  Suppose $X$ is a compact connected metric space and $f: X \to X$ is a metric
coarse expanding conformal map in the sense of Ha\"issinsky-Pilgrim. We show
that if $X$ contains a homeomorphic copy of the letter "Y", then the Hausdorff
dimension of $X$ is greater than one. As an application, we show that for a
semi-hyperbolic rational map $f$ its Julia set $\mathcal{J}_f$ is
quasi-symmetric equivalent to a space having Hausdorff dimension 1 if and only
if $\mathcal{J}_f$ is homeomorphic to a circle or a closed interval.
