Lijiang Dianxi Mingzhu Hotel

... more mundane goods and services necessary for daily living.

We learn that Lijiang is on what is known as the “Tea Horse route”, an ancient trade route between Tibet, China and India. As such, goods and services were it’s purpose and it would be natural for the townspeople to have the shop-front on the street and to live either above or behind the shop.

Another day we spend an hour or so sitting in a lovely garden overlooking ...

who makes up these lists?
Well, some folks at Time made up the list of the 25 most authentic Asian experiences, which means that those 25 things are either over-run with authentic seekers or will ...

... it just needed more honey). After staying at Halfway house I hiked back to the Naxi family guesthouse where I stayed one more night. They currently have a resident monkey which they rescued from a fight with another monkey. He has some back or leg issues and the son assured me that they will release him in about 2 months after which time he should be healed. I could have stayed on the trail for another couple of days, it is relaxing ...

... paying the entry fee at the main gate 1) if your getting there early before 8am or after 5pm your sweet theres no one there. 2) through the other few entries on the side a mini bus from Likenlong Supermarket should do it too if anyone tries to make you pay just ignore them. Well wish we could have avoided the fee but as we drove in and realised we had to pay it was to late and my fellow travellers were not as keen as me to forgo the fee but hey it ...

... and more tourist-friendly. We took a few photos, stopped for a slightly-overpriced boba tea, and finally found our way out of the town. We rode back to Lijang along a different route, looking for the bus station. We didn’t find it, but we did see a small park around a lake. Right by the bike rental place, we discovered the old town bus station and booked our tickets to Shangri-La.
The following day, we took the midday bus to Shangri-La and bid farewell to Lijang.

... 9pm..... the bus didnt leave until9.40pm, when Helen realised she got the time wrong, and we were actually flying at 10.45pm!! So we had 30 minutes to get to the airport and check in before they shut the boarding gate!! The bus journey it self took 35 minutes, we turned up at the check in desk 5 minutes late,but luckly the bus was full of people on the same flight as us, so we were checked in with no problems!! And so we caught our flight on the 17th to Chengdu..... the home of the pandas!

... a necklace. It really added to the charm of the place seeing that a lot of the crafts they sold were handmade and could be done right before your eyes. Later in the evening we walked up to "Looking into the Past Pavilion" (Wangou Lou), which was built upon Lion Hill and looks out over the town. It gives a great view but unfortunately was built using 400+ year old ancient trees from the northern Yunnan forests.

... to go up a mountain without gasping for breathe? One Chinese girl on the bus seemed to be having a right old heated conversation with the officials over something - probably the price of things, no doubt. Anyway, the bus continued to a visitors centre where we all got off and I bought a ticket for the cable car - another170 which included Y20 for another bus to the lower cable car station. My ticket had the number M15 and I had to wait for an announcement in both Chinese and English ...

... in Qiaotou and get an early start the next day or just go to the Tea Horse Guest House the first day and take 3 days to travel to Walnut Garden if you have the time. There are plenty of areas to explore if you have the time. I've heard rumors that there is a hot spring at the end of one of the "wrong" trails, but I couldn't find it. The Halfway House is a good place to meet others at night and an easy walk to the Middle Stone and Walnut Garden on the 3rd day.

... ladders to see the river and she was relieved when Kate also decided to give it a miss and they set off by road to Walnut Grove. James, Jo and Glenn decided to give it a go, and on advice from Tina's they headed down towards Teacher Zhang's guesthouse to a path winding down the mountainside. The other option was a near vertical ladder down. Greeting us near the start of the path down was an old lady collecting fees for using the path that they maintained. Who could refuse an old lady ...