Lijiang is a famous place for the travellers from all over the world. Both the Chinese and foreign travellers love this small town. Many foreign travellers even stay here for serveral years and open a bar or something. What they want is to enjoy the peaceful life of this ancient Chinese town.
I have been to Lijiang once and I still hope that I can visit it for a second time. Lots of people have the same feeling too. Here I will introduce you some of my experience of the Lijiang travel.
Lijiang is a small town in Yunnan, China. The town has a 800 year history from as early as the late Song Dynasty. It is built where the Jade River divides into three and its streams form the canals and waterways which flow along the old town streets. This place is very specail and you will never get to know the real Lijiang if your plan for Lijiang is only 1 or 2 days. Lijiang is a place for the travellers to stay and enjoy the simple life here. I met a girl from Chengdu on my way to Lijiang and she told me that she stayed here in Lijiang for 30 or 40 days every time she visited this place. I will recommend that you stay here for at least 5 days and this will make your Lijiang travel more interesting. ( more info about China vacations at Travel2ChinaInfo Dot COM )
How to get in? You can fly to Lijiang from many big cities in China. Another choice is to fly to Kunming first. Kuming is also a famous tourism city. It is called the “Spring City” because of its good climate. You can get fresh flowers at very good deals(3 rmb for a dozen of roses). There are many tourists’ bus heading to Dali from Kuming. You can take the bus at 10 pm and it will arrive at Dali on 6 am next day. Dali is an old Chinese town and has lots of interesting things to see(Traditional chinese dance, wax painting, etc). The bus from Dali to Lijiang starts at 5 pm every day.
The hotels in Lijiang: It is not wise to choose a regular hotel for your Lijiang travel and you will lose all the fun here if you stay in a hotel. Lijiang is a very unique place in the whole world and you can only feel this kind of unique attraction when you live in it(in the old inns of Lijiang). Nobody knows the number of inns in Lijiang. All the inns here are very specail. (cost 20-150 rmb a night) The names of the inns are also very interesting. They are like “longmen inn”, “Yeyuxuan inn”,”Bulage innt”, etc(names from the old Chinese novels). I will recommend the “Yulong inn” here. The owner of this inn is very nice and the price is reasonable. (tel: 0888-5125630, cell phone:13988825550)
Eat in Lijiang: You can find lots of good snacks in Lijiang like “Lijiang baba”, “Jidouliangfen”,”Jiantudou”,”Jizhimixian”. They are the favourites of the young girls. For the males, you can try the “Heishanyangtourou”, it is a very delicious local food and you will never find something like this in other places! (Tips: do not eat in the restaurants near Sifang Street. They are too expensive and food there are not the real Lijiang food.)