1-Day Old Town Tour in Lijiang

After breakfast your driver and tour guide will pick you up from your hotel in Lijiang ancient town. We will first go to the Zhongyi morning market inside the old town of Lijiang, a lively local market where the local Naxi people sell food, wares and livestock. Then we will visit the Black Dragon Pool, one of the most iconic views in China of the impressive Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the background of a beautiful traditional Chinese garden. Right next to the park, you will find the Dongba Museum, a little gem where you can learn about the unique matriarch Naxi minority culture. Afterwards, take a visit to close Jade Lake Village, a tiny village – without lake – tucked away in the southern valley with another fantastic view over the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Here you can visit the previous residence of Joseph Rock, now turned into a museum. Joseph Rock was a Victorian National Geographic explorer and botanist who spend over 20 years of his life in this area, recording Naxi culture and risking his life exploring the far corners of Yunnan. Because of Rock, Lijiang became known in the western world.

Before we head back to Lijiang Old Town, we stop by Shuhe Ancient Town, as historically rich as Lijiang Old Town, but more peaceful with almost no other tourists. Another local market can be visited here before your driver will drop you off at the gate of Lijiang Old town.

You will still find Lijiang Old Town a very charming place, despite it being a tidbit touristic. The town has withstood a lot, including a heavy earthquake in 1996. Her pretty streams that wind through a maze of enchanting back alleys is part of an ancient complex water-supply system of that still functions effectively today. Lijiang’s architecture, a blend of elements from several cultures that have come together over many centuries, is exactly what you hoped to find when you came to China. Outside of the main roads, you will feel like you are in ancient China and it doesn’t take much to imagine the traders, merchants and even slavers go about as they did for centuries past. Walk through these back alleys to your hotel.