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If you follow my previous installments on China Yunnan trip, you would probably know that Lijiang is the last city we visited in our Kunming - Dali - Lijiang trip.


Nevertheless, this city is the one everyone had been looking forward to due to its famed Lijiang Old Town and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.  As we traveled closer to Lijiang, we are told to expect colder weather due to Lijiang’s high elevation – this city sits at elevation 2400 meters (8000 feet)  compares this with Kunming (1900 meters or 6200 feet) or even Dali where we left hours ago (2200 meters or 7200 feet).

"Our coach had to work really hard to bring us across these mountains", I was thinking to myself. In fact, at some point, I thought "What if our coach cannot make it to Lijiang, we had to overnight in our coach in the middle of highway"

Besides the temperature, there is another major challenge – altitude sickness.  According to our guide’s past experience, some people may not get accustomed to Lijiang’s high elevations, hence may immediately develop symptoms upon arriving in Lijiang. Among the symptoms are headache, dizziness and nauseous. She advised us, however not to panic and to take it easy instead, to keep our body hydrated, to take enough rest and not to engage in any strenuous activity, especially when we are scheduled to conquer Jade Dragon Snow Mountain the next day!

Briefly, here are our itineraries the next day – primarily will be at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain:
    0900 hrs    : Watch a live, open-air performance at 3100 meters elevation
    1015 hrs    : Proceed to waiting area for cable car station
    1230 hrs    : Arrive at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Glaciers Park at 4500 meters elevation
    1330 hrs    : Descending  via cable car & lunch
    1430 hrs    : Proceed to visit Baishui River & surroundings
    1630 hrs    : Tours at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain complete and heading back to Lijiang town!

We finally arrived in Lijiang town close to 5pm, having departed Dali after mid day. Our hotel in Lijiang is a four-storey Grand Lijiang, located right next to the Old Town of Lijiang; excellent location, albeit an old hotel.


After a short rest, we took a quick walk nearby the old town. The section where we resided is an old town, we are told that this place is already more than 800 years old. The Old Town of Lijiang (Mandarin: Lìjiāng Gǔ Chéng) is famous for its clear water, hence one can find many streams, waterways and bridges. This probably explains why the water wheel is an icon of the Old Town.





Unlike the Old Town in Dali whereby there are fences surrounding it, Old Town of Lijiang is an open walk. It is easy to get lost here as the classical houses (converted to shops) are normally sandwiched between small streams and appear similar to each other.

The shops are mainly selling scarf and Pashima shawl, silver products, Chinese traditional medicine. There is one street that houses mostly pubs and restaurant. These are well lit with red lanterns, however walking in between the narrow pavement among big crowd and loud background music made me wanting to get past it as quick as possible!


I leave you with my photos taken in the evenings in the Old Town of Lijiang as that night we retired early to prepare our body for our major event tomorrow – 4500 meters Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is our target! Yes, we are to climb 2000 meters in a day, by cable car of course!

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written by Heng Yuen , August 28, 2010

You took wonderful pictures with well chosen angles. I visited the old town in July 2010 and enjoyed the sights very much. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

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written by Shirley T , August 31, 2010

Thank you Heng Yuen for the compliment. Happy to hear about your trip too

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