Lijiang
Overview
Almost everywhere you read about Lijiang (especially in the Lonely Planet) makes you feel like you don’t really want to go there. Touristified, souvenir shops… spoiled. They compare it to Dali (the other mass-touristified city in Yunnan) and they say go for Dali instead of Lijiang.
So, after visiting Dali, I was quite afraid that Lijiang would be even worse. How wrong I was and how wrong Lonely Planet is. True, Lijiang is touristry, all the streets are filled with mostly souvenir shops and there are Chinese tourists almost everywhere. But, still, Lijiang is beautiful. It’s a town taken from a fairytale or a videogame. It’s the idea you have of a Chinese town before visiting the country: a maze of narrow cobblestone alleys, a stream going across the town and all the houses built in Chinese traditional style. Really, beautiful despite the tourism and still possible to imagine how much nicer it would have been some centuries ago.
If you have doubts about visiting Lijiang for what you have read or, coming from Dali, for what you have seen, don’t get wrong, go to Lijiang, spend two days wandering around its streets and you will love it. Actually my recommendation is to skip Dali, go to Erhai Lake and from there just use Dali to jump on a bus to Lijiang. Always, always, choose Lijiang instead of Dali!
So, after visiting Dali, I was quite afraid that Lijiang would be even worse. How wrong I was and how wrong Lonely Planet is. True, Lijiang is touristry, all the streets are filled with mostly souvenir shops and there are Chinese tourists almost everywhere. But, still, Lijiang is beautiful. It’s a town taken from a fairytale or a videogame. It’s the idea you have of a Chinese town before visiting the country: a maze of narrow cobblestone alleys, a stream going across the town and all the houses built in Chinese traditional style. Really, beautiful despite the tourism and still possible to imagine how much nicer it would have been some centuries ago.
If you have doubts about visiting Lijiang for what you have read or, coming from Dali, for what you have seen, don’t get wrong, go to Lijiang, spend two days wandering around its streets and you will love it. Actually my recommendation is to skip Dali, go to Erhai Lake and from there just use Dali to jump on a bus to Lijiang. Always, always, choose Lijiang instead of Dali!
Sightseeing
-Lijiang Old Town: This is the place to be: Lijiang has the New Town (like any other Chinese city) and the Old Town, the fairytale one. Just walk, walk and get lost in the maze of cobblestone streets, narrow alleys and stone bridges crossing the small stream dividing the town.
There are two main busy points in Lijiang: the main square and the square where the two waterwheels are. All these areas and the surrounding streets, despite being full of people and shops, they are still worth walking around, as they are really lively places and they offer good eating options, with plenty of food stalls offering the famous Lijiang snacks (the equivalent to Spanish Tapas).
Out of these areas, just get lost and you will find beautiful empty streets, local people having their daily life and you will come across even nice shops where to get yourelf a nice souvenir.
This is Lijiang, similar to a Medina in any Islamic country, the thing to do is walking without a map and getting lost discovering streets and corners by yourself.
-Viewpoint over the Old Town: If you want to have an aerial view of Lijiang Old Town, from the main square, take the steps going up on the left of the stream. You will see signs pointing at the viewpoint. When you get there, instead of paying the 50 yuan to enter the viewpoint, just walk right and you will find some free viewpoints from where you will have the view over Lijiang. Actually what you will see is a cluster of black roofs, as the streets are so narrow that it is impossible to see anything else but roofs from above. Still, worth the walk and the view.
-Buddhist Temple: While walking around the Old Town, if you pay attention to the walls, you will see some signs pointing at a Buddhist Temple. Follow them and you will get to a small square where the Temple is. It is free to visit and really interesting. What’s more, all the tourists concentrate in the areas around the two main squares, so you are likely to have the temple for yourself! Really reccomendable.
-Market: Every morning, there is a local market at the Southern entrance of the Old Town. You can mainly buy food there and see local people stock-up. It’s not really special, but worth a visit to get some cheap fruits or just to have a taste of local Naxi life.
So remember, despite whatever you read on the Lonely Planet or anywhere else recommending you to go to Dali and to skip Lijiang, don’t get wrong and go to Lijiang. If you want to see a typical Chinese town as the one you imagine before going to China, go for Lijiang. It is touristified and so on, but still most of the people concentrate around the main square and the two waterwheels, so you will have hundreds of streets and alleys for yourself!
There are two main busy points in Lijiang: the main square and the square where the two waterwheels are. All these areas and the surrounding streets, despite being full of people and shops, they are still worth walking around, as they are really lively places and they offer good eating options, with plenty of food stalls offering the famous Lijiang snacks (the equivalent to Spanish Tapas).
Out of these areas, just get lost and you will find beautiful empty streets, local people having their daily life and you will come across even nice shops where to get yourelf a nice souvenir.
This is Lijiang, similar to a Medina in any Islamic country, the thing to do is walking without a map and getting lost discovering streets and corners by yourself.
-Viewpoint over the Old Town: If you want to have an aerial view of Lijiang Old Town, from the main square, take the steps going up on the left of the stream. You will see signs pointing at the viewpoint. When you get there, instead of paying the 50 yuan to enter the viewpoint, just walk right and you will find some free viewpoints from where you will have the view over Lijiang. Actually what you will see is a cluster of black roofs, as the streets are so narrow that it is impossible to see anything else but roofs from above. Still, worth the walk and the view.
-Buddhist Temple: While walking around the Old Town, if you pay attention to the walls, you will see some signs pointing at a Buddhist Temple. Follow them and you will get to a small square where the Temple is. It is free to visit and really interesting. What’s more, all the tourists concentrate in the areas around the two main squares, so you are likely to have the temple for yourself! Really reccomendable.
-Market: Every morning, there is a local market at the Southern entrance of the Old Town. You can mainly buy food there and see local people stock-up. It’s not really special, but worth a visit to get some cheap fruits or just to have a taste of local Naxi life.
So remember, despite whatever you read on the Lonely Planet or anywhere else recommending you to go to Dali and to skip Lijiang, don’t get wrong and go to Lijiang. If you want to see a typical Chinese town as the one you imagine before going to China, go for Lijiang. It is touristified and so on, but still most of the people concentrate around the main square and the two waterwheels, so you will have hundreds of streets and alleys for yourself!
Accomodation
There are thousands of options to stay in Lijiang. Actually, much more than half of the buildings in the Old Town, are hotels or guesthouses, and really nice ones as all the buildings are traditional and they just use them to provide accommodation to tourists. The problem is that most of the places are more expensive than in the rest of China.
We stayed at Casamia Guesthouse (88 yuan per room with private toilet). It is a small place right in the middle of the Old Town. No English is spoken but the guys taking care of the place are really nice. Being Yunnan, it is really cold at night during winter and you only have an electric blanket to warm you up. And the most surprising thing is that we had the fastest and best Internet connection in the whole trip in China!
Really a reccomendable option in Lijiang, actually we visited Lijiang two different times and stayed at the same place both times.
We stayed at Casamia Guesthouse (88 yuan per room with private toilet). It is a small place right in the middle of the Old Town. No English is spoken but the guys taking care of the place are really nice. Being Yunnan, it is really cold at night during winter and you only have an electric blanket to warm you up. And the most surprising thing is that we had the fastest and best Internet connection in the whole trip in China!
Really a reccomendable option in Lijiang, actually we visited Lijiang two different times and stayed at the same place both times.
Food & Drink
Lijiang snacks. This is what you must try if you are in Lijiang. It is the Chinese equivalent to Spanish tapas: small portions of different kinds of food. You have from noodles, to mushrooms with a fried egg on top, fish, octopus, tofu, shrimps… the variety is wide. You will find plenty of food stalls selling snacks and also skewers around the streets in the Old Town, especially near the two main squares. Besides, there are big covered restaurants selling only snacks, being two of the biggest ones in the waterwheels square and on the street going south from the main square. In these restaurants, you walk around choosing your snacks and you seat in one of the tables. These places are really busy especially at night, but the food is good and the experience really reccomendable!
The only downside of the snacks is the price. Expect to pay between 10 and 25 yuan for each snack, so if you plan to have a meal on snacks, it will be quite pricey.
Appart from snacks, Lijiang also has the typical Chinese reastaurants offering noodles, rice, dumplings and the typical stuff, and for the ones tired of Chinese food there’s a KFC and a McDonald’s in the waterwheels square.
As to drinks, beer is available everywhere and among the snacks stalls, try the coconut juice, really good!
For the ones who want to try something really special, there’s at least one stall near the main square with deep-fried insects and bugs on display. They are between 10 and 25 yuan the skewer of bugs, grasshoppers, scorpions… they put some spices on it and they are quite tasty, so give it a try!
The only downside of the snacks is the price. Expect to pay between 10 and 25 yuan for each snack, so if you plan to have a meal on snacks, it will be quite pricey.
Appart from snacks, Lijiang also has the typical Chinese reastaurants offering noodles, rice, dumplings and the typical stuff, and for the ones tired of Chinese food there’s a KFC and a McDonald’s in the waterwheels square.
As to drinks, beer is available everywhere and among the snacks stalls, try the coconut juice, really good!
For the ones who want to try something really special, there’s at least one stall near the main square with deep-fried insects and bugs on display. They are between 10 and 25 yuan the skewer of bugs, grasshoppers, scorpions… they put some spices on it and they are quite tasty, so give it a try!
Transportation
To get to Lijiang from Dali, jump on the train from Xiaguan (Dali New Town) for 34 yuans and in two hours you will be in the train station. From there, to get to the Old Town, you have to get on bus 18, pay one yuan and get off after some 30 minutes.
If you go to Lijiang from Qiaotou (Tiger Leaping Gorge), there are buses coming from Shangri-La every 30 minutes or so. 40 yuan per person and 1,5 hours of travel time.
Getting around in Lijiang is made entirely on foot, and if you need to go to the bus station, a taxi should cost you around 10 yuan, although we decided to walk and it took 20 minutes from the Old Town to the bus station.
To get out, if you’re heading to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, you have to get on a bus to Shangri-la and get off in Qiaotou, there are buses reagularly during the day, they cost 40 yuan and take 1,5 hours to get to Qiaotou.
If you want to go to Chengdu, try, by all means, to avoid the direct bus. It’s not a sleeper, it stops 7 hours somewhere in the middle of the road to sleep, and people getting on that bus are really disgusting and noisy. Get it only if, as us, you have no other option. It costs 322 yuan and takes 24 hours to get to Chengdu (7 of them stopped to sleep).
Some much better options to get to Chengdu are taking a 8-hour bus to Panzhihua and from there a 12 hour train or taking a train to Kunming and from there another train to Chengdu. The journey will be more expensive and it will take longer, but believe me, you will prefer it to the bus. Just plan and book ahead, as we took the bus because there were no beds nor seats on any train for the dates we wanted.
If you go to Lijiang from Qiaotou (Tiger Leaping Gorge), there are buses coming from Shangri-La every 30 minutes or so. 40 yuan per person and 1,5 hours of travel time.
Getting around in Lijiang is made entirely on foot, and if you need to go to the bus station, a taxi should cost you around 10 yuan, although we decided to walk and it took 20 minutes from the Old Town to the bus station.
To get out, if you’re heading to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, you have to get on a bus to Shangri-la and get off in Qiaotou, there are buses reagularly during the day, they cost 40 yuan and take 1,5 hours to get to Qiaotou.
If you want to go to Chengdu, try, by all means, to avoid the direct bus. It’s not a sleeper, it stops 7 hours somewhere in the middle of the road to sleep, and people getting on that bus are really disgusting and noisy. Get it only if, as us, you have no other option. It costs 322 yuan and takes 24 hours to get to Chengdu (7 of them stopped to sleep).
Some much better options to get to Chengdu are taking a 8-hour bus to Panzhihua and from there a 12 hour train or taking a train to Kunming and from there another train to Chengdu. The journey will be more expensive and it will take longer, but believe me, you will prefer it to the bus. Just plan and book ahead, as we took the bus because there were no beds nor seats on any train for the dates we wanted.
Safety
Lijiang is totally safe, no issues at all during the day or the night. Some streets are really crowded, so just in case keep an eye on your belongings.
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