I'm not sure what made us choose Lijiang when we were planning our trip but I'm glad we did. I think we read something about it & then saw thew photo's which pretty well made our minds up. This is an amazing little town that should be on the itinerary for most people.
We took a flight from Xi'an to Chengdu & then on to Lijiang. We arrived into Lijiang airport at about 10:30pm & took a taxi to the old town. If you ever go to Lijing make sure your hotel is in the old town otherwise there is no point in even visiting because the old town is the attraction.
We managed to find our hotel quite easily & after settling in we grabbed some dinner & went straight to bed. As we were both starting to feel a little under the weather. The next morning Mel was very sick & unable to get out of bed. I'm not sure what it was, possibly something we had eaten on the flight or from dinner the night before. I also had a bout of Beijing Belly but I wasn't as sick as Mel who was at the throwing up stage. Mel decided to skip the day of sightseeing & just take it easy, resting in bed. Good idea I thought, we were after all here for 4 days & there would be plenty of time for sight seeing once she was well. I decided to venture out for a look myself but was limited to the places I could go as I had to make a few visits to the restroom at times & the only one I knew of was in our hotel room.
Lijiang is beautiful & its quite obvious to see why the whole town is on the world heritage list. The buildings are ancient wooden buildings that have been knocked around a little. The streets are cobblestones & the paths follow winding canals through out the town. After strolling for a while I decided to venture up the nearby hill for a great view of Lijing.
Lijing is situated at the foot of one of the highest mountains in China, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Lijiang has a very old history & it's still inhabited by the Naxi people who were the first to settle in the area more than 800 years ago. A view from small hill in the middle of town makes you think you have stepped back in time. The town is quite big & each bend gives way to a new experience or a must have photograph.
Mel actually ended up being quite sick for 2 days so most of the time I spent around the old town was solo. I went to an evening music performance by the traditional Naxi people which was good & worth the visit. But when your not use to listening to Chinese music it can get a little ear piercing & even at times sound like someone is killing a cat. There was one man who sung for them though & I must say I was more than impressed with his voice.
Once Mel was well we went for a walk out of the old town to a spot called Black Dragon Pool Park. This is a small park which has lakes full of fish & beautiful gardens full of blooming flowers. On a clear day Jade Dragon Snow Mountain reflects in it's crystal clear waters to produce an amazing photo opportunity.
On our last day we organised a private trip though our hotel out to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We were both feeling a little sick still so we didn't want to mess about with a day tour that would take us to six other places. Our guide tried to pull into a few shopping malls & temples along the way but we just stayed seated & insisted that we go directly to the mountain. Our driver agreed & nodded his head a our request to go straight there. But about 10 minutes down the road he pulled the taxi over to another shop & asked us to get out. We did & he took us in & just pointed to Oxygen in a bottle & then pointed at the mountain. Now if you've been to China you know that this the type of crap they try to sell to stupid westerners all the time. So once again we said no & just pointed back at the mountain. He got the idea & it wasn't long before we were off & this time with no more stops.
Once we arrived at the foot of the mountain he went inside with us & bought our entry tickets & then pointed to another bus which would take us to the gondola. We thanked him & some how managed to understand his meeting point directions. A short drive up the hill & we were standing in line for the Gondola. Now let me just say, I wasn't feeling well by this point & Mel was still getting over few days of sickness. I'm not the biggest fan of Gondolas to begin with so I wasn't overly looking forward to it. I'm not scared of them, I just don't like it when they stop & you do that swinging thing similar to Ferris wheels. It's no so bad if they are the big twenty people gondolas but these were small, four seater cabs & let's face it we're in China! Whats the safety standard like seriously.
After some stunning views & a few head down moments we reached the top. As we stepped out of the cabin I felt like my head was going to explode. It appears that the Oxygen in a can wasn't a stupid gimmick. I really felt like it was harder to breath with the high altitude. The next gondola behind us pulled up & the people began to hop out when one of the girls fainted from the altitude. That's when I really started thinking "god dam where is my crappy Chinese Oxygen can when I need it". We walked around for a little bit before deciding to line up in the extremely long down line. There wasn't anything to see up here except jagged rocks covered with a little bit of snow. There was no view of the land below because the top of the mountain is covered in clouds most of the year. After getting back down & feeling the ever better for it, we found our ride & headed back to Lijiang Old Town for dinner.
That night we had dinner at one of the places we had eaten at before. They had a good menu, we didn't get sick last time & the Lonely Planet highly recommended it. We were shown to our table in the back not far from the kitchen. After placing out order we just sat back & though about the trip so far. Next thing I knew here was our food, looking & smelling as god as ever. We slammed it down & ordered a few more drinks whist we let our delicious meals settle. All of a sudden something caught my eye just over Mel's shoulder. "If you enjoyed dinner don't look behind you" I said. Of course the natural thing to do is to look behind you & that's exactly what Mel did. "Oh My God!", Mel said. Just behind here was the biggest rat I have ever seen in my life. Now I know this is Asian & I have seen rats in & around Asian restaurant before but this one looked disgusting. It was missing so much hair & was lumpy all over with parts of looking like it had just fallen off. "Cheque Please", we said & decided to go for a stroll to forget about what we had just seen. It could of been worse though, the rat could of came our whilst we were eating I guess.
Lijiang seems to get even more beautiful once the sun goes down. The streets are lit with lanterns & mood lighting beams from every store front. We finished our visit to Lijiang with Mel sending a dream/wish candle down the river & off into the distance.