World China Yunnan Lijiang

Cole and Annie's Asian Adventure

Lijiang - Not as expected Jul 7, 2009

I'd read that Dali is a terribly overrun tourist trap barely worth visiting. Only three hours north sits Lijiang. Supposedly a pristine haven farther in the mountains, it has been touted as the must see place to escape the crowds in China.

Lijiang is the jumping off point for many famous hikes, most notably the Tiger Leaping Gorge, where a tiger supposedly escaped a hunter by making a desperate leap to a stone in the middle of the river, then across. Any image search of Lijiang will also produce the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, which sits mostly above 4000 meters.

Unfortunately, Lijiang turned out to be the description of Dali. It was like a theme park, with narrow walkways CRAMMED with tourists. Not a touch of real China, old or new, seemed to exist there. They style it as an "ancient town", but really it looks too polished. Also to our dismay, the food seemed terrible compared with how great Dali's had been.

On the bus ride up, we started talking with a Spanish couple. It turned out that it was Raul's birthday, so we hung out with them for the day. We walked to the top of Elephant Hill to see the town and shared a couple of drinks, a taste of yak meat, and some blood sausage with them in the evening. They invited us to visit any time in Madrid; good to have more European friends!

The next day we walked around the local market and saw some of the non-touristy areas. Maybe the best part was the dog restaurant we saw. The sign for the place was several happy golden retrievers standing in front of sparkling waterfalls, haha. I guess it's like California's happy cows.

Our hotel had a lot of charm at least. The Wisteria Garden Hotel had a great courtyard and friendly staff. I happily booked two bus tickets with them for the next mountain out of Lijiang, and on to Lugu Lake.