Lijiang 3-Day Tour

Lijiang Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and more than 800 years of time are written into every polished blue-stone slab. The town has no city walls; in their place runs an ancient water network that is still used today — follow the canals and, they say, you will never lose your way. Step into the Mu Palace, the former residence of the Naxi chieftain, and see the exquisite skill the Naxi left in architecture and art; then climb Wanggu Tower on Lion Hill to take in the whole spread of grey-tiled roofs together with the distant Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The water threads through the town like a gentle map, and the palace reveals a courtly grandeur hidden behind modest lanes.

The Naxi people keep the only pictographic script in China that is still in use today — Dongba script. In Baisha Village you will be welcomed into the home of a Naxi Dongba priest, hear him tell of his family's lineage, learn to recognise a few Naxi characters and listen to a piece of ancient Naxi music. Then, following a Naxi woman, learn to make Naxi pancakes, which become the main dish of your lunch — the quickest way to slip into local life. Each character is a small picture of the world, and the old music carries the memory of a people who have kept their voice for centuries.

Ride the cable car up the sacred mountain in the Naxi heart — the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain — straight to the Spruce Meadow at over 3,000 m. Beneath your feet lie tier upon tier of primeval forest and alpine meadow; above, snow peaks that never melt; and the noise of the city is left completely behind. On the way back, visit Black Dragon Pool Park, where a clear pool by the Five-Arch Bridge mirrors the snow mountain, the green trees and the pavilions into a single picture — one of the most famous “postcard views” of southwest China. The air grows thin and bright, and the silence of the heights feels like another country.