Garden Hostel Lijiang

... some uncertainty, we battled our way through the throngs to our accommodation, only to find out our room was still occupied... All sorted out in the end (and smoothed over with an upgrade to a stunning room with views over the old town). Lijiang certainly makes an impression, it's beautiful old buildings sitting along cobbled streets, with streams running through the town and bridges ...

... coffee shops. "It is suicidal," a shopkeeper on Sifangjie, or the Square Street, tells me. "Lijiang people live off tourism but it is tourism that is going to kill this place." Zhang Lishun comes from Dali, another ancient trading spot on the Tea and Horse Caravan Road. Dali grew rice and was much wealthier than Lijiang and he says its wealth destroyed the old city. "People got money and knocked down their old houses. They built western modern houses and the old place is ...

greetings from lijiang, the chilled out pushkar of southern china. im sitting in an interweb terminal in the courtyard of our beautiful hotel in lijiang, right in the middle of the old town. its been lashing rain for the last 2 hours or so, my feet are covered in mud and its been a few days of mixed emotions. i just wrote about 4 lines about how we flew from kunming to dali there before i realised we didnt fly we got a bus, i seriously am losing the plot. so anyway ...

... deposit, but I took her card anyway. At the hostel I got shown to my room whilst Mimi scouted out the competition. The room was pretty much the same as the hostel in Dali. I ordered some food in the restaurant and while it was being cooked I went to use the internet, which didn't work. The food was disgusting as well! I then went to my room to find that the flush on the toilet didn't work. A guy came to fix it and after completely flooding my bathroom he told me ...

Me voici deja dans le bus pour Lijiang, 200km au nord de Dali dans la montagne; j'en avais deja marre des hordes de touristes dans old Dali. Neanmoins Lijiang est annoncée encore plus touristique, il se pourrait bien que je fuie dans la montagne assez vite. Je vise Zhongdian encore plus haut, plus pres de la frontiere tibétaine, et reve de yacks a poils long et de thé au beurre rance... La journée d'hier fut ...

... On arrival we all had to pay respect to the monks by giving them a sack of tea. Apparently this is impressive on size but not on quality. As the brew the tea with Yak butter the quality is not important. The Lama showed us around the monastery which was very interesting. we could then get down to the serious business of finding birds. the White Eared Pheasants were not too difficult ...

... erected, but keeping to the local traditional style with detailed and intricate wood carving throughout. Set off in search of food with a Dutch chap (Felix) also staying at the hostel, and with whom I would spend the next week travelling south. After dinner, Felix and I wandered the old town ending up at the "town square" where 100's of locals were engaging in a traditional Tibetan dance with ...

... a relief! Things were getting pretty scary at 3am on Mondy morning! It's kind of funny to be back in Lijiang as we didn't think we'd be back. Melanie had been shocked with the changes in the place since she was here 11 years ago and the tourists just did our heads in when we were first here, but now it feels like coming home. (And believe me anywhere is better than Shangri-La!) It's a bit quieter this week, I guess now that the ...

... travellers cheques!! Somehow Debs had managed to book us first class for our flight to Lijinag, which menat that we got to sit in a VIP lounge, be fed and watered and told exactly when to board our plane.The pampering continued on board - shame it was such a short flight!! The scenery as we approached Lijiang was awesome, breathtaking and beautiful - reminding me why I've dreamt of coming back here for 10 years!! A short minibus ride and then a taxi and we reached the Old Town ...

This is really one of the most memorable times I've had during my entire year in SE Asia. Did a 5day hike down one of the world's deepest gorges, the "Tiger Leaping Gorge." The mighty Yangste River is pummeled through a narrow passage of rock walls that was created over centuries of erosion as it wound through the valleys of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain range. There are no official guide maps or ranger stations for you to ...