Lijiang Old Town

With approval to kill an extra day in south china, I hopped off of my connection stop at Lijiang and got myself a cab. The cold temperature and the fresh mountain air combine with the view of the mountains made the drive into the city feal like I was arriving at mammoth lakes. After being dropped of on the edge of old town, I hiked to the top of Shizi Shan GuangYuan (Lion Mountain Park) and walked around for a bit trying to find a hotel I liked from agoda.

Since I don't have a cell phone, I just took some photos of the coolest hotel's website before leaving Jinghong, and after failing to find the place where I expected, I practiced Mandarin by asking the Lion Park workers for help. They were nice enough to call the hotels number from the website I'd photo'd and to my luck the hotel workers said I was close enough for them to walk over and guide me back.

I took a bit of time to walk around in the old town after I checked in, what I found was neat yet also disturbing. It was as if an asteroid from planet tourism had come down and exploded right here, leaving a giant smoldering crater of shops, bars, and restaurants all on beautifully decorated walking streets. As the sun went down I saw the light change, and was able to run up the hill in time to catch a photo of the famous Lijiang rainbow.

Lijiang Rainbow

Looking down from my room

Square Street

Looking up the hill after sunset

After sun down I found a famous little Tibeten restaurant called Lamu and dropped in for some Yunnan wine and dried Yak. I have no idea how authentic this place was, probably not very, but it's the closest to Tibet that I've eaten there food so that counts for something...

Yunnan wine

Dried Yak Meat

Inside Lamu

Outside Lamu

I found a Lama

Night lighting in the hutong