Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China

Our time in Lijiang was rather limited, but our experience there was just as interesting as the rest of Yunnan Province! On the outside, Lijiang looks like any other small town nestled in the mountains, but upon entering the Old Town district you’ll realize just how bustling this town actually is.

Old Town costs 80Y to enter – for helping pay for maintenance – but there are ways around this as long as you are flexible, such as going after 6pm when the guards on the entrances finish work. Within Old Town itself you’ll see an incredibly manicured version of a traditional Chinese village, which is an absolute maze of tiny roads and shops selling old traditional hand-made jewelry, drums, clothes, food and anything you could possibly think you needed. For me personally it was a little too touristy, so spending a day there was enough.

There is however a really nice Irish Pub located somewhere in the middle called Stone The Crows. Run by a guy called John who’s been in Lijiang for the last 10 years, you’ll feel right at home here as every foreigner knows an Irish Pub is where the fun’s at! Beers range from 30Y upwards and there’s a decent selection of imported brands, many I had never heard of. This quaint little pub really made Lijiang special as otherwise it felt very much like one giant tourist attraction.

The only other thing I would suggest doing in Lijiang is heading to Black Dragon Pool, which is situated a little further out than the Old Town district. This park costs 80Y to enter (again for maintenance purposes… but again if you go after 6pm you can skip this fee) and is actually really rather big. It gets dark around 7pm in October so we only had an hour of daylight there, taking advantage of the lower levels of the park for photo/video opportunities – it is marked as the most photographed place in Yunnan – but if you want to pay to enter you could spend a whole day exploring the upper sections that will give you a fantastic view over the city.

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If you have any other questions or any information you feel I should add to this post, please let me know! As I said we were only there for a very brief period of time so my experience here is not quite as inclusive as that of Kunming or Shangri-La.

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After Lijiang, we hitch hiked to Dali, follow the links to find out more about our experience in Dali or about hitch hiking in China!