Earthlooping at Lijiang's Market Square
After being in Dali and reading about Lijiang, we didn't really had much expectations about the town. But the first impression was totally opposite, as it was the rest of the stay there. Lijiang is full of tourists, souvenir shops, restaurants and so on, yes. But still, it is so beautiful that you don't really care about that. Walking around its narrow alleys and being surrounded by such a beautiful architecture was like feeling in a fairytale village for a couple of days. Lijiang is how you imagine a traditional Chinese village. Touristified, yes, but worth the visit anyway!
The day we woke up in Dali to go to the train station and catch a ride to Lijiang was raining cats and dogs. Anyway, we put the raincover on and went to the station to buy the ticket. We still had to wait for a couple of hours, so went for some dumplings to kill some time.
We finally got on the train and this time we were just seating, as the trip lasted only for 2 hours. Once in Lijiang, the station is quite far from the center, so we had to take a local bus that after some 20 minutes dropped us in the new city but in front of the old one.
One of the streets in the Old Town
Lijiang new city is as any other Chinese one: traffic, people, big avenues, tall buildings, lights, etc. But when we entered the old town the situation totally changed. From the very first moment you enter the cobblestoned streets you feel you are somewhere out of this world. In a fairytale, in a theme park... yes, even if every building is either a souvenir shop, a restaurant or a hotel, still its is really beautiful. Besides, we arrived there in the late afternoon, so there was not much activity, which made the place even nicer.
small river runs all along the Old Town
As usual, the first thing we did was looking for our hostel. There are literally thousands of them in Lijiang, in every street, so finding ours took some time, but after a few asking we finally got there. It was Casamia Inn, hidden in a very small alley in the middle of the old town. The guys there didn't speak any English, but by calling someone we could somehow communicate.
The hostel was nice, with a small courtyard and a clean room. It was cold at night as in the rest of places of China but here the Internet connection was great! Can you imagine? Normal and fast internet in China! Unfortunately we didn't have much time for internet as we were only staying two nights, so we could only upoad a few pictures.
The hostel was nice, with a small courtyard and a clean room. It was cold at night as in the rest of places of China but here the Internet connection was great! Can you imagine? Normal and fast internet in China! Unfortunately we didn't have much time for internet as we were only staying two nights, so we could only upoad a few pictures.
What you see from the upper part of Lijiang: full of black roofs!
After leaving our stuff in the hostel, we went straight to sightsee a bit the surroundings, basically the market square and a few streets. Lijiang Old Town is actually quite big, so you can spend a full day or two just getting lost there.
We started walking a bit and yes, the first good impression was confirmed. Lijiang is beautiful. It is full of tourists, souvenir shops, restaurants, bars... so imagine how beautiful it is that even with all these we like it. It was Saturday that day and at night, it gets quite crazy, The buildings in the market square are most of them restaurants/bars and at night they transform into nightclubs. And it is quite surreal. Every bar has a singer surrounded by dancers and people are seating in the tables and clapping, waving balloons or making noises. Outside the bars, the touts try to lure you to go inside. If you decide to go in, you can have a table, beers and whatever you want while enjoying the surreal show, but at really expensive prices.
We started walking a bit and yes, the first good impression was confirmed. Lijiang is beautiful. It is full of tourists, souvenir shops, restaurants, bars... so imagine how beautiful it is that even with all these we like it. It was Saturday that day and at night, it gets quite crazy, The buildings in the market square are most of them restaurants/bars and at night they transform into nightclubs. And it is quite surreal. Every bar has a singer surrounded by dancers and people are seating in the tables and clapping, waving balloons or making noises. Outside the bars, the touts try to lure you to go inside. If you decide to go in, you can have a table, beers and whatever you want while enjoying the surreal show, but at really expensive prices.
The main streets are crowded with Chinese tourists. Still, if you get off them, they disappear.
As we were not really in the mood of spending hundreds of yuans there, we just went to the nearby streets. Yes, Lijiang is exactly as you imagine a Chinese traditional town. Every single building is beautiful, made from wood and with the traditional black roof. Most of them have courtyards and to make it even nicer there's a river (or stream) going all over the town. The center was quite busy but if you go off it, you can have streets and alleys for yourself.
Last thing we did before going back to the hostel was trying to find a place to eat. There are a lot of them but we just opted for a small restaurant close to the hostel and we had some noodles and a beer. End of the day!
Last thing we did before going back to the hostel was trying to find a place to eat. There are a lot of them but we just opted for a small restaurant close to the hostel and we had some noodles and a beer. End of the day!
Food stalls selling Lijiang snacks.
Next day we got the news we were waiting for from Chengdu. And these were good news, as they told us we had a permit to go to Tibet! Unfortunaletly we would have to cut one day of the tour because from the 16th of February Tibet is closed to foreigners, but anyway we were really happy!
This meant we had to shorten a bit the days in Yunnan and book a trip back to Chengdu to be there on the 8th. So, instead of visiting Lijiang, the morning was devoted to go first to the bus station and then to the train station. After comparing prices, times and everything, we booked a 24-hour bus direct from Lijiang to Chengdu. And this time it was not going to be a sleeper one but a normal seating bus, so the journey looked like quite painful. The problem was that we had no choice, it was either this bus, a train from another town but standing (all tickets were sold out) or going back to Kunming and then change train there if there were tickets.
Besides the 24-hour bus, we also booked a bus ticket for the following morning to Qiaotou, the town where the Tiger Leaping Gorge starts. We had now still almost all the day to visit Lijiang, so there we went! First we visited the local market, where mostly Naxi woman sell their products.
This meant we had to shorten a bit the days in Yunnan and book a trip back to Chengdu to be there on the 8th. So, instead of visiting Lijiang, the morning was devoted to go first to the bus station and then to the train station. After comparing prices, times and everything, we booked a 24-hour bus direct from Lijiang to Chengdu. And this time it was not going to be a sleeper one but a normal seating bus, so the journey looked like quite painful. The problem was that we had no choice, it was either this bus, a train from another town but standing (all tickets were sold out) or going back to Kunming and then change train there if there were tickets.
Besides the 24-hour bus, we also booked a bus ticket for the following morning to Qiaotou, the town where the Tiger Leaping Gorge starts. We had now still almost all the day to visit Lijiang, so there we went! First we visited the local market, where mostly Naxi woman sell their products.
After the visit to the market, we spent all day walking through Lijiang streets and alleys, climbed to the top of the town for beautiful views of the black rooftops, followed the river, visited the square where two big waterwheels are and even came accross a really nice Buddhist temple with not even a single tourist. Actually we noticed that most of the tourists are around the two main squares, so if you just go off them a little bit, you have plenty of places for yourself and you even get to see local people doing their daily life.
Besides, we could even try some of the famous Lijiang snacks. I would say they are the Chinese version of Spanish tapas: small portions of different kind of food served either on the street or in special covered restaurants full of "tapas" stalls. And they are really good! Oh, and yes, we also tried some kind of deep-fried grasshoppers for a challenge the students from Barcelona asked me to do.
Besides, we could even try some of the famous Lijiang snacks. I would say they are the Chinese version of Spanish tapas: small portions of different kind of food served either on the street or in special covered restaurants full of "tapas" stalls. And they are really good! Oh, and yes, we also tried some kind of deep-fried grasshoppers for a challenge the students from Barcelona asked me to do.
You have images like this all the time, in Lijiang
A few beers and a coconut juice (oh, coconut juice is a must in Lijiang!) and some more strolling around and we went back home to rest a bit. The following day we were going to the Tiger Leaping Gorge and the trekking was supposed not to be easy!
And so we did. We woke up in the morning, went to the market to buy some food for the bus trip and headed to the bus station. At 12:00 we had a bus going straight to Qiaotou, from where the trekking starts!
The experience in Lijiang was much better than expected. After visiting Dali we thought Lijiang would be really worse. But no, compared to Dali it is a really reccomendable place to visit while in Yunnan. Dali is totally faked, the city has been rebuilt and it has no charm at all. On the other hand, Lijiang is touristry, there are plenty of shops (especially annoying are the shops selling African drums. They are all playing the same music and there's always a brainless person pretending playing the drums. Crazy. And the worse is that there are hundreds of them!), plenty of restaurants... everything aimed at tourists. But still, the town has a lot of charm. All the beautiful buildings, streets, the river... we loved LIjiang!
You can now check our Lijiang Travel Guide and the complete set of pictures!
And so we did. We woke up in the morning, went to the market to buy some food for the bus trip and headed to the bus station. At 12:00 we had a bus going straight to Qiaotou, from where the trekking starts!
The experience in Lijiang was much better than expected. After visiting Dali we thought Lijiang would be really worse. But no, compared to Dali it is a really reccomendable place to visit while in Yunnan. Dali is totally faked, the city has been rebuilt and it has no charm at all. On the other hand, Lijiang is touristry, there are plenty of shops (especially annoying are the shops selling African drums. They are all playing the same music and there's always a brainless person pretending playing the drums. Crazy. And the worse is that there are hundreds of them!), plenty of restaurants... everything aimed at tourists. But still, the town has a lot of charm. All the beautiful buildings, streets, the river... we loved LIjiang!
You can now check our Lijiang Travel Guide and the complete set of pictures!
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