the development, the old town of Lijiang will lose its appeal. source : wikipedia

After a stroll through Black Dragon Pool, we arrived at the famous Old Town of Lijiang. It is a very interesting and fascinated place both architecturally and culturally speaking. However, like many old towns in China, it has become very commercialized. Most of the places are crowded with tourists. For photographers, finding ways to avoid the crowds or blend the people in harmoniously in a photo will always be a challenge. I hope my photos will show you some ways in achieving this goal.

All photos were shot in RAW with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM and Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM. The RAW files were converted to TIFF with Capture One Pro with further processing by Photoshop CS5 before final output to the web.

The Black Dragon Pool (simplified Chinese: 黑龙潭; traditional Chinese: 黑龍潭; pinyin: Hēilóngtán) is a famous pond in the scenic Jade Spring Park (Yu Quan Gong Yuan) located at the foot of Elephant Hill, a short walk north of the Old Town of Lijiang in Yunnan province, China. It was built in 1737 during the Qing Dynasty and offers a spectacular view on the region’s tallest mountain, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, over its white marble bridge. The park features several smaller temples and pavilions:

• The Moon-Embracing Pavilion (simplified Chinese: 得月楼; traditional Chinese: 得月樓; pinyin: Déyuè Lóu), which was originally built in the late Ming Dynasty. The current structure is a reproduction from 1963 after a fire in 1950.

• The Dragon God Temple (Longshen Temple) was constructed by local Naxi people in 1737 and is located to the east of the park. It was given the name Dragon God of Jade Spring by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty in the same year.

• The threefold overlap Five-Phoenix Tower (Wufeng Tower) was built during the Ming Dynasty (1601), and today located at the north end of the park. The tower was originally situated at the Fuguo Temple, which is 30 kilometers to the west, but was moved to Jade Spring Park in 1979.

The park is further home to the Dongba Culture Research Institute and the Dongba Culture Museum. source : wikipedia.org

The pool is the water source for the famous Old Town of Lijiang. It is a nice stroll and walking along the path leads you directly to the Old Town. On a good clear day, you can see the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the background behind the pond with a nice reflection on the surface of the pond. Unfortunately, on the day we were there, the snow mountain was blocked by clouds.

All photos were shot in RAW with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM. All photos were shot in RAW and converted to TIFF with Capture One Pro with further processing by Photoshop CS5 before final output to the web.

The chef of this restaurant is Ms Justine Li. She has over 20 years of experience in the culinary profession. She has served as the supervisor at the Western restaurants at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei and the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Taichung. After studying cookery in Italy she started the Papa Mio Italian restaurant in Taichung. After 8 years at Papa Mio, she attended culinary courses run by the renowned Michelin 3-star chef Joel Robuchon as well as the culinary and chocolate making courses at The Lenotre cooking school, returning home with a dozen culinary certificates. After returning to Taiwan from Europe, Justine started Fleur de Sel in 2004.

I visited Fleur de Sel during a trip to Taichung city in July this year. I have not tried enough French restaurants in Taiwan to say if Fleur de Sel is really the best French restaurant in Taiwan, but I would certainly say it would be amongst one of the best. The standard of cuisine here is on par with some of the best French restaurants I have tried anywhere else.  Every dishes were very nicely displayed, like a piece of art. Of course the most important thing is that they were delicious.

The prices at Fleur de Sel are not cheap by the standard in Taiwan, but it is very reasonably priced by international standard. If you were to visit Taichung and would like to go to good French restaurant, Fleur de Sel and Le Moût would be my top 2 recommended restaurants.

All photos were shot in RAW. The first photo showing the front of the restaurant was an HDR shot taken with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM. The HDR shot was processed with  Photoshop CS5. The rest of the photos were shot with Fujiflim Finepix X100. The RAW files were processed with Capture One Pro with further processing with Photoshop CS5 before final output to the web.

Around 15 km in length, the gorge is located where the river passes between 5,596 metre Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山; Yùlóng Xuĕshān) and 5,396 m Haba Snow Mountain (哈巴雪山; Hābā Xuĕshān) in a series of rapids under steep 2000 metre cliffs. Legend says that in order to escape from a hunter, a tiger jumped across the river at the narrowest point (still 25 metres wide), hence the name.

Administratively, the river in this area forms the border between Yulong Naxi Autonomous County of Lijiang City (right bank) and Shangri-La County of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (left bank).

Tiger Leaping Gorge is a contender for the world’s deepest river canyon, depending on the exact definition used. The inhabitants of the gorge are primarily the indigenous Naxi people, who live in a handful of small hamlets. Their primary subsistence comes from grain production and foreign hikers. The gorge is not considered navigable. In the early 1980s, four rafters attempted to go down the gorge and were never seen again. In 1986, the first known successful attempt to sail through the gorge was made by the first expedition to float down the entire length of the Yangtze, starting at the river’s high source at the Gelandandong glacier lake. source : wikipedia.org

During my trip to Yunnan last month, we left Shangri-La for Lijiang. Tiger Leaping Gorge was on the way between these tow counties. The main attraction of Tiger Leaping Gorge is the rapids at the bottom of the canyon. It was quite spectacular and certainly worth the more than 1,000 steps of stairs down and up again. Of course you have to be fit. It was quite a fight climbing back up 1,000+ steps carrying 18kg of camera equipments on my back!

After the photos, I have uploaded a short movie showing the rapid raging river at the bottom of the gorge. You can get a better perspective of the scene than just seeing the still photos. You go to YouTube to see Full HD version of the movie.

All photos and movie were shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM and Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM. All photos were shot in RAW and converted to TIFF with Capture One Pro with further processing by Photoshop CS5 before final output to the web. The movies were shot in Full HD and processed with Apple iMovie.