Lijiang Travel Forum

Greetings All,

My wife and I are from Australia and will be in Lijiang for about 3 days (20th - 22nd of July) and were wondering whether we are best seeing the sights independently or doing tours. From what we can tell, we are pretty keen on covering the old town, black dragon pool and spruce meadow. I have a feeling that we would be pushing it to take in Tiger Leaping Gorge as well - unless there are daytrips by bus? Normally we like to travel independently but with only a few days in Lijiang we are a little concerned that we may end up wasting valuable time chasing up transport and getting lost.

The only tours I have been able to find online are fairly pricey and are in US dollars. Are there many tours you can just pick up on the day and pay in RMB?

Is Spruce Meadow easy to get to via bus?

Any help and tips would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Mark

I'm really sorry this reply is coming far too late for your trip, but thought it would be worth giving a view on it in case anyone comes along with the same question.

I visited Lijiang alone and organised whatever I wanted as I went along. I arrived by bus and took a room in one of any number of guest-houses that are mentioned in the guide books and signposted in the city. While Lijiang is definitely off the beaten track, it has an outlook that welcomes tourists and makes their stay quite easy. There were plenty of hostels and suchlike with notice-boards and, although I didn't take an organised trip, plenty of offers to visit the gorge.

I hired a bike and cycled out of Lijiang - had a wonderful day.

Sorry again this is too late for you... but maybe someone else will find it helpful

Thanks for you reply. We ended up doing everything independently and had a great time. We just took buses to the sights we wanted to see and did everything at our own leisure. Sure, we could have seen more if we went on organised tours but I'd imagine it would have been very rushed. One of the highlights was a horse ride up to Yunshanping - for anyone planning travel to Lijiang, you can get there via a No.7 bus from the Mao statue.

Cheers,
Mark

Are the buses quite frequent? Do you mean I can get around easily with the buses in Lijiang? Will go there this April.