A visit to China's oldest city - Lijiang, Yunnan - July 26-27, 2012

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On July 26, we flew from Chengdu to Lijiang, in Yunnan Province. Our flight was in the afternoon so we were able to sleep in which was really nice. As soon as we arrived in Lijiang, we knew that life was about to get much better. The sky was blue, the hills were green, and the airport was incredibly cute and clean. Lijiang did not disappoint. It’s the oldest city in China and we were staying in the cobble-stone streets of the old town. Our first night we went wandering through the old city, stopping in random shops and sampling some snack food. We saw the historic waterwheel and the main square. We even saw some dancing! It was really, really nice.



An interesting fact about Lijiang is that the old city isn’t walled. The story goes that the family that founded the city didn’t want a box put around their name because it would change their name – since the Chinese character would get a box around it and the meaning would change. So the old city just meets the new city, no real division between them except architecture!



Friday the 27^th, we decided to rent some bikes and head up to Shuhe, just a half hour’s bike ride from Lijiang. It’s also a quaint old city and we had a nice day wandering around. We got some local Naxi (ethnic group of the area) food and we did some shopping since prices were lower in Shuhe than Lijiang! We decided also to be tacky tourists and dress up like Naxi women and have our photos taken! We became quite famous, as usual. It was really fun! We also had some men at lunch invite us to spend the day with them and/or meet up with them at the pub later. Pretty creepy/funny.



It drizzled a bit but mostly it was a very pleasant day. We returned to Lijiang to rest for a bit, then went for dinner in Lijiang old town. All in all, it was a very pleasant, relaxing, and quaint experience. We’d heard that Lijiang was very touristy but it was mostly Chinese tourists so that was nice. Not too many other white people.



Yunnan is my favourite province of all the ones I’ve visited thus far. It’s got a much more relaxed atmosphere and it’s really nice to be out of the big cities! So we’re really happy here. And we’re spending a whole week here which is really nice.

-Dafne

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Photos

Cookie-cutter suburban apartments
as seen all over China

Comments

[Leslie]

Great to see all your photos - thanks for posting!
Fascinating towns and sites outside the main cities.

[Maggie]

cleanliness
how clean is that water? Is it safe to drink from the bottle after its been submerged?

[Dafne]

Well the bottles are sealed so it should be fine

[Maggie]

lol you two look awesome!