As part of the wedding trip to China, we've also visited the old city of Lijiang for 3D/4N. You can easily get there by train or even by airplane. We stayed in the beautiful Lyon Hotel just 5 minutes walk away to the city center. Lijiang is a super cute little town with traditional buildings, Western and Chinese food options, many flowers, canals and cafés. Additionally, there are many day tours you can do while you're here. Most famous is probably the glacier peak of Jade Snow Mountain but due to the warm weather here in Summer, there is currently no snow in the mountain and without snow it's not really recommended to go there as it doesn't look very special during the summer months. Therefore we only visited the Tiger Leaping Gorge, Blue Moon Valley and some smaller places around.
1. Day - Tiger Leaping Gorge
There are in total three parts: The lower, middle and upper Tiger Leaping Gorge, while the wordings "lower, middle and upper" are not related to the height but to the part of the canyon (upper on the left and lower on the right):
The Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge is the more touristic and famous one - you are directly at the bottom of the canyon and can witness the power of the river from close distance. From the parking lot you can walk down and up the stairs for 300m or take the escalators. The entry fee is 45¥ and the fee for the escalator is 70¥. You can buy the tickets downstairs as well as upstairs if you decide to go down but take the escalator back up again.
Once you arrive at the bottom there are many platforms to witness the river and you can also find some nice cafés, restrooms and small shops.
Here are some impressions of this beautiful natural wonder:
The high trail is in total more than 15km and it’s recommended to do it within 2 days with an overnight stop in one of the guesthouses along the way (see first map above).
As we didn’t had so much time we decided to walk only the part from Tea Horse Guesthouse to Naxi Family Guesthouse, which is around 5,5km with ~ 400m incline. I saved the hike also on Komoot.
Instead of booking a tour we booked a private driver who dropped us of at the first guesthouse and picked us up again at the second one, so that we could leave some stuff in the car and didn’t had to return on the same way. Price for the driver was 700¥ for the whole day and we can highly recommend booking her!! We also booked her for the Blue Moon Valley tour as she was right in time, drove very good and was very helpful and friendly. Phone number to organise a day tour with her (WeChat): 18183963966.
As we didn’t had so much time we decided to walk only the part from Tea Horse Guesthouse to Naxi Family Guesthouse, which is around 5,5km with ~ 400m incline. I saved the hike also on Komoot.
Instead of booking a tour we booked a private driver who dropped us of at the first guesthouse and picked us up again at the second one, so that we could leave some stuff in the car and didn’t had to return on the same way. Price for the driver was 700¥ for the whole day and we can highly recommend booking her!! We also booked her for the Blue Moon Valley tour as she was right in time, drove very good and was very helpful and friendly. Phone number to organise a day tour with her (WeChat): 18183963966.
We highly recommend to arrive early in the morning (latest 8:30am) to avoid the crowds. And if you go for the hike as well, take enough water, sun protection, snacks and a cap, as it can get very hot. And also don't underestimated the height of > 2.500m which can make you feel a bit tired during the hike.
2nd Day - Blue Moon Valley
The next day we visited Blue Moon Valley. It's part of Jade Snow Mountain Nationalpark where you drive around by electric busses or you can also walk between the different stops. The parking lot is near the main visitor center from where you take one huge/normal bus to the main entrance and from there you hop on one of the smaller electric busses. Exit directly at the first stop and from there you can walk all the way till the end from where you then take again a huge/normal bus back to the visitor center. The whole park is very touristic and crowded, even in the morning, but still offers nice views and the water of the lakes looks absolutely incredible! Nevertheless lower your expectations even though it looks great, as you will always be surrounded by many many many people.
In the same park there are also Spruce Meadow and Yak Meadow but as we weren't so interested in seeing meadows, we skipped these, same as the glacier without snow. So it was kind of quick visit. On the way back we also visited Yu Lake, which is actually not a lake but another small town with many new and cute cafés, shops and hotels. Also here the highlight was meant to be a meadow with some goats, so we only walked a bit around the village and then turned back to the hotel. Price for the driver was 500¥ for this trip plus the entry fees and tickets for the bus (in total less than 100¥).
3rd Day - Black Dragon Pool & Glass Skywalk
On our last day in Lijiang we visited the local park directly behind our hotel and it was sooo nice! Super peaceful atmosphere, a huge lake and many cute cafés, restaurants and museums. Entry fee is 50¥ and you can easily spend 1-2h strolling around the park.
Afterwards we visited Guanyinxia Scenic Area, which is more kind of amusement park for children but they also offer a pretty cool Glass Skywalk which we wanted to check out. They will try to sell you a package containing several activities within the park but from our point of view it's not worth it to see more than the skywalk, so you should only pay around 140¥ which includes the general entry fee and the entry for the glass skywalk. The view was really great from above, but you shouldn't be scared of height. We ordered a Didi do get there and it takes only around 30 minutes form Lijiang town.
