Day 6 Lijiang Ancient City

25 October 2014 (Saturday)

Since arriving on 21st October, I had only strolled to Sifanjie Square, Big Water Wheel and not much else. I had not really explored Lijiang extensively, and that was why I had allocated myself a day, i.e. today, to explore the old town thoroughly. I did not want to leave Old Lijiang with regret and had to see as much of the old town as possible. The photos on this blog were from last night and today.

Today, I went to Black Dragon Pool Park (Heilongtan) too, where a preservation fee of CNY80 was paid at the park entrance before I could enter. Besides the backdrop of Yulong Snow Mountain at the pool, there was not much else to see.

After visiting Black Dragon Pool, I walked back to Lijiang Old Town and strolled along random streets. They were either very busy or very quiet, and they all look and feel the same, with the shops selling the same items such as trinkets, yak jerky, Yunnan tea, silver craft, drums, etc. My thigh was hurting when I decided to go back to Mama Naxi Guesthouse.

The whole afternoon was spent in my room recuperating and jotting down notes of the last few days experience for my Yunnan blogs.

Dr. An Ming and Joshua knocked at my room at about 3:30 p.m. to say good-bye and the ever fun-loving doctor gave me an unexpected hug! They were leaving for the train station to catch the night train to Kunming. I was surprised to see them there because I thought they had left Lijiang this morning. They went to Baisha this morning. I was told Bruce left this morning and was in Dali.

At about 4:30 p.m., I checked with Mama Naxi reception again to inquire where I could catch public transport and to which bus station I should go to catch the express bus to Dali. She said I should go to Xin Keyun  Zhan (New Lijiang Bus Station) in the south at Kangzhong Road. I could either walk to the blue van terminal to catch a van to Xin Keyun Zhan or I could walk to Zhong Yi Market and walked a little further to Xin Keyun Zhan. She drew me the direction on the old town map distributed by her guesthouse. As the location of the blue van terminal was not far away, I decided to check it out that same evening. It was near Lijiang First Middle School.

Hagrid arrived at 6:05 p.m. from his Tiger Leaping Gorge trek and we went out for dinner together. He wanted to go to Bell Restaurant where he was told has very good sashimi. Unfortunately for him, the restaurant did not serve small sashimi portion for single patrons so we had something else. Tomorrow, he would be taking the day train back to Kunming while I would be going to Dali.

The olive green track marked the trail of my Lijiang exploration on 25 Oct 2014