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Lijiang is the most iconic of China’s ancient towns. In many ways, it set the standard for China’s modern ancient-town tourism boom.
I’ve wanted to go to Lijiang for ages. In 2025, I finally planned a trip to Yunnan and made my dream a reality.
After spending three days in Shanghai, with day trip to Hangzhou, Longjing, and Zhujiajiao Water Town, I caught a domestic flight directly to Lijiang. Despite having done lots of research and being warned about how commercialized Lijiang is, I was still in for many surprises.
Much of the info I’d found online or in travel guidebooks was totally wrong or outdated (China is changing at lightning speed). Things I expected to enjoy the most were my least favorite, and vice versa. And all the info for getting to Tiger Leaping Gorge (my next stop) was wrong.
I’m writing this article to share the most recent information about Lijiang, including my favorite things to do, how I planned my three days there, including day trips, and several challenges I overcame (and you likely will need to, too).
This article is going to be long but packed with practical information. Please use the table of contents as needed!
Table of Contents
Where to Stay in Lijiang
Guidebooks suggest staying outside the Ancient Town, but I disagree with this.
Yes, shoestring travelers can find cheaper accommodations outside the Ancient Town, but for me, the main reason I was visiting Lijiang was for the Ancient Town, and there are so many cool accommodation options inside it – if you don’t mind paying a little more (in my opinion totally worth it).
In fact, there were so many enticing options that I decided to split my four nights up into two different hotels.
I spent my first two nights at Yangguang Nali (阳光纳里·美宿古城中心店)(see on Trip / Booking / Agoda). I recommend using Trip to book your hotels in China (even though I normally prefer Booking). It’s more common in China, preferred by them, has more choices, and is often cheaper. They are also more likely to reply to your messages on Trip.
I actually used Booking for this one, because that’s where I first spotted it, and I could find the equivalent on Trip until later. It turned out that the address on their Booking page is actually wrong, which I found out the hard way. But the one on Trip is correct. Even though I told them about this, they still haven’t changed it…
To avoid this problem, you can either ask the guesthouse to provide airport pickup or to meet you at the town entrance. Book it on Trip, where they will actually reply to your messages.
Besides that little hiccup, this guesthouse was great. It was in the heart of the Ancient Town, not too far from Sifang Jie (四方街 or Main Square), but in a very quiet little alley.
The owner was friendly and runs a cute little coffee shop inside the guesthouse. But the best part was my room, which had a main floor living room and bathroom with large tub.
The bed was in second-floor loft. From there, I could climb out the window onto a cute little patio with incredible view of the ancient town rooftops, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the distance, and it had a sun and moon prop that was lit up at night.
For my third and fourth nights, I relocated to a different guesthouse called Jianshe Inn (简舍客栈) (see on Trip / Booking / Agoda).
This one ended up being great as well – probably my preferred of the two. The location was a little further (not a bad thing, because you don’t want to be too close to the noisy main square). It was tucked away up a quiet lane in the northeast of the ancient town.
I spent a little more here to have the best room in the house. My room had Japanese zen vibes, a huge round bathtub, and a patio overlooking the ancient town.
I spend several hours just hanging out in this room because it was so nice. My only complaint is that when in the tub, I had to close the balcony door, otherwise passing hotel guests might be able to see into my room.
My Three-Day Lijiang Itinerary
In order to have three full days in Lijiang, I actually booked four nights there, which I split between two hotels (I like trying different ones).
On my arrival day, I took a taxi from the airport to the old city, found my hotel (this took some time!), checked in, relaxed, and got my bearings in the ancient town.
I also visited a local travel agent to book my day tour to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain for the final day of my Lijiang stay (it must be booked 3 days in advance!) If you won’t be able to do that and/or can’t speak Mandarin (I can), I suggest you book it in advance here, here, or here.
My first full day was dedicated to fully exploring the ancient town. I also walked to the Lijiang bus station to book a bus ticket to Tiger Leaping Gorge, my next stop after Lijiang.
On my second full day, I started my day at Black Dragon Pool just north of the ancient town, then used a combination of Didis (China’s version of Uber) and local buses to make a day trip to several off-the-beaten-track temples and ancient towns to the north of Lijiang.
These included Yufeng Temple, Beiyue Temple, Baisha Ancient Town, and Shuhe Ancient Town. This ended up being my favorite and most relaxing day. On my return, I switched to my second hotel.
On my third and final full day in Lijiang, I took a full day tour to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. While it’s possible to DIY this, it seemed extremely complicated to me, so I decided to join a local tour group instead.
The next morning I walked back to the bus station to catch a bus to Tiger Leaping Gorge, and after that, Shangri-La and Yubeng.
Five Challenges I Faced in Lijiang
Despite being able to speak Mandarin (I’ve lived in Taiwan for over 10 years), I faced several challenges while planning my trip and visiting Lijiang.
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Taxis and Didis
Didi is the Chinese version of Uber. They are cheap and easy to use. Rather than using the Didi app, I just used the Didi function in my AliPay app, which would withdraw the funds directly from account.
If you can’t speak Mandarin, I definitely recommend Didi, so that you can pin your destination on the map instead of trying to say it to the driver (they most likely won’t understand).
I also took several taxis in China, including from Lijiang airport to the Ancient Town. Despite hearing that they sometimes overcharge tourists, I had great experiences and was never overcharged. I always paid the fare with AliPay, but you can use WeChat too.
As you can see, taxis and Didis weren’t really a challenge for me, but the apps were something I had to figure out before the trip. And I mention this here because taking taxis (or even just pinning your destination on Didi) could be more challenging for those who can’t speak or read Mandarin.
Maps and Navigating the Ancient Town
Map apps are definitely a challenging aspect of visiting Lijiang (and China in general). GoogleMaps is outdated and often totally wrong. I used AppleMaps (iPhone only), but it only worked well once I was physically inside China.
I also used BaiduMaps (Mandarin only), while other people recommend Amaps for English.
In Lijiang specifically, the ancient town is a literal maze of small lanes. While my AppleMaps generally was surprisingly good for finding specific places, sometimes I would just ditch the map and enjoy getting intentionally lost.
When I took a taxi from Lijiang Airport, I had to tell them where to drop me off. Because I can speak Mandarin, this was easy for me. But if you can’t, you’ll need to prepare what to tell them (or much easier, just show them the destination name in Mandarin).
If your guesthouse is on the south side of the ancient town, ask for (or show them the Mandarin) 丽江古镇忠义市场们口 (Lijiang Ancient Town Zhongyi Market entrance, here).
If your guesthouse is on the north side of the ancient town, ask for (or show them the Mandarin) 丽江古镇大水车们口 (Lijiang Ancient town Big Waterwheel entrance, here).
When I arrived at the southern entrance, I used AppleMaps directions to find the way to my hotel.
Except it turned out that my hotel had put the wrong address on their Booking page, to one of their sister hotels. It took some time for them to send a person from the correct hotel to come get me.
Getting lost like this or not being able to find certain places was a common theme throughout my China trip.
This was due to a combination of online sources being outdated and the variety of map apps for China, none of which are perfect, and which often seem to have different location pins for the same place.
WeChat and AliPay
Even though I set up accounts and added my credit cards (I recommend adding more than one card to both if you can!) before going to China, there are additional set-up steps I had to do when I arrived.
AliPay worked perfectly for me, and I used it to pay for 95% of things on my trip. However, I couldn’t succeed in setting up WeChat after I arrived. I took me 1.5 weeks (almost my whole trip, and after the Lijiang part of it) to get it to work.
I had tried to get locals to verify me (didn’t work), get a local number (I was using eSIM without number – people told me to apply for a number withing the app, but this also didn’t work), ask in travel groups – nothing worked. In the end, it turned out I hadn’t completed the whole personal profile.
Not having WeChat in Lijiang sucked. First, both my hotels wanted to communicate with me via WeChat. Second, when I booked my Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Tour, the agent wanted to send me all the details and communicate by WeChat.
Third, when actually taking the tour, the tour guide needed to communicate with me, for example when I went on a different route than the rest of the group (because I had chosen different activity options) and had to find them again later, of course with WeChat.
For these reasons, I suggest you try your best to sign up for both AliPay and WeChat.
Joining a Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Tour
I was lucky I tried booking my Jade Dragon Snow Mountain tour at a local travel agency the moment I arrived, because it has to be booked three days in advance. If I had waited till the next day to inquire, I would have missed the chance. (Unfortunately, this crucial point is not even mentioned in the Lonely Planet).
This is also why I suggest you book it in advance here, here, or here.
Even if you book on one of these sites, you’ll most likely need to have WeChat, because they’ll want to communicate with you before the trip. They will probably send messages in Mandarin, but it’s easy to translate messages.
Even though I joined this tour to avoid the many complications of visiting Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on my own, the tour itself ended up being super complicated.
There were so many options, the ones I chose were different than others on the group so I had to go off on my own sometimes and then find them again, the driver was so hard to understand (due to his regional Mandarin accent). And the tour was disappointing because the gondola (the best part!) closed at the last minute due to poor weather, so I didn’t get to ride it.
I’ll cover this in more detail in the Day 3: Jade Dragon Snow Mountain section of my guide below.
Leaving Lijiang
My Lonely Planet China (2021 edition, probably researched in 2020, for my 2025 trip) was horribly outdated and proved wrong so many times on my trip.
Just a few examples from Lijiang: it mentions an Ancient Town fee (no longer exists) and famous local foods like baba (local flatbread) cheese sandwiches (didn’t see them anywhere – only the bread on its own). (Update: these two points were fortunately removed from the 2025 edition).
But the biggest one was how to get from Lijiang to Tiger Leaping Gorge, where I planned to hike and sleep for one night before traveling onward to Shangri-La.
The guidebook claimed that guesthouses in Lijiang sell tickets for a special hikers’ shuttle that will pick you up near your guesthouse and drop you off at the Tiger Leaping Gorge trailhead and take your luggage to Tina’s Guesthouse at the end of the gorge, where you can pick it up and then get on a bus to Shangri-La.
I asked both of my guesthouses and they had never heard of this.
Instead, I figured out that I had to walk to the Lijiang bus station (here about 15 minutes walk from the southern entrance of the ancient city) myself to buy the ticket (at least one day in advance) and to catch the bus. I had to show my passport to buy the bus ticket.
Update: The 17th edition of Lonely Planet China (2025) was published shortly after my 2025 trip, although it was likely researched in 2024. Now that I’ve looked at, I’m sorry to report that it still mentions this non-existent shuttle. It doesn’t mention the actual bus (which I will describe below) and it wrongly describes where your luggage will be sent to at the end of the trek.
For the bus, I paid for a ticket from Lijiang to 虎跳峡中峽 (Tiger Leaping Gorge Middle Gorge, AKA Tina’s Guesthouse at the end of the hike) for my luggage, but indicated that I would get off the bus at 虎跳峡登山口 (Tiger Leaping Gorge trailhead).
If you want to do the same, show the following to the ticket person AND the bus driver when you get on: 我想在虎跳峡登山口下车，但请帮我把行李搬到虎跳峡中峡。
I should also mention that the location for the Tiger Leaping Gorge bus drop off point and trailhead described in the Lonely Planet is also totally wrong. I introduce the correct location in my Tiger Leaping Gorge guide.
Best Things to Do in Lijiang
I apologize that you’ve had to scroll down this far just to get to the actual “things to do” section, but I also trust that all the above information was genuinely useful.
Exploring Lijiang Ancient Town
Lijiang Ancient Town, also called Dayan Old Town (大研古镇), is the main reason visitors come to Lijiang.
Arguably the most iconic of the many old towns in China, it draws millions of visitors every year for its maze of cobblestone lanes, traditional Naxi architecture, network of canals and water wheels, and stunning mountain backdrop.
Before my trip, I read many warnings, and I will issue a similar one: you probably won’t love the old town.
No matter how nice my carefully captured photos look, the old town very day it gets jam packed with Chinese visitors, many of whom dress up in traditional tribal outfits to do photo shoots on the streets.
Much of the old town has been heavily rebuilt and commercialized, with repeat shops selling the same items you see in every tourist place or old town in China.
Personally, I enjoyed it at first, but it wore on me quickly. I was happy that I had chosen two guesthouses that were on smaller, quieter lanes away from the main drag.
Having said all that, the old town is sprawling, which large areas that remain quiet and charming even at peak times.
I really enjoyed purposely getting lost and finding cute little cafes or nooks and crannies in the old town. My favorite quieter section of the old town was the northeastern part of it, including where my second hotel was located.
Looking at any map of the old town can be mind boggling, and you will most likely get lost or disoriented a few times.
But a few major landmarks include:
- Large Water Wheel (here at the northern entrance)
- The main canal and Main Tourist Road running (Dong Da Jie or 東大街) running south from it to:
- Main Square (Sifang Jie or 四方街, here) the cultural heart and busiest spot in the Old Town
- The smaller parallel Bar Street (Jiuba Jie or 酒吧街) just west of Dong Da Jie.
- Mufu (木府, here) A centuries-old mansion and government admin center south of Main Square
- Zhongyi Market (忠义市场, here) at the southern entrance of the Old Town.
Daily Main Square Performance
Every day just before dusk, some local Naxi elders to a song and dance in Main Square (Sifang Jie). This draw huge crowds of Chinese visitors, so getting a spot with good view may require a little shoving or squeezing in – at least that’s what they do.
Beer and View at Two Cats Café
From the west side of Main Square, a staircase leads steeply uphill to Wan Gu Lou (see next entry). About halfway up, I stopped for some late afternoon beers at Two Cats Cafe (两只猫咖啡馆, here, open 8:30 AM to midnight).
The view from the café’s large outdoor patio is extremely impressive. Here I enjoyed a couple Lijiang beers – how could I not?
Despite the name, there are more than two cats here – they’re in a room inside, and you can enter it to meet them if you ask first.
Looking Down on Lijiang from Wan Gu Lou
Continuing uphill from Two Cats Café, I took a left and continued up more stairs to Wan Gu Lou (万古楼, here, entrance RMB 35), a hilltop 5-story wooden tower overlooking the city. The tower is ancient in style but dates to 1997.
After paying, I entered Lion Hill Park (Shizi Shan or 狮子山), which has various viewpoints. Then I took a steep staircase up through the forest to the tower, where I saw cute lit up mushrooms in the forest after sunset.
Reaching the tower itself, I climbed up to the top floor, which offers incredible, 360-degree city view from its windows.
Mufu Wood Mansion
Mufu (木府, here, RMB 45) is a modern reconstruction of the mansion or castle of the Mu clan. These were Naxi rulers of Lijiang under the Ming dynasty.
Supposedly the original grounds were around twice as large, with a palace that could almost rival the Forbidden City in Beijing.
While I passed the entrance to Wufu and also admitted the complex from above (from Wan Gu Lou), I never actually entered it. You can read more about it here.
Zhongyi Market
The southern entrance to Lijiang Ancient Town is at Zhongyi Market (忠义市场, here). This is a traditional daytime market which I highly recommend exploring as an antidote to the super touristy and commercialized old town.
This market is frequented mainly by locals, with fresh produce, meat and seafood, snacks, tea, household goods, and more. Mornings are busiest, but stalls remain open throughout the day, and at night it becomes a small night market.
Photographers will love it here!
I enjoyed an extremely delicious flatbread (jian bing or 煎餅) stuffed with various goodies here. I also picked up some interesting local fruits and snacks like dried yak milk with flowers and spicy potato chips.
If you need to walk to Lijiang bus station to buy a bus ticket to Tiger Leaping Gorge like I did, it only makes sense to visit Zhongyi Market on the way.
Sampling Local Delicacies
One of my favorite parts of visiting Lijiang was trying some of the local specialties.
While there are tons of restaurants to choose from in the ancient town, I found that many of them catered to couples or groups. For example, hot pot with yak meat or local mushrooms, or other large dishes meant to be shared.
As a solo traveler, I loved the two Naxi food courts I found in the ancient town (here and here). These allowed me to taste multiple smaller dishes at a very reasonable price. I was shocked these were busier.
Some foods I tried in these centers included Naxi flatbread (baba or 粑粑), potato cakes (tudou bing or 土豆餅), fried noodles with Naxi sausage, and deep fried tofu with chilis.
There were also many edible insects, but I’m just not brave enough.
In the old town, I enjoyed local delicacies such as rose flower cakes (鲜花饼), puer tea soft serve ice cream (普洱茶冰淇淋), and local plum wine (梅子酒) that comes in various flavors and strengths, as well as some very interesting tea-based liquors.
Last but not least, I’m always on the lookout for interesting local beers when I travel. Here are a couple I found in Lijiang:
Black Dragon Pool
Black Dragon Pool (Heilong Tan or 黑龙潭) is one of the most iconic scenes of Lijiang, gracing many a postcard from the city or province.
The tranquil pond lies 15 minutes’ walk north of Large Water Wheel (the northern entrance of the ancient town) and is the source of the old town’s canals.
The quintessential view is from the south side of the pond, looking north across the pond at Five Arch Bridge (五孔桥) backed by Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.
You have to be lucky (weather-wise) to get a view like you’ll see in the famous photos of the attraction. I visited two mornings in a row, both cloudy, to get a shot I was satisfied with.
You can walk all the way around the ponds, with various pavilions along the way. If you visit before the 8 AM official opening time, you can skip the entrance fee like I did.
In the afternoon, there are Naxi dance and song performances on site.
Two Day Trips from Lijiang
After spending my arrival afternoon plus a full day exploring Lijiang Ancient Town, that was enough Lijiang for me (the crowds, photoshoots, and repetitive shops wore on me pretty quickly).
Note: even though I call the following “day trips”, they are all technically still in Lijiang.
Day Trip 1: Temples and Ancient Towns to the North
I spent the better part of my second day visiting some temples and other ancient towns to the north of Lijiang, or between Lijiang and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.
Since I’m an early riser, I started my day with sunrise at Black Dragon Pool (covered above), then proceeded with the following, but you may consider to visit Black Dragon Pool on your first day in Lijiang.
I started at the furthest-away spot (Yufeng Temple), then worked my way back to Lijiang. I’ll used a combination of Didis, walking, and buses – I’ll mention which for each entry.
Yufeng Temple
I started my day trip by riding a Didi to Yufeng Temple (玉峰寺 of “Jade Peak Monastery”), which was the furthest from Lijiang (30 min drive, here), then working my way back. The temple opens at 7:30 AM.
This is a small lamasery (Tibetan Buddhist temple, but the beliefs are combined with local Naxi ones) of the Red Hat order. It dates to 1756 and is one of only five in the Lijiang area. It is named after and sits near the base of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, although I couldn’t see the mountain from it.
Arriving at the temple at 9 AM (entrance fee RMB 17), I found I was the only visitor there. The grounds feature several temple buildings and shrines, one of which has a gorgeous canopy of prayer flags.
I saw color Tibetan-style thangkas (cloth paintings), statues, murals, and a huge prayer wheel and bell. A friendly monk inside greeted me warmly.
At the highest point of the temple grounds, I found its famous 10,000-flower camellia (茶花 or “tea flower”) tree. The tree really does produce that many flowers every spring (they were in peak bloom for my early April visit), but they come in batches, with around 1000 at any given time.
Displays on site (with English) tell the touching story of a poor lama who spent decades taking care of the tree, including risking his life to save it during the Cultural Revolution.
Dongba Kingdom Temple
From Yufeng Temple, I walked down Yufeng Temple Road (玉峰寺路 for 20 minutes to the next two spots. My destination was Beiyue Temple, but on the way down I could see a tall pole with strings of prayer flags emanating from it.
I decided to stop in and take a look. The site is not indicated on any maps but is here, and I *think* it is part of Dongba Kingdom (东巴王国景区, here), a sprawling park dedicated to Dongba, the religion of the local Naxi people, which has some overlap with Tibetan Buddhism.
Yufeng and Beiyue temples are described in the Lonely Planet (2021 edition), but not this one. And unfortunately, none are mentioned in the new 2025 edition.
When I arrived, a monk (or Dongba priest?) greeted me warmly and took me on a free tour of a hall inside containing many thangkas. We finished in front of the prayer flags, where the monk placed a khata (thin scarf) around my neck.
A form of blessing, these are usually white, but in this case it was blue.
Beiyue Temple
After the above, I walked another 10 minutes down the same road to Beiyue Temple (北岳庙, here). When I arrived, I found that the temple (as well as the bus stop next to it) also goes by the name Sanduo Pavilion (三多阁).
For this one, if I stood at the far end of the parking lot, I could actually a small part of the peak of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain rising up behind it.
This temple enshrines Sanduo, a Naxi war god and spirit protector. While I understand it is very important to the local Naxi people, of the three temples I visited, it was the least interesting and I only spend a few minutes here.
Baisha Ancient Town
From the bus stop next to the temple, I rode bus #6 for 10 minutes to Baisha Ancient Town.
To pay for it, in my AliPay app, with Lijiang set as the location, I clicked transport then bus for my QR code to swipe. Note: this bus goes all the way from Lijiang to Yufeng Temple, so I could have used it for everywhere I went today. I used AppleMaps to find the bus stop locations.
Baisha Ancient Town (白沙古镇) was the capital of Naxi kingdom before the Mongolian empire and a model for Lijiang, with its own Sifang Jie (四方街 or Main Square) and canals.
When I arrived, I walked down the main road (here) which, although still touristy, is much more laid back and packed than Lijiang and has some nice mountain views.
I had some really delicious foods in Baisha, including some highly photogenic flower steamed buns (包子) and the most delicious roasted potato I’ve ever had.
The guy mashed it up with all kinds of chilis, soy bean paste, garlic, onions, cilantro, sesame seeds, and other sauces.
Before leaving, I had to check out the famous Baisha Murals (丽江白沙壁画景区, here), which are accessed from here on Yufeng Temple road, near where where I got off the bus (it took me a while to figure that out – there’s no access from inside the Ancient Town area).
This site (entrance RMB 20) includes a dozen Tibetan Buddhist wooden wall paintings dating to the 1500s. The paintings are quite faded but impressive nonetheless. The largest and best one can’t be photographed, but there is a replica of it that you can.
Shuhe Ancient Town
From the same bus stop where I’d got off the bus, I got back on it and rode another 10 minutes to Shuhe Ancient Town (束河古镇, here).
Shuhe, which is just 4 kilometers from Lijiang, was the earliest Naxi settlement in the area, even before Baisha. It represents the transformation from agricultural villages to commercial hub on the ancient Tea-Horse Road (茶馬路).
Arriving at Shuhe, I found another similar strip to Baisha, with the same array of Ancient Town tourist shops and similar crowds (moderate and not overbearing) to Baisha.
In Shuhe, I decided to get off-the-beaten-track (you can do this in Baisha or even Lijiang, too). After crossing a bridge at the far end of the main street, I veered into some smaller lanes.
There were still some shops and restaurants aimed at tourists, but none of the tourists seemed to go this far. It was far more chill and closer to authentic in feeling.
I really enjoyed just wandering here. I found a small cute coffee shop where I chilled for a while and tried some local Yunnan coffee.
Before leaving, I followed some canals that led to Shuhe’s Sifang Jie, where there were horse carts waiting to take tourists around.
After that, exited the old town and ordered a Didi back to Lijiang. I was back early enough to enjoy some late afternoon drinks on my awesome guesthouse patio.
Day Trip 2: Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (yulong xueshan or 玉龙雪山) is a sacred and hugely famous mountain to the north of Lijiang. It is part of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The jagged mountain has 13 peaks, with the highest one reaching 5565 meters. I saw it from the airplane flying in to Lijiang and again from many spots in Lijiang, Baisha, and Shuhe.
Visiting Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is unfortunately very complicated. Normally I strongly prefer to DIY my travels, but in this case, the details seemed overwhelming, not to mention most information online and in guidebooks is outdated or wrong.
For these reasons, the moment I arrived in Lijiang, I stepped into one of the many travel agencies in the ancient town and booked a tour. These tours must be booked three days in advance, the minimum requirement for booking the main gondola.
Because the agencies in town speak little to no English, and because of the advance booking complication, I suggest you book a tour in advance online here, here, or here.
The tour I booked came with many options. I went for the full package (RMB 780), which would include all of the below stops.
As I already mentioned above in the article, the whole day ended up being quite confusing. We didn’t follow the exact schedule I’d been shown in the travel agency.
The driver would give introductions of the stops, but I found his regional Mandarin accent almost impossible to understand.
I had chosen different options than all the other group members (I was the only one who chose to include Impression Lijiang), so this meant I had to rush ahead of the other group members on my own, squeeze that in, then try to find them later (in a huge and disorienting place with so many buildings and scenic spots).
And I had to do all of that without WeChat, the main way Chinese people send messages…I used the chat function in AliPay instead, but my driver seldom checked it.
Departure and Safety Stop
My pickup time from the northern entrance of the old city was at 5 AM, several hours before sunrise.
On the way to the mountain, we stopped at a safety center where they gave a talk about elevation safety (all in Mandarin, of course).
At the end of it, they encouraged us to purchase a few canisters of oxygen per person plus some Chinese medicines meant to help with the elevation. I indicated to them that I had already taken Diamox, but they still insisted I buy and take these too. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t.
I had to my plastic bag of oxygen canisters around that whole day, which in the end due to cancellation of the gondola ride I didn’t even get to use. I wished I’d brought a backpack.
I noticed that some Chinese people in my tour group were huffing on the canisters from the moment they got them, which didn’t seem necessary unless they had just got off the plane from sea level.
After staying there a few days, I was already fully acclimatized to Lijiang’s elevation, so I only would have needed the canisters for the gondola ride.
Golden Peak Sunrise
As soon as we arrived at the cluster of facilities in the scenic area, we started next to a pond in Ganhaizi Meadow (甘海子草甸, here), along with hundreds of other predominantly Chinese tourists.
From here, we were supposed to witness a phenomenon the tours call “Golden Peak Sunrise” (金山日出), which means that the rising sun (behind us) is supposedly to lit up the peak of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (across the pond in front of us), turning it a golden color.
Except that it was too cloudy, so we didn’t get to see this happen. It was still a nice view of the mountain nonetheless.
Welcome Cultural Tour
Next, we walked to the main Visitor’s Center complex, where our group was taken on an introductory cultural tour that lasted longer than I would have liked.
While I can speak and understand Mandarin at an intermediate level, a lot of it was beyond me. But the guide mainly introduced the cultural background and local gods associated with the mountain.
This took place beside a pole with prayer flags suspended from it and some statues of local gods. At the end, anyone who wanted to could pay some money for some prayer flags and blessings from a (supposed) religious priest.
Blue Moon Valley
Our main morning activity was a visit to Blue Moon Valley (蓝月谷, here). To get there, we joined a huge line in the visitor’s center, scanned a QR code which the driver had sent me, then rode a bus to it.
Things got more confusing for me there. The driver didn’t join us, but explained to that I had to rush through the site so I could take an earlier gondola than the others in my group and make it Lijiang Impression in time.
Arriving at the site, he explained to me that we could walk through the whole valley, but that takes several hours, so I had to take these these little shuttle trains between each of the main stops in the valley (I was very confused about the whole situation but finally got it).
The valley itself ended up being a little disappointing for me. Because it was a cloudy day, the water just wasn’t as blue as in any of the photos (the above is the most vibrant one I got, but most of my shots weren’t so nice), not to mention I live near the Rockies in Canada, which have many lakes that look just like this or even better.
It was also very touristy, with yaks you could pay to take selfies with and the like.
I rushed to the end of it, had some confusion finding the bus back to the Visitor’s Center, but still made it back at the time my driver had advised me to. Maybe I would have enjoyed the valley more if I hadn’t been so rushed to get through it…
Glacier Peak Gondola
Then came my biggest disappointment of the day. Just before my scheduled gondola time, they stopped running them for the day. They said it was due to poor conditions at the peak, but looking up, the peak seemed mostly clear.
Glacier Peak Gondola (冰川公园索道), which my driver just called Big Gondola (大索道), is the tallest of several gondolas in the park. It goes up to 4506m, and then you can hike up to 4680m on the mountain.
Even in summer, you can walk on snow or glaciers up there. It’s cold, super high up, and the thing I was by far the most excited for on this tour.
Not being able to do this was a crushing disappointment for me, super early rise, high cost of the tour, and somewhat disappointing stops leading up to it.
My only consolation is that my driver purchased the oxygen canisters back from me at cost and I got a refund (RMB 200) from the travel agency for the gondola ride.
Because I was the only person on my tour who booked Impression Lijiang, my driver took them back to Lijiang at that point and handed me over to another driver for my return journey.
At this point I had a simple hot pot lunch (included on my tour) and had to wait around for 1.5 hours for the Impression Lijiang starting time.
Impression Lijiang
In the end, Impression Lijiang (印象丽江) was probably my favorite part of the whole day.
This is an iconic live performance in what most be one of the most scenic venues in the world – a multi-level stage with Jade Dragon Snow Mountain as the backdrop. Anyone in China would know it.
The male and female performers adorned traditional costumes and moved along the layers of the stage. There were traditional men’s drinking songs, horseback riding, and courting rituals.
The whole scene was truly impressive, so I do recommend spending the extra money on it.
Looking back on the whole experience, I don’t feel quite so disappointed. We have high mountains, glaciers, gondolas, and six months of snow per year in my province in Canada – I didn’t really miss anything I haven’t seen before and will see again.
Despite the frustrations, my time in Lijiang gave me a fascinating look at modern tourism in China, set against a backdrop of traditional Naxi culture and stunning mountain scenery. If you’re willing to manage expectations and look beyond the crowds, Lijiang can still surprise you, as it did for me
I’m sooo glad I found your page! I’m going on a 10-day trip to Yunnan next week and all the info here were helpful, HUGE THANKS!
It’s my pleasure. Hope you have an amazing trip!
Thank you for all the info, it was really useful. 🙂
My travel plan was very similar, but I had some questions and this article answered some of them.
This will be my 4th trip to China, but I could never make WeChat work for payments. I agree with you that the chat part is a must have for every visitor, as most hotels, drivers, etc. communicate through it, and I would have been really lost on my previous trips without it. But the payment part? Never figured out why it doesn’t work (Alipay does).
I was wondering, didn’t visiting 3 ancient towns after each other feel a bit monotone or the same?
I actually visited like 5 ancient towns on this trip LOL. Zhujiajiao in Shanghai, then Lijiang + Baisha and Shuhe, and then later Shangri-La. And yes, after a while, parts of it started to feel repetitive. If my China trip was longer (this one was 2 weeks), then I probably would have taken a break from them or started feeling especially bored with them. But in this case, I felt like each one was different enough to keep my interest. Lijiang was just so touristy, but I expected that. Baisha and Shuhe felt much quieter and a little more authentic. But I admit, for most travelers, choosing just one or the other is enough, and it’s not really essential to go to both.