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Published: August 7th 2007
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Introduction:
LiJiang (丽江), I’ve heard friends talking about it before the trip. Most people would say it is famous for it’s well preserved ancient town DaYan(大研,) much like those you see in JiangNan (江南) area, such as WuZheng (乌镇) and ZhouZhuang (周庄). A very relaxing place which is a perfect gateway from the big city crowd. Also there are plenty of attractions nearby, such as Yu Long Snow Mountain (Jade-dragon snow mountain), the Tiger Leap Gorge and the First Bend in Yangtze River. To be honest, I’m not much of a fan for ancient town, but as a nature lover, I’m all for the mountain, gorge and Yangtze River.
We left Shanghai on July 3rd, a three-hour flight over to Chengdu followed by a one-hour transfer flight, we finally arrived at Lijiang around mid-night. Half-hour driving and several turns through some small alleys in the dark, we arrived at the Moon Inn. The hostess, a girl dressed in minority attire, greeted us cheerfully although it was way past the mid-night. She showed us our room, which is a tiny place but with well-equipped bathroom. The whole place was decorated in minority style, especially the reception area, but we happened
to catch a glimpse of a girl sending e-mail through google. Ancient? I think not! It's actually pretty cool.
The following few days, we hired a driver with a car, who took us to the near-by attractions during the day, came back to the ancient town for lodging, dinner, drinks, and people watching at night. While the ancient part is not 100%!a(MISSING)uthentic, it is indeed a nice little town to relax from a day’s hike.
Lodging:
We booked our hotels on-line through ctrip.com before we left Shanghai. But it turned out that there are many cute family-style ones in the ancient town. Typically less than 100-yuan a night, might not be as modern as the ones we stayed in, but seemed pretty decent from outside. Usually they are in the middle of the town, which is very convenient. But keep in mind that the whole town is by no mean big, took us only 15 minutes to walk from the brink of the town to SiFang Square (四方街), which is like the center part of the town. Most Inns even advertise for internet connection.
Food:
Many delicious local dishes that you absolutely have to try out:
NaSi Fried fish (纳西炸鱼), sticky rice cooked in bamboo (竹筒饭), a special kind of bean curb (鸡豆凉粉), chicken and mushroom soup in steam pot (汽锅鸡), and of cause hotpot of all kinds. I didn’t’ realize that even the minorities in Yunnan have been influenced by Sichuan cuisine so much. Prices are not cheap. The Dim Sum style is typically around 10-20 yuan per dish, entree around 40 yuan or even higher. It is not until we got back to Chengdu that we found out food in Lijiang is even more expensive than Chengdu’s. Perheps I shouldn't be surprised in the first place, afterall, it is a very popular tourist place.
Night life:
You will be surprised how many bars there are in this town. Tons of them lining up this one street at SiFang square. Usually after 10:00pm is when they get crowded. They not only served beers and liquor, most of them serve dinner as well. They have loud music playing and people dancing. The most fascinating part is the singing. This is how it works, usually it is leaded by a couple of local girls dressed in minority style, who were joined by some interested bystanders.
They would stand in the middle of the street and sing to the people sitting on the 2nd floor of a bar, just a sentence or two from a Chinese song that is very popular in every MTV places all over China. Then the other side will sing back, citing a different popular song, might or might not be related with the first one at all. The trick is: one, to sing back in time; and two, to out-loud the other side. The louder party wins. This usually can go on for a while before one side begins to retreat. It was quite a scene, a good way to relax after a day's sight-seeing.
Souvenirs:
This whole area is famous for the PuEr (普洱茶) Tea. Here, they make them into a big black tea cake of various sizes, pile them up from big to small, and display in a teashop.
Jade and silver jewelries are very popular here, and dirt-cheap. Most of them are fakes of cause. Lots of shops have display of the two all over the walls.
The locals like to carve on wooden spoons which used to be water spoon. They like to carve out
Moon Inn
The inn we stayed for the first night. NaXi words (纳西文字), which is a very ancient lithograph that is more like drawing than words, or pretty patterns, godesses, or ancient brave heroes, their horses, arrows and bows, quite interesting.
Transportation:
Any hotel you stay will have affiliation with some drivers with their own cars. They usually charge by day, based on how far away you want to go, but not counting the time they spend waiting for you to finish the hiking. For example, we spent one day in Tiger Leap Gorge, which is about 1.5hr by car from Lijiang (88 km). We went in an 8-person min-bus. The driver asked for 180 Yuan only. He drove us over (took about 1.5hr), waited for us for about 2 hours at the gorge, and then drove us to the First Bend in Yangtze River in the afternoon, waited for another 2 hours and back to Lijiang. We thought it was a very good deal. So we hired him again for the next day. The next day, he drove us to Jade-dragon Snow Mountain (40km from Lijiang). We stayed there from 11:00 am to 6:00pm. He only asked for 80 since it is much closer by distance compared
with Tiger Leap Gorge, although it also took a whole day. While we were dinning in the town, a few people came over asking if we needed rides to the attraction, even claiming they have SUV. There are also numerous travel agents all over the town who offer tour packages.
Fees:
For people staying in the ancient town only, you don’t have to pay any additional fee. But if you go to any of the nearby attractions, you have to pay an 80-yuan/person fee called Ancient Town Maintenance fee.
So overall we had a very nice experience in Lijiang: good food, plenty of night life, nice attractions near-by, and interesting minority culture. What more can you ask?
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