The InterContinental Lijiang breakfast spread was huge; it had both Western dishes as well as local…you named it, they have it!
Freshly baked pastries yum yum:
In beautiful trays, this looked more like a dessert table!
The only “not so high-end” was the fruit in this fridge in those plastic trays:
Their local specialty stall dishes were all spicy! However, some days they had wontons, which were good.
After breakfast, we went to the in-house costume rental/studio located downstairs of the lobby main building to inquire about the “free costume rental and photoshoot” experience that was advertised when we checked in. The staff said each room gets 10 free photos so with 2 rooms, we can get up to 20 free photos and costume rentals. However, an advance appointment is required but luckily, there was a last-minute cancellation so we booked for the next morning.
There is a water wheel in the resort and the I love Lijiang sign, outside of the costume rental building.
We booked Didi to go to Hei Long Tan Park (黑龙潭). In the morning, it was very quiet.
The park has pagodas and is very green:
The main selling point of the park is the view of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山), the main peak was covered by clouds…
Nevertheless, we had a family photo with the smaller peak 🙂
Next, we took Didi to Shuhe Ancient Town (束河古镇). When we arrived, it was still very quiet. The shops were selling the same stuff as in Lijiang Ancient Town and the prices were similar.
The ancient town was filled with Instagram-worthy cafes like this one:
You can rent costumes here as well.
We came across a cool-looking vehicle; my son is a car enthusiast so he was super happy to sit on it for a photo.
There’s also a wall of Naxi pictographs, but this one has the meaning in Chinese words underneath the picture.
A beautiful building that’s a “over the bridge” rice noodle restaurant:
The streets are filled with shops and restaurants:
We walked all the way to the end of one of the main streets and came to the pond/river area that was very picturesque.
Of course, this pretty little area is filled with restaurants and cafes for the views.
Then, we walked to the intersecting street which goes on and on with both sides filled with shops and restaurants.
We came across this beautiful house with wooden carvings! The logo has “secret women kingdom” but it was closed so we couldn’t check it out what it is!
Another beautiful street with all the ancient-style houses.
You can rent horses if you don’t feel like walking…..
I guess this is the center of the ancient town with a huge square and a stage:
Next to it is a beautiful tower building:
It is a tea shop now:
Very close to the square, there is a public bathroom which is free and the best of it, it has a wheelchair accessible room with a sitting and clean toilet!!! The only thing it doesn’t have is toilet paper but I was prepared for it to bring my own toilet paper. I was relieved to find that it has a sitting toilet so we don’t need to struggle with squatting!
After the toilet break, we checked out other streets which also filled with shops and restaurants:
Another beautiful restaurant:
There’s even a “food” street! I was wondering whether they really have that many visitors for all those restaurants? Especially since most of the restaurants are local cuisine which are the same dishes!
Overall, Shuhe Ancient Town was quieter than Lijiang (perhaps, we were there early before the bus tour groups) but I think Lijiang’s prettier. It was nice to walk around peacefully in the morning to check out this ancient town.
We took Didi back to Lijiang Ancient Town to drop off near the Giant Water Wheels (大水车) entrance. Just outside the entrance, we had lunch at 阿婆情腊排骨火锅, this is another local restaurant chain that is famous for its preserved pork rib hot pot. We ordered the non-spicy soup base and a few side dishes. The soup base was a huge disappointment, it wasn’t as flavorful as the chicken soup that we had been having in Yunnan region. The sliced beef was super dry! The sliced fish was not fresh – the texture after cooking was like chewing on rubber OMG!!!
The only edible dish was the clay pot rice with preserved sausages, very similar to the clay pot we have in Cantonese cuisine.
We filled up our tummy with the clay pot rice instead.
This was the only bad meal we had in Yunnan, I don’t see how it is famous. Even worst, they don’t even have a bathroom in the restaurant; you have to walk outside to another building for a public bathroom….what!!! We didn’t have to go so we’ll find one inside the ancient town if the kids need to go. We entered the ancient town to the Giant Water Wheels (大水车).
My daughter asked when she could wear those pretty costumes, so we decided to rent one for her. We picked the shop near the water wheels…I think all shops are similar prices so we just pick one that has the color/style that she liked.
The costume rental was 80 CNY for the whole day without make-up and photoshoot. The dress was a little bit too big for her but the staff pinned it to make it fit.
She has her own private photographer – mommy 😀
Lijiang Ancient Town is HUGE, we started to explore this part of the town without any specific location in mind, we just walk and stop for photos. We found this cute tree in the courtyard with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 😀
Tucked in the smaller street away from the crowds:
A beautiful entrance doorway under the bougainvillea tree:
Another umbrella street:
Also a street with wishes on wooden hearts:
There is a self-service table with blank wooden hearts that you can scan the QR code to pay (less than 10 CNY I forgot exactly) and write your own wish to hang it up. My daughter was really happy that she could write and hang up her wish!
We continued with the stairs and ended up to a platform with this view:
Right next to the viewing platform is the famous fresh-flower bakery: Jia Hua!
They have different flavors ranging from the original (rose) to matcha jasmine nicely packaged!
You can also buy individual ranging from 5.5-7.5 CNY each. Note that they have a very short consume-by date (within one week) so we didn’t buy that much to bring home as souvenir. We bought a few of each flavor to try it out…my favorite was the jasmine one.
We continued with our exploration of the ancient town and found this street with a few bougainvillea trees!
There is a cat with newborn kittens, my kids wanted to play with it haha.
The stairs painted different colors:
This is a cute grill on hot stone restaurant:
The colorful lanterns on this street were very pretty:
I found Lijiang Ancient Town is filled with plants and flowers compared to other ancient towns.
Without a map or directions, we found this street filled with restaurants covered by flowers!
Another branch of ZhaZha Noodle Soup:
This cafe has huge teddy bears:
Side streets where residents live:
Back to the busy street filled with shops but they are the same shops as in the Mufu area…they all have branches.
Then, we arrived at Square Street (四方街), a beautiful square where they have performances by locals here:
We found seatings under the tree so the kids can take a break to watch the performances while I go to get them boba tea. The GPS wasn’t too accurate inside the old town LOL, I was going around in circles to find Mixue, one of the largest restaurant chains that sells ice cream and boba tea. But at least I found this beautiful canal lined with bougainvillea tree and lanterns.
Mixue’s boba tea is so cheap…..8 CNY for a big cup that’s like $1 USD!!! The kids were so happy when they saw their favorite boba tea! After the break, we continued with our walk, I took them to the beautiful canal for photos.
My daughter was getting tired so we decided to head back to the costume rental shop. On our way back to the water wheels, we saw the Jade Dragon Mountain….some of it.
We returned the costume and took Didi back to the hotel for a break before heading out for dinner. Yunnan’s cuisine is spicy, although, we managed to find few dishes that are non-spicy for the kids, we found them very repetitive. So for a change, I found a Cantonese restaurant called 粤味鲜 that’s inside the ancient town….a 16 minute walk from our hotel. We didn’t have high expectations for it as we are in Yunnan, not Guangdong. It turned out not bad at all! The shrimp fried eggs were cooked just right.
The black pepper beef was a little bit too salty though.
We missed the stir-fried vegetable with black beans and preserved fish:
The roasted duck was not bad!
The eggplant clay pot was good.
It was good to have Cantonese food for a change!
Our 2nd day in Lijiang was wonderful, we got to explore Shuhe Ancient Town and the water wheels section of Lijiang Ancient Town. Lijiang Ancient Town is huge and very picturesque in every corner, I think we have covered probably half of the ancient town so far. The weather was perfect, warm with a cool breeze, blue sky and white clouds!
