Lijiang Old City

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After breakfast in Kunming we left for Lijiang. Of all the flights in China so far, I haven’t managed score a window seat to view the passing scenery from the plane window. The flight from Kunming to Lijiang is the window seat that I was hoping for, but alas I was unsuccessful. However my sister got a window, and wasn’t interested in relinquish it to me, ohh well too bad, maybe next time (I was of course annoyed as she slept for half of the 40 minute flight!!).

Today is our first day in Lijiang city, situated in the north west of the Yunnan province and an altitude of around 2,500m above sea level. This is the highest I have been on terra firma. The Lijiang area is the home to the Naxi/Nakhi minority people, which have been influenced by the Tibetan and Han (Han are the largest group - 91% of the Chinese population) people.

After lunch we had free time to wonder around the Old City which is a UNESC World Heritage Site. The old city is pretty cool, even with all the merchants. However unlike many other markets that we have visited in China, the market here in Lijiang is very laid back. You can actually wonder down the street and have a casual look without being harassed by a merchant.

The old city is very cool and has only been a tourist attraction in the past 10 years or so. The old city is also full of a lot of small nightclubs, pubs and cafes. Our guides advises that the city has a curfew of 11pm for the clubs and pubs to close as there is still a lot of residential area close by.

When Judith and myself wondered around without direction or purpose, we did get a little lost. However our guide mentioned that if we got lost, all we need to do is follow the canal and streams upstream, as our hotel is located upstream near the Water Wheels. On a side note, the streams are full of goldfish, our guide mentioned something about people putting them in there is part of their prays or something along those lines.

After dinner we to a Naxi music concert in the old city. Our guide did forewarn us that the music wasn’t really for everybody and if you didn’t want to stay, you could walk out and do what you wanted for the rest of the evening. I managed to last around 30 minutes of the 90 minute concert, in my ignorance of this ancient music, it all sounded the same to me.

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