Joining the crowds in Lijiang
I’m not sure exactly when I first heard of Lijiang, but it was at least a few years ago and well before I stepped foot in China for the first time. Like Jiayuguan, it’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit, and the fierce debate it seems to inspire – I’ve heard it described as everything from the most beautiful city in Asia to an overrun hellhole – made me feel that I had to check it out for myself to make up my own mind.
With a handful of days available between Guangzhou work sojourns, we left yesterday morning for Yunnan province, with Lijiang as the centerpiece of the trip. Yunnan is only two degrees of separation from Gansu – Sichuan borders both – but they’re completely incomparable, at least as far as our traveling experience has gone so far. The days of eating 50 cent bowls of beef noodle soup every day and having to pull out our survival Chinese multiple times daily just to achieve the most basic of things are over, at least for the moment. Now, we’re eating hamburgers and continental breakfasts, speaking English with villagers and using wi-fi. At any given time in Lijiang (such as right now, looking down from my window as I type), we can see more foreigners just in our guesthouse courtyard than we saw in 11 days in Gansu.
As for Lijiang itself, it is undeniably one of the most touristy places I’ve ever seen (and that’s saying something), but the reasons are obvious: it’s an achingly beautiful city of traditional architecture, cobble-stone alleyways and stone bridges crossing crystal-clear streams – it’s essentially the real-life incarnation of the ideal China that non-Chinese imagine but rarely see. If you get up early enough (as we did this morning at 7am, beating off the one-and-only Mama Naxi and her offers of tea and bananas en route), the otherwise theme-park-like main square is peaceful and deserted, and along the way you can see locals selling fruit and cooking breakfast in the alleyways, with no Chinese tour groups in sight. As long as you go in with the right attitude and are prepared to explore the city away from the main tourist streets, Lijiang is pretty fabulous. Spoiled, yes. Ruined, no.
Since Lijiang and Pingyao are considered the two most picturesque cities in China, and given how I gushed about Pingyao in this space a year or so ago, I’d better offer a comparison. Lijiang is inherently prettier, and there’s more of it (the picturesque alleyways seem to never end) but it’s much more touristy, while Pingyao had more actual ‘sights’ – towers, gates, walls and ramparts – that Lijiang doesn’t really have. Overall, blue sky days in Lijiang and some great food push it over the top for me.
With only three more days left before we return to Guangzhou, we decided against a mad dash across Yunnan to Dali, Shangri-La and the other major destinations of the province. Instead, we’re going to focus on the area around Lijiang, with the idea of potentially returning to Yunnan one day to explore some more. After much debate, we decided to skip the Tiger Leaping Gorge, which sounds like the countryside version of Lijiang (beautiful but overrun) – and while I can handle crowds and tourist hassle in the cities, if you get that on a hike it sort of defeats the purpose of getting out of the city to enjoy nature in the first place. Instead we’re going to the foot of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to stay at a village cooperative for a couple of days, which will hopefully offer a quieter but no less beautiful experience of the Yunnan countryside.
Tags: Asia, China, Lijiang, Travel, Yunnan
Nick