Six days, three towns, one direction. The mistake to avoid is the one everybody makes on arrival: going straight up the snow mountain on the day you land, arriving at the cable car at noon with the queue at its worst and no time for the top. Give the mountain its own morning. Everything else here is gentle — a lake, an old town, and a train ride between each.
At a glance
- Day 1Lijiang airport → Dayan old town → Shuhe
- Day 2Jade Dragon Snow Mountain → Blue Moon Valley
- Day 3Lijiang → Qiaotou → the middle gorge path → back
- Day 4Lijiang → Dali by rail → Erhai east shore
- Day 5Dali old town → Three Pagodas → Xizhou
- Day 6Dali → Kunming by rail → Green Lake → Haigeng dam → the airport
Day 1
Land, and stay low
Lijiang airport → Dayan old town → Shuhe
The airport bus is about ¥20 into town. Lijiang sits at 2,400 metres and the snow mountain goes to 4,680, so today is for walking around at this height rather than gaining any. Dayan, the old town, is best after dark when the day coaches have gone and the lanes light up. Shuhe, twenty minutes north, is the quieter version of the same thing. Book tomorrow's cable car tonight if you have not already, and buy your oxygen in town — the ten-yuan canisters sold at the mountain are not worth carrying.
Day 2
Jade Dragon, early or not at all
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain → Blue Moon Valley
Be at the visitor centre before nine. Two cable cars is a comfortable day and three is a scramble: take the big one, which climbs to 4,506 metres, and then pick one of Yak Meadow or Spruce Meadow rather than both. The walk from 4,506 up to 4,680 is boardwalk the whole way and still hard — one step, three breaths — and the photo spot at the top has its own queue. Blue Moon Valley on the way down is beautiful and packed; ten minutes is a fair share of it. Reckon on about ¥100 to enter the area, ¥120 for the big cable car and ¥20 for the shuttle buses.
Day 3
Tiger Leaping Gorge, and the hustle at the end of it
Lijiang → Qiaotou → the middle gorge path → back
Buy the return coach ticket in advance rather than at the gate. The middle gorge walk from the Tea Horse guesthouse to Halfway is the good part and takes a morning. Then the thing to know: people along the path will tell you the way ahead is closed and offer a shared car down. Sometimes it is closed. Often it is not, and the car is an unofficial operation that hands you to a coach it has an arrangement with. Walk back the way you came, or take the ride knowing what it is.
Day 4
South to the lake, and a car for two days
Lijiang → Dali by rail → Erhai east shore
The train takes about two hours. Hire a car at Dali station — two days costs little more than one day of taxis, and outside vehicles are barred from the lake road anyway, so the alternative is renting again inside the scenic area. Drive the east shore in the afternoon: Shuanglang, the S-bend, the small piers. Stop when you feel like it; that is the entire plan. Two warnings from people who have been — the toilets along this shore are few and rough, and the drive back into town at dusk is the worst traffic in the province.
Day 5
The old town, the pagodas, and a Bai village
Dali old town → Three Pagodas → Xizhou
Dali's old town is the better of the two on this trip to walk — wider, calmer, and with the mountains standing over it. One caution: the bars inside it charge a cover to sit down and start at around ¥98 for a cocktail, which is Shanghai money for a small town. The Three Pagodas are ten minutes north and photograph best from the pool behind them. Xizhou, half an hour up the shore, is whitewashed Bai courtyard houses and baba flatbread off a griddle.
Day 6
Kunming, and a flight home
Dali → Kunming by rail → Green Lake → Haigeng dam → the airport
Two hours south on the train and the altitude drops, the air softens and it is suddenly a city. Green Lake is the middle of it, free, and full of people doing nothing in particular. The old Southwest Associated University campus nearby is twenty minutes and one of the more moving small museums in China. Then Haigeng dam on Dianchi for the gulls, which arrive from Siberia in November and stay to March — outside those months it is a pleasant walk by a large lake. Metro to the airport from there.
Eat like you mean it
- Crossing-the-bridge noodlesKunming: a tray of raw toppings and a bowl of broth hot enough to cook them.
- Baba flatbreadLijiang and Xizhou: fried, layered, sweet or salt. Breakfast off a griddle.
- Dali sour fish hotpotErhai fish in a sour broth — the lake on a table.
- Wild mushroomsJune to September only, and the season is short and worth planning around.
- Rushan cheeseBai goat cheese, grilled on a stick and dusted with sugar or chilli.
- Yunnan coffeeGrown a few hours south of here, and better than the tea in most of these towns.
Where to stay
- Lijiang · Dayan old townTwo nights inside the walls, for the lanes after the coaches leave.
- Dali · the old townMountains behind, lake in front, everything on foot.
- Dali · Erhai east shoreA window onto the water, at the price of needing the car.
- Kunming · Green LakeOne night before the flight, in the nicest part of the city.
Before you go
- Do not go up the snow mountain on your arrival day. Be at the visitor centre before nine on a day of its own, and take two cable cars rather than three.
- Book the big cable car before you arrive, and join the waitlist if it is sold out — it moves.
- Buy oxygen in Lijiang town, not on the mountain. The cheap canisters sold at the top are not worth the weight.
- At Tiger Leaping Gorge, buy the official return coach ticket in advance. The "road ahead is closed, take our car" offer on the path is a business, not a warning.
- Hire a car at Dali station for the lake. Outside vehicles cannot use the shore road, so the alternative is renting a second time inside the scenic area.
- Dali old town bars charge a cover to sit and around ¥98 a cocktail. Drink somewhere with a street outside it.
- Fly in to Lijiang and out of Kunming. Returning the way you came costs a day of the six.
One honest thing — Fly in to Lijiang and out of Kunming rather than returning — the high-speed line runs the whole way south and doubling back costs a day. Book the Jade Dragon big cable car before you arrive; the waitlist is the fallback and it does clear.
