Lijiang "Oriental Venice" Journal Day 1 of 8 - Old Town of Lijiang

Our itinerary of Yunnan trip, we started from our home in Hong Kong by taking train from Hung Hom to Lok Ma Cau on Christmas day after finished church in the morning, heading to Shenzhen Airport departing at 17:55 flight to Lijiang via Kunming.

We arrived at Lijiang airport at 21:50, and directly went to our hotel, Orchid Land Boutique Inn, by taxi arranged by the hotel for free (compliment for staying more than 3 nights), and because of our hotel is inside of the old town of Lijiang, which car can not enter the old town, so here the tips : it is advisable to ask the hotel to arrange pick up, if you don't want end up lost your time to find your hotel in the old town which some street/alley are very dark at night, and very hard to find hotel address if you are first time there, better carry backpack, not big and bulky luggage with rollers (the road in old town will damage your luggage rollers easily) and for girls...don't wear high heals around the old town.....trust me.

Day 1

Old Town Lijiang

Start the day by buying the "Old town pass" or Protection fare ticket for RMB80/person, you can buy at your hotel or at the entrance of every gate of Old town by showing your passport as the ticket will be written your passport number too, and this ticket will be checked in every tourist places in Lijiang (Old Town, Mu Residence, Black Dragon Pool, Jade Snow Mountain, etc...), so bring this everywhere you go!!

We start our first journey from the hotel after breakfast to walk around the old town, and the first attraction we found after we passed the Square market (Shifangjie) was the Mu Residence, and we paid the entrance fee for RMB60/person. It is the Tusi Mu's Yamen of the Naxi Ethnic Group in Yunnan. Tusi Mu was the ruler of Naxi during the Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644), and Qing (1644-1911). During their reigning, this residence was the center of politics, power and wealth in ancient Naxi. From the top of this residence area, you can see the view which is a "must see" while you are in Lijiang, and take a good photo of whole old town village houses.

Lion Hill, it is the extension of Mu Residence at the top area which you need to pay (again) the entrance ticket for RMB50/person. The area cover with deep forest of the Lion Mountain, there situated the places for the Mu’s family to worship the Heaven, their ancestors, and the Nature, and you will see Wangu pavilion, a very tall building like pagoda at the hill summit, which you can see the whole old town and the bird's view city of Lijiang.

Double Water Wheels

One of the local attractions in Lijiang Old Town is this old still functional double water wheel, which so many tourists are taking photo there. The wheel you can find between the Red Wall and the Yuhe Square where "East Street" and the Old Town starts.

Black Dragon Pool Park (Heilongtan Park)

We walked outside from the old town main entrance, near the Double water wheels, about 20 minutes to the Black Dragon Pool park.

It is free entrance for this park, and only checked "Old Town" pass ticket only.

The front gate is of the park is a grand decorated archway with a board inscribed ‘玉泉公园’ (Jade Spring Park) hanging on the front. Deyue Pavilion is the center of the architecture complex in the park, seating in the center of the enormous Heilongtan pool and connecting with the bank by a bridge. The pavilion is also used as a research institution for Dongba culture.

Square market (Shifangjie) & Old Town at night

The center of the Old Town is the Square Street (Sifangjie). Four main streets radiate from Square Street and extend to the four different directions, which connected with a lot of bridges. There are many shops, bars and restaurants in this area, which good place to spend time in the evening.

Tips : When you want to go to the bar, better to go to the place near the exit of Lion Hill, there are a lot of bars with many great view of the old town with live music, it's easy to find from Shifangjie, just   see the highest pavilion and walk to that direction.

The Old Town is a maze of winding cobblestone streets. It is extremely easy to get lost as there is no grid, but each turn takes one to some new interesting spot, and it's not hard to eventually find one's way out of the maze and back to familiar territory. The most interesting when you are walking in the old city is the shop selling traditional music CD's and traditional drums which you will find many different kind of shops in every streets selling the same song...

Here the song which I uploaded in Youtube :

The Lijiang drummers' song: 一瞬间 - 小倩

Food & Restaurant :

Blue Papaya Italian Restaurant 蓝木瓜

No.50 Guanmen Kou, Dayan Town, Gucheng District, Lijiang, China 古城区大研古城关门口50号

We loved the interiors and colors of this restaurant, price is average (not cheap), but the food is really good to taste something new of local dishes, we tried the Steam Snow Fish with local Naxi's flavour (Price RMB 68/portion) which recommended by one of the waiter (as we saw many people ordered this when we came here during dinner time too)

And when you come to Lijiang, don't forget to try Shangrila Beers.

There are 4 kinds of Shangrila beer : Tibetan Lager, Tibetan Pale Ale, Black Yak (similar to a porter with some hints of coffee) and Supernova, which is a strong flavorful ale with hints of licorice.

To be continue : Day 2...