Lijiang

Lijiang (丽江; Lìjiāng) is a small city in Yunnan Province, China; it was once the capital of a small kingdom. Today it is a and a busy tourist town.

Understand
Lijiang is the main center of the Naxi or Nakhi people, though it is by no means a Naxi-only town: at least half a dozen other ethnic groups are represented. The Naxi number under a million and are perhaps best known for their embroidery; they also have their own language with its own hieroglyphic-style writing system, and their own religion, clothing, art, architecture, music and dance. The Chinese government classifies the Mosuo (found mainly further north around Lugu Lake) as part of the Naxi group, but neither the Naxi nor the Mosuo accept this.

Lijiang or nearby Baisha (now a village 12 km north of town) have been important for about 2000 years, when the Naxi settled in the area, and Baisha was the capital of a Naxi kingdom from 658 to 1107. Then the area came under Chinese control and Lijiang became the administrative center. Parts of the old town date back to this period, built during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The town was built where the Jade River divides into three and its streams form the canals and waterways which flow along the old town streets.

In 1278, the Yuan Dynasty appointed the Naxi chief Mu De hereditary ruler of the area, and the Mu family retained power for about 500 years. Today their palace is one of the major tourist attractions of the old town.

Lijiang became known in the west through two men who lived in or near the town in the early 20th century, Austrian-American botanist Joseph Rock who wrote a Naxi dictionary, several scholarly papers, and many articles for National Geographic, and Russian Peter Goullart who wrote several books. It has been suggested that Rock's articles inspired James Hilton's Lost Horizons novel about a fictional Himalayan paradise, Shangri-la, but the claim is controversial.

After China started to admit foreign tourists in the 1980s, Lijiang began to attract many visitors. To fulfill their needs, local people started restaurants and cafes. Chinese people also long for the lifestyle and the excellent environment in Lijiang and started to pour in.

An earthquake in 1996 flattened large parts of the town, though quite a few of the traditional wooden buildings remained standing while far more of the Mao-era brick or concrete structures collapsed. Since then there has been extensive rebuilding, mainly in traditional styles. There have been some complaints that much of that work followed traditions of central China, rather than locally appropriate ones, but most visitors will just notice a lot of rather pretty old-looking buildings.

Get in
Most guest houses in the traditional architectural style are in the old town. As taxis are not allowed to enter the old town, they have to stop at the gates. So either be prepared to carry your luggage a bit or call the hotel to send someone to carry your luggage on a cart.

By plane


There are many flights from Kunming to Lijiang, from early morning to late at night. It is also possible to book a flight to Lijiang from any major city in China, direct flights are available from Shanghai, Beijing etc., but many flights will stop in Kunming and many will require a change of planes there.

The modestly sized airport is 40 minutes from the city. You can take a taxi for ¥100 (official fixed price) to get to the city. There are touts that will offer the same trip for ¥60-80, but it is likely you will find yourself squeezed into the same vehicle with strangers. Alternatively, outside the arrival hall, you will find the airport bus, which leaves regularly when full, for ¥20, to the Blue Skies Hotel near the Guangfang Hotel, which is 1 km from the Old Town. A taxi to the old town will be ¥7-10 from the Blue Skies Hotel carpark.

When leaving Lijiang, arriving at the airport an hour before your flight is sufficient. Taxi back from Old Town to airport is around ¥110, with additional ¥10 toll fee.

Lijiang is at 2,400 m (almost 8,000 feet) so there is some risk of altitude sickness if you fly in from a lower altitude. The risk is not remarkably severe, but it may be more prudent to fly to Kunming at 2,000 m, acclimatise there, then come to Lijiang. Dali would be an interesting intermediate stop. If you do fly direct to Lijiang from sea level, plan to take it easy the first day or two while your body gets acclimatised.

By train


A new bullet train service commenced on January 2019, which can take you to Lijiang from Kunming in 3-3½ hours (6 trains per day). First class seats ¥330-350, second class seats ¥210-220. Some of these trains travel non-stop all the way to Lijiang while others stop at one or more of the following stations: Lufeng South, Chuxiong, Xiangyun, Heqing. The bullet train begins its journey from the Kunming South Railway Station and also stops at the Kunming Railway Station.

There are four normal trains leaving each evening that take 8½-10½ hours. Soft Sleeper ¥226, Hard Sleeper ¥153, Hard Seat ¥89 (Apr 2019).

If you travel as a family, consider the VIP chamber which is at the price of ¥614, one less than purchasing three individual tickets in a four-bed standard room. You may feel a bit tight for luggage storage space, but you gain more valuable privacy, with your own family.

From Dali the train is a faster, cheaper alternative to the crowded buses: A hard (padded) seat is ¥34, and the journey takes only 2 hours from Dali city on a K-class train. (As of April 2019, although there are bullet train services from Kunming to both Dali and Lijiang, these are separate services and it is not possible to take a bullet train from Dali to Lijiang. When this service becomes available, the journey time between Dali and Lijiang will be less than one hour.)

By bus



 * From Dali, minibus/bus/comfort bus at ¥55/60/80 about every 30/60 min, ~3 hr on highway.
 * From Shangrila there are regular services and overnight service from Kunming stop here.
 * from Chengdu there is a direct bus which starts at 11:20 at Xinnamen station in Chengdu. It takes about 24 hours to do the trip, and cost about ¥280. Alternatively, you can take a train from Chengdu to Panzhihua (15 hr, ~¥191 for a hard sleeper) to arrive in the early morning. At the exit of Panzhihua train station, take one of the bus 64 on the left of the exit and get off at the terminus, which is the bus terminal (¥3, ~1 hr). Then, you can take a bus to Lijiang, which run every 45 minutes from 07:00 to 13:00 (from ¥83 to ¥92, ~8 hr).

Get around
Walking is the only option in the old town, while taxis are often the easiest way around the rest of town, meter starts from ¥9 (as of Mar 2019). Make sure you have the exact location info or address for the cab driver. Some of them do not know a whole lot more than you do.

Fracture alert: watch where you are walking. It is easy to trip on the cobblestones or fall into the canals from the walkways or bridges, many of which do not have handrails. The cobblestones can be very slippery when wet.

To see the sights outside the old town, the options are walking, biking, public bus, private mini-bus, or taxi. The public bus mainly stays within the city and stops. The mini-buses are the same price as the public bus within the city. They will have the number of the bus on the front windshield. The price of a mini-bus to a nearby village is ¥1-5, but the starting location within the city is different for most villages. If you do not know where you want to go and are limited on time, the best option is to rent a taxi or mini-bus for the day, but the price can vary wildly from about ¥100 all the way up to ¥300. The price mainly depends on whether you can speak Chinese or not, and how comfortable you look when you try to bargain the deal.

Do




Buy
Loads of tourist shops available in old town. Probably overpriced, but Lijiang does not have as many cases of the Westerner price being too much higher than the Chinese price as in many other parts of China.


 * Burned wood carvings - One of the popular local specialties. Quality varies greatly by the individual artist, and prices vary by shops.  Some shops do custom etchings of your face (near photo-realism) with Lijiang in the background. Expect to have your picture taken, then come back in a few hours.
 * Yak horn combs - Also popular, with some combs also carved from the yak hoof (the ones with the rougher edge on the handle).
 * Naxi clothing - For ¥5 you can get your picture taken in them without having to buy them. Local skirts that include designs that appear  Ancient Egyptian  may actually be based on pictographs that preceded Chinese characters.
 * Art and writing samples (东巴; Dōngbā) - The Naxi have the only living hieroglyphic language in the world, and shops with samples of it, or of the unique Naxi style art, are abundant.
 * Yunnan Coffee - Coffee ground to a fine powder then added to water, although most contain milk and sugar powder already.
 * Warm Clothing - In the Old Town warm clothing is quite expensive if you are just looking for something cheap to keep the chill out. The road just outside the town by the waterwheel has very cheap hats, mitts, and even long johns. Just turn left at the first intersection.
 * Small red coconut - do not buy a small red fruit shaped like a coconut. It is just a coconut painted red and sold for a very high price.  This is a scam.

If you are looking for supermarket that offers fair prices, there is none in Old Town. The nearest option will be 'Dragon Life Supermarket' near the South Gate, along the southwestern part of Old Town, or 'Good Mood Supermarket' near the North entrance of Black Dragon Pool.

Eat
There are three primary types of restaurants in Lijiang: Naxi, Tibetan, and Sichuan. Some restaurants offer more than one type of food. Much Western food is also available, but more expensive. A bowl of noodle costs from ¥12-15 (slightly more pricier than Dali) (as of Jul 2019).

Lots of local snack-type foods available from street vendors, including:


 * Baba - a flat wheatbread available; a savory version sometimes served with chili sauce and a sweeter version that tastes honey-flavored.
 * Naxi style fried white cheese - A soft white cheese cut into slices then fried in a non-greasy batter. Served with sugar sprinkled on top and very delicious (only seen in restaurants).
 * Yak's milk yogurt - Has a bit of a different flavor than cow's milk yogurt, but very good. Commonly served with honey, muesli, and/or fruit.  Can also be made into fruit shakes.
 * Fried yak meat - served on skewers.

Budget
If you are in the old town, it's probably better to get out to find cheap prices.

Drink
There are a couple of local drinks worthy of special mention. Lijiang Yinjiu and Sulima (both commonly available in Lijiang) are modern renditions of ancient beer types of the Naxi and Mosuo people and far more enjoyable than the typical bland Chinese lager. Yunnan is famous for tea, as well (though Pu'er, Yunnan's best-known tea town, is way down south on the road to Xishuangbanna) and every fourth shop is a tea shop specializing in the length and breadth of Chinese tea, the likes of which you will not find in your average Western Chinatown. See Chinese cuisine for details.

Unlike the rest of China, Lijiang's cafés and restaurants shut down around 11PM. The bars have to shut down their music at 23:30. But you can drink until you finish your alcohol. Along the canal you find find it packed with bars. It's packed with people even on rainy days. The cost for a dozen beers ranges from ¥98 at 21:00, all the way to ¥600 around 23:00. The bars along the canal are the most touristy. If you walk past Four Square street deeper into the old town you will find less touristy bars where you aren't constantly asked to buy flowers for the girls.

There are too many bars inside old town to list, but here are a few:



Sleep
Lijiang has plenty of hotels to fit all budgets and styles.

It is sometimes difficult to find specific addresses in the old town; the best option, especially in low season, is to walk around town and check out prices and rooms to see which suits you best, as there are many different options to choose from. In the winter, ensure that there is a heated mattress pad or heating in the room as the nights are quite chilly.

Budget
There are hundreds of beautiful and clean Chinese hotels not listed below. To find them it's best to ask around, or stand in the train station bus drop-off stop (East of the water-wheels central square) with a big backpack and look lost. Nice ladies will approach you: expect to get a double room for around 80Y-100Y, depending on the season.



Splurge

 * Guanfang Hotel. Although not in the old town (it's in the new city), you can get a taxi ride from this hotel to the old town's entrance for a reasonable fee (less than ¥10). Guanfang hotel is part of a hotel chain owned by a Yunnanese hotelier group - it has "Guanfang hotels" in other cities in Yunnan province. The Lijiang Guanfang hotel is built to a resort (bungalow) style. The hotel ground area is very big and you have to walk quite a distance from the hotel lobby to your assigned bungalow (containing a number of rooms). But the rooms are pretty spacious and it's beautifully set and are between 4-5 stars.
 * Hotel Indigo Lijiang
 * InterContinental Hefu Lijiang
 * Hotel Indigo Lijiang
 * InterContinental Hefu Lijiang

Stay safe
The smaller streets in the old town are reported not to be safe at night. Do not walk alone.

As the city lies at the foot of the Himalayas, you may be susceptible to high altitude sickness, especially if you go visit the 3,000 m-high mountains in the area.

Go next
Lijiang is on a popular route described at Yunnan tourist trail. Other major towns along that route are: Both Dali and Shangri-la can also be reached by train. The train trip to Dali is 2½ hours while the trip to Shangri-la takes about 1½ hours.
 * Dali, next main city south. There is a direct bus to Xiaguan, Dali new town. You need to take another bus to Dali ancient city. There is also a direct bus from Lijiang to Dali ancient city; ask your hotel or a tour agent to book the ticket. All of the Lijiang buses pass the Dali old town on the way to Xiaguan. Just tell the driver to drop you off in Dali.
 * Shangrila, next main city north. It is ¥60 from Lijiang to Shangrila by express bus. about 4-hr trip, bus every hour.

Other places in the region include:

Lijiang is also a jumping off spot for treks; see Tiger Leaping Gorge (quite nearby) and Three parallel rivers (more of an expedition).
 * Shaxi, between Lijiang and Dali. Unexploited ancient town unlike Lijiang, is less visited by tourists, but is more popular than it was in the past. As of 2024, it’s possible to get a direct bus to Shaxi from Lijiang’s main bus terminal, so it’s no longer necessary to change buses in the county seat of Jianchuan County.
 * Lugu Lake, north of Lijiang near the Sichuan border, direct bus from Lijiang. As of 2010, the road was under construction and very rough, more than seven hours of rough ride. Presumably construction is now complete, so travel should require about four hours and be reasonably comfortable.
 * Qiaotou for Tiger Leaping Gorge - regular bus services are available from the main bus station. You can also take any Shangrila bound bus and have the driver drop you off at Qiaotou. Costs about ¥25. If you take a Shangrila bus, make sure to ask for the ticket to Qiaotou only, otherwise they will charge you the full fare to Shangrila.
 * For the Three parallel rivers region you will need a guide (readily available in either Lijiang or Shangrila), equipment, and at least a week.