Getting into Lijiang from Shanghai was a really long trip: Jake and I took a 37 hour train ride into Kunming (the province’s capital) and then switched trains for another 10 hour ride. But it was all worth it and time flew by as we slept, read, made friends with one of the conductors or just enjoyed the scenery – breathtakingly green.
Panba Hostel - amazing!
We got into our hostel quite late, but decided to go for a short walk in the Old Town anyways. The old town of Lijiang is probably the best preserved ancient town in China and is also listed in the World UNESCO Heritages.
The weather was good, meaning it wasn’t pouring and it was not too cold either (around 18 Celsius at night, compared to 30 in Shanghai). We walked through the old narrow streets all the way to the main square and then explored other adjacent streets. The place was packed with tourists, mainly young Chinese people, who were enjoying Lijiang’s renowned nightlife. It was indeed very lively before midnight, with many souvenir shops on every street, restaurants that serve southern specialties, and bars and pubs with live music. We spent a couple of hours wandering around and admiring the beautiful lamps and lanterns which created a very warm and cozy atmosphere.
The next day we went for one of the main touristic activities: climbed to the Lion Hill Pagoda, which offered an amazing view of the Old Town.
Lijiang by day.
Lion Hill Pagoda
People write down their wishes and hang the bells so that the gods hear them when the wind blows.
The amazing views of the old and new cities of Lijiang.
In the evening went to see a performance by the Naxi Minority Classical Music Orchestra.
The Naxi are originally of Tibetan descent, but moved to Yunnan after the 1st century. They fought Western influence, but ended up suffering big losses in terms of culture and religious practices during the Cultural Revolution started by the communist party. The Naxi have their own unique written language, a set of pictograms conceived over 1000 years ago. All inscriptions in Lijiang were both in simplified Chinese and Naxi.
One thing you should not miss in Yunnan is eating yak meat, which I really liked. It’s a tasty red meat, a bit lighter than beef and not at all greasy.
One last thing we did before leaving Lijiang was to visit the Black Dragon Lake – an amazing park with crystal clear waters and very pretty pagodas and bridges scattered all over the place.
Once it stopped raining we climbed about an hour to the top of a hill from where we could get an amazing view of the city on one side and a green image of valleys covered in virgin forests on the other side.
While walking around, we ran into a sign saying “your dreams return to Lijiang”. My dreams definitely return there as I fell in love with the place. I don’t know if it was the architecture, the beautiful lights, the yak meat or simply the atmosphere, but there was something magical about this city.
"Your dreams return to Lijiang" (courtesy of Jake)
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