Evening 1.
I arrived in Lijiang about 6pm from Tiger Leaping Gorge and got to my hotel, which was soooo nice. I would highly recommend it. It is called the Yue Tu Hotel in the old town. As soon as I got in, the boy said he upgraded my room for free (and it was a Fri evening)! The room was so big, there was a waterfall shower, and the bed was so comfy!! There was a kettle and all the amenities!:)
He also organized the snow mountain tour for the next day. It was 580 CNY but there were only seven of us and it included the JADE SNOW MOUNTAIN, THE IMPRESSION SHOW, AND THE BLUE MOON LAKE!! 🙂 Included was a big lunch, plenty of water, a big warm jacket for the snow mountain, and an oxygen can 🙂
That evening I went strolling about the old town!! It was so cool and very pretty. It was also quite busy though. Some things you can do there are …
– Go to the viewpoint for sunset at about 7 pm.
– Go for a drink in a bar that looks down on the old town (you can see all the rooftops )
– Walk around bar street…wild things going on inside haha
– Try the local food market beside the water wheel, it’s like a cooked food market, noisy, authentic, and delicious!! I tried the mushroom and quail eggs mixed with all spices and the veggie dumplings. They were both yum! It’s called Snack Bar I think!
– Finally, just stroll around and get lost, there are lots of cobble streets with some cool funky little cafes, bars, live music, and shops! Enjoy 🙂
Day 2 – The Tour
We left @7.30am. I got picked up outside my hotel. It was an hour’s drive max. We stopped for a photo op of the mountain.
Then we parked up and walked to the cable car station…it was very busy but quite organized, and your guide will tell you what’s what! There were lots of places to grab a coffee and food too.
You get about two hrs on the mountain including cable car up and down!! It is beautiful…4680m is the highest you can go (by climbing steps) and be careful of the altitude, don’t underestimate it. Guide gave us oxygen cans too haha!!
Also, you don’t need to bring all your thermals, etc, people were in bloody dresses with the free warm jackets over them!! I packed ski gear whoops, it was helpful but not necessary.
After we got down we went for lunch, a quick buffet, and off to the Lijiang Impression Show for an hour. It is a cultural show that demonstrates the traditions and lifestyle of local Naxi, Yi, and Bai ethnicities of the area. Wow, wow, wow, it was so cool, with the contrast of the mountains in the background! It was actually unbelievable, the dances and the timings of all the movements were so meticulously practiced. I was in awe!
Then we got a bus to the Blue Lakes. There were about seven of them, so beautiful, you have about 1.5 hrs to walk around, take pics, relax on a rock and take in the views!! There were a lot of wedding couples there, I reckon I saw about 50 haha!!
I got back to the hotel at about 5 pm, wrecked!! I went around the old town again hopping from cafe to cafe – trying their local coffee. It was good! There was a great atmosphere around the whole place. They love their buckets of fruit and rose cakes too!!
I got the overnight train from Lijiang @ 10.30 pm arriving in Kunming @ 9 am! (30 CNY taxi ride from my hotel to the train station) takes about thirty minutes. It was actually fine and I slept for 8 hours (once I changed cabins from the snorer ha) I’m not a fan of Kunming, it seemed to be very dusty and polluted, so my advice is to arrive there and get out. There are things to do in and around Kunming that I’m sure are lovely, I just didn’t have the time! I got the airport bus (Number 2 + 25 CNY. It takes about 40 mins :).
Here are a few things to know before you go.
Download a VPN
Download Maps.me (offline map)
Go to the website travelchinaguide.com to buy train tickets. It has really good clear information about anything you want to know.
I would book train tickets in advance 🙂