Doorless Toilet vs 5-star Toilet

I have heard so much about the toilets in China before but have never really used those. What I’ve heard was: toilets are without door not flush.

In the past, when I was in China, I tried to go to places with modern toilet facilities. So far, haven’t been exposed to this type of toilets, until my recent Lijiang Trip.

After visiting the Tiger Leaping Gorge, while we were at the First Bay of Changjiang River, we stopped at a site that is less visited. And here, we saw this type of toilet for the first time!

They only have a drain that connects a few ‘units’ of toilets. And each unit has walls that are about waist height. All are WITHOUT door. So, users have to go in and pull down the pants and squat down – with all the processes viewable by other users. This is what we felt very uncomfortable.

Luckily, there were only the 3 of us, no other visitors/users. We told each others – “DON’T LOOK!”! LOL! As if others are interested to look at you! :p

Oh, BTW, even in modern toilets, we have seen people squat down doing BIG business, without closing the door, and they were facing OUT. Aiyoh! I guess they are just not used to having toilets with doors. LOL!

In comparison to these Traditional Toilets, we found this “5-star toilets” at the Yunnan Nationalities Village.


I went to this toilet, and immediately I laughed-out-loud! They even provide TV on the wall. So, you won’t miss your favorite program, even if you have to go to the toilet. Hahahahah!

Accommodation in Lijiang

We stayed in a motel located within the Shuhe old town (束河古镇). This place is recommended by a friend, and I too, highly recommend. And I would ask you to stay much longer than what we did. We only spent two nights, which is certainly not enough!

Motel: 田园牧歌客栈
Address: 丽江, 束河古镇开文六社康普巷 (束河办事处旁)
Tel: 0888-5115922
Website: http://www.tymgkz.cn/

We highly recommend this for its hospitality and flexibility. The owners are very nice. It is run by very young people, who actually spend the whole day with the guests. You can chat with them till late night, to understand the local cultures better. They even brought us to the square and we danced together. They make friends with their guests, which is kind of uncommon in other places.

This is the room that we stayed in: 等月亮

Top left: when we open the door in the morning, this is what we see.
Top right: toilet/bath
Bottom left: our bed
Bottom right: outside view at night, it is a corner lot.


This is the corridor – very quiet in the morning…


Top left: outside view of the motel during the day.
Top right: a long table where people gather for meals and drinks, very cozy, like a lounge.
Bottom left: this is where we first had our dinner, a small square surrounded by the rooms.
Bottom right: our room is just behind the 2 loungers.


Look at this lock! They are so Chinese! I thought of buying one but forgot about it later! It looks like a combination lock with Chinese writings…

Eat in Lijiang

In this trip, we spent a LOT on food. We purposely asked the agency to exclude meals from our package, so we can truly experience the local food. Yunnan is a place full of cultural surprise, and we strongly believe it is also in the food!

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Lunch at Dunno where
Due to time constraint, we had our first Lijiang lunch at the attraction itself. Ordinary food, slightly more expensive, but still tasty. Maybe we were hungry, coz it was 3pm already! :p

Cost: 100
Address: Unknown, Lijiang
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Dinner in Motel
When we checked in at our motel (田园牧歌客栈) in Shuhe told own, the owner and shop keepers are all having their dinner. They asked us to join them, and immediately cooked 5 dishes for us, fresh from the kitchen! Guess what? It cost only RMB60 for the 3 of us!!

Look, they are all simple and easy to cook dishes, but we never know we can cook like that. The one on bottom right is just fry potato thin slices with eggs. This is very yummy, but of course oily – imagine it!

Cost: RMB 60
Address: 丽江, 束河古镇开文六社康普巷 (束河办事处旁)
Tel: 0888-5115922
Website: http://www.tymgkz.cn/
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Breakfast in Shuhe
Our first breakfast in Lijiang was like this:


Top left – these are their pao and buns. The plain bun is supposed to be eaten with the chilly on the top right.
Bottom left – our guide said that this is their favorite local drink, so we tried. Yuck! It tastes like butter melted in water. It is called SuYouCha (酥油茶).
Bottom right – simple fried egg in flour. Nothing special.

Before we left, we packed a puff from that lady – looks like our curry puff but non-spicy filling inside, all vegetables. Our guide told us those are actually non-local food, apart from the tea! :p


Cost: RMB47. Quite expensive!
Address: Just in front of the motel we stayed.
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Ripped-off Lunch
Our next lunch was a ripped off lunch. After visiting the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the driver said it is too long to get back to town and he recommended a place for us to eat. He is of no good intention, coz this place is a ‘black shop’. I’m sure he got big commission.

Well, the place actually looks great, as it was by the river with good scene. They do not have menus, so we have to go to the kitchen and order based on what we see à a unique way of ordering here, also in other parts of Yunnan.

Here is their kitchen - they cook rice outside:


This is what we ordered. On the left are the raw ingredients on the shelf, and on the right are the final cooked dishes. The bottom row is蚕豆, which I never know can be eaten like this – quite delicious!


Here is a flower dish that we ordered. Yes, we ate flowers fried in egg!


Well, so far, the taste is not bad, actually quite nice. But when this final dish came out, it really upset us. This is the famous local dish - boiled chicken with mushrooms (草菇炖土鸡).


There wasn’t any chicken meat. We paid for half chicken, but we couldn’t find any meat! Where did the meat go for the drumstick and the breast? They were just bones and bones only! Look how watery the soup is! We suspect that they took the meat and gave us the bones only.

It cost us RMB147, and RMB75 went to that stupid chicken dish alone – all we paid were chicken bones only.

The name of the shop is 江鱼潭伊家园. Beware! This is how the restaurant looks (quite cozy on the right photo). If you are brought there, you may still proceed as the taste is quite good, but please avoid ordering their chicken.


Cost: RMB 147
Address: 江鱼潭伊家园 near Tiger Leaping Gorge
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A-Ma-Yi Restaurant, Naxi local food in Lijiang Old Town
We have read about this restaurant before, and we purposely asked the guide to bring us there. Upon verification with the locals, it is true that this shop is run by a real Naxi local. Amayi (阿妈意) is a lady who is very famous in her cooking. She is retired now and passed this shop to her son. The restaurant is located inside the Lijiang old town, in a secluded area – that’s why not many know of this place! It took our guide some time to find it too!

We invited our guide to join us for dinner, and she explained those dishes to us. I actually can’t remember what we ordered and the pictures taken wasn’t clear. Roughly, I could remember we ordered fried potato (like French fries but in spicy sauce), fried mushrooms (干扁茶树菇), and two other very spicy dishes which I couldn’t take, plus a broiled chicken with toufu (豆腐炖土鸡). Yes, we were very upset with the lunch and want to try an authentic boiled chicken again.


Look at the picture below – that is a good comparison between the lunch chicken (left) and the one we got from Amayi (right).


The one on the right has so much ingredient that you can see from the surface. The one from lunch, we could hardly find anything!

Cost: RMB 138
Address: 丽江古城五一街小石桥
Tel: 13988895592
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Motel Breakfast
Here is our second breakfast, just before leaving the motel – we spent only 2 nights there. It was just plain porridge with some pickles. The porridge is so hot that it helped warmed up our body – it was very cold on our last day in Lijiang!

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Vermicelli Soup
There is one other specialty in Yunnan, which is their vermicelli soup (过桥米线). Before leaving Lijiang, our guide let us try this. Well, they brought up the meat, egg, noodle and soup, in separate bowls. What we had to do was to mix them and eat. A bit different in the way they eat, but the taste is similar to our noodle soup here, with a bit of spiciness.


Cost: RMB 41 for 3 bowls
Address: Just around Lijiang Old Town entrance, next to the taxi stand.

China Yunnan Lijiang Trip - Other Cultural Highlights

Culture on the Floors

Here is a photo showing their unique way of tiling their floors. They like to use small stones that are made into patterns using roof tiles as separators/designs. Found this in almost everywhere!

Greetings
Every tribe has their own ways of calling others. In Naxi tribe (纳西族 - main tribe in Lijiang), women are called PanJingMei (胖金妹) and men are called PanJingGe (胖金哥). Well, I know, it should be pronounced as pang-jin-mei instead of pan-jing-mei, but Mandarin is not their native language and that IS the way they pronounce it! Some times a bit confusing when you listen to them, but it is quite fun too to guess what they actually mean! :D

In other tribes, these are called differently. Women are call JinHua (金花) in Bai tribe (白族 - main tribe in Dali) and A-Shi-Ma (阿诗玛) in Yi tribe (彝族 – main tribe in Kunming). We didn’t have the chance to learn more about other tribes, but it is really interesting! When we were in Lijiang, it took us a while to be accustomed to be called PanJingMei, and when we were in Kunming we found it funny when we were practicing mentioning AsiMa and other women responded to us!

Unique DongBa Religion – environment concerns
As highlighted in my previous post, Naxi’s DongBa religion emphasize a lot on taking care of the natural resource. They have built in environmental awareness into the religion, since many hundred years ago. This is really, really, unique!

They are so eco-friendly, even in their daily activities. They do not use plastic bags for all shopping. Instead, they use recyclable bags. I was told, if one walks away from a shop with a plastic bag, both the shop owner and the shopper would be fined!

All over in Yunnan, we see trash bins that come in sets of two – one is specific for recyclable items.


They Eat Flowers
Yes, they use flowers in their dishes, they EAT flowers. Flowers are not just for decorations! I will write more about this in separate posts on food.

Writings
Here are some examples of their DongBa writing. These are found on the walls in the old town:


The figure on the left top represents “Woman”. She holds a mirror with her own reflection.

The one on the right top represents “Home”, which you can see from its roof and the people staying below it.

And the bottom one represents “Pregnant Woman”. She has a big stomach and a fetus is inside the round stomach.

Basically, their writing is very much like drawings.

Dances in Yunnan

On our first night stay in Lijiang, the motel owner kept persuading us (almost forcing) to dance at their local dance square after our dinner. We were so tired but still went ahead – am glad that we did that coz we practically didn’t have the chance to do that in the following days!

According to them, before TV invaded the litter quiet township, the people have nothing to do at night. It is their traditional culture to gather in the square after dinner, light the fire to keep warm, and dance circling the fire.

Of course, as tourism has boomed in this place, and with the invasion of TV and other entertainments, less and less locals dance there, and it is now full with tourists. Nevertheless, the one that we went in Shuhe old town (束河古镇) is still far more authentic than the Lijiang old town.

We watched for a while, and then was pulled into the circle to join them. I tell you… the locals really danced with their full body, seeing their shoulders and body movement – that is called DANCING. And us? We were like zombie or doing the morning exercise – practically just lifting our hands and kicking our legs here and there, as per the instruction. I found that we were very funny when I reviewed the videos. Hahahaha!

Here is a video before we joined the circle:

Here is a video showing 3 locals (2 white shirt and 1 black) dancing with us. Look at their movements!

Lijiang - Other Attractions

These are some smaller attractions that I think can be skipped, especially some tend to be man made in the recent years. Well, when I visit a culturally rich place, I prefer to see its original look, rather than enriched or built by government for tourists. Unfortunately some of these smaller attractions listed in this post fall into that category. If I had known better, I would have skipped them. Nevertheless, they are not complete time waster as we could still learn a bit on their religions and their legends.

Legend of the Princess

Although there are a few versions about this Legend of the Princess, they all have some commonalities. First, the princess was imprisoned above the pond at the right side of this bridge. Second, all versions come with a sad ending, and the princess must die.

Story 1 – told by our guide
The king sent his favorite daughter to marry the prince of his enemy, pretending to be in peace with them. In fact, he wanted his daughter to feed him with information so that he could kill the prince and win the next battle. The princess fell in love with the prince and disobeyed her father. The king sent bad news on the queen, to lure the princess back home. Once she was back, she was imprisoned in a hut above the pond. She sent her dog to deliver message of her capture to the prince, but the dog was found and killed. When she found out that the prince was killed, she committed suicide in the hut by refusing to eat and drink.

Story 2 – told on the signboard

Similar to story 1, but in this version, it was the king who wanted to kill the princess by not giving her any water to drink. She tried to drink the water by dipping her long hair into the pond via the cracks of the hut floor. When found out, the father shaved her bald, and she was dead of thirst a few days after the shave.

DongBa Religion

Here is the DongBa symbol, practiced by most of the Naxi tribe (biggest minorities in Lijian). They worship 5 gods, with the most important/powerful one in the center.


This is the place they go up to worship their DongBa god. The long steps lead people walking away, from the hell to this world, and from this world to the heaven. On the left of the stair case is considered the death side – no photos could be taken there as it is believed full of evil spirits. On the right side is the good side – photos can be taken. A bit spooky, and I’m chicken hearted, so have to follow the rules! In fact, I even scared to take photo in the ‘good side’!


Here are some souvenirs they sell there. I’m particularly scared of the faced doll. It looks like voodoo thingy to me. :p

Meat Stones

They have an exhibition of meat stones in one of the attractions (can’t remember which one). Meat stones are natural stones that looks exactly like a piece of meat, without any modifications! There are 65 pieces of such meat stones in displayed in this museum. Apart from this set, there is one piece in Taiwan and another one in Singapore. Don’t you think they look like real meat??!!

Lijiang Attractions - Old Towns

There are 2 old towns that we visited, one is called Shuhe (束河古镇) and another is Lijiang (丽江古城).

Our motel is inside Shuhe. It is a much quieter town than the other one. At night, there are less activities. The highlight of its activity is the nigh dancing which I’m going to share in next post. I actually prefer this town than Lijiang Old Town, due to its serenity and peace.

Top left – a quiet and peaceful morning, residents taking water from the river (drain?) to use)
Top right – the water is very clear, and you can see right through it to the bottom!
Bottom left – a shop owner making goods from silver with her tools.
Bottom right – the stone road is so smooth, which indicates this section of the road has been a few hundred years old. The longer it is, the smoother it gets.

And picture below is Lijiang Old Town at dusk:


Top left & right – entrance to the old town
Bottom left – this is the famous Bar Street (酒吧街), where you find a lot of bars in traditional format. Some even with local cultural dance, and some with the cross singing!
Bottom right - this is the Square (四方街), which supposedly for people to gather and dance. But no one did that when we were there, not as fun as the Shuhe old town.

We visited the House of Mu (木府) on our last day, which is situated just within Lijiang old town. It is where the local ‘king’ lived in, many years ago. He tried to imitate the Forbidden City (故宫/ 紫禁城), so lots of structures are quite similar to the one in Beijing – looks too familiar to me!


From here, if you walk to the top of the last room, you can view the whole Lijiang old town from here (picture above, at bottom right). Quite a spectacular view.

Lijiang Attractions - Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Tiger Leaping Gorge

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山) is the second place we visited in Lijiang, which was our original main focus. My expectation on this attraction was much higher than what we got. I later learnt there are 2 routes to view the mountain, one could be nearer to the snow mountain but would probably more demanding on physical strength.

Due to high altitude, we get tired easily. Though we didn’t get any altitude sickness, I’m glad we didn’t go the other route coz at the end of this trip I was exhausted. There was some uphill walk (very minimal).

This is the cable care that we took that brought us nearer to the mountain. Without that, I guess we won’t be able to make it in such short timing! :p This cable car is very similar to the one that we used in HongKong’s NgongPing 360.

When we reached the end of the cable car, we were required to walk around 30 min before seeing the snow mountain.


A bit disappointed coz the mountain can only be seen from this far distance, unlike in New Zealand where we could even walk on it. Later, we found out that the mountain is not very high (5000+ m), but it has never been conquered! The mountain is Naxi tribe’s pride, especially with this fact! No wonder we can’t get very close to it! LOL!


Here is the bottom of the hill. Water from the mountain’s snow is their main source of water, for all activities (drinking, washing, agriculture, etc). Here is the first stop of the water. It is very beautiful, and the water looks like jade. It was regarded as mini JiuZhaiGou (小九寨沟).

Tiger Leaping Gorge
There are 3 parts of the Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡), namely the Upper Leaping (上虎跳), Middle Leaping (中虎跳) and Lower Leaping (下虎跳). To view the gorge from Lijiang without going to Shangri-la, we were only able to see the Upper Leaping, and it was 3-hour drive away from Lijiang town.

It was a long walk from the entrance to the site. We had to walk along the cliff of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and on two parts of the walk we had to walk pass tunnels that cut across the mountain.



Look at the photo above, we had to walk along the cliff. There are stones falling from the top, and we have to walk close to the cliff and walk fast. But read the sign below, it is quite funny to read their translations… :p

After walking about 20 to 30 min, we finally arrived at the site here. The view was breathtaking! It is hard to imagine what would happen to me if I fall into that water…


The big rock in the center of the river is called the Tiger Leaping Stone. I think the Naxi tribe is very imaginative. They have a story for this as well!


They said many years ago, there was a hunter hunting down a tiger, and the tiger leaped to this stone and then hopped to the other side of the river, hence named the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and this stone is called the Tiger Leaping Stone!

The First Bay of the Changjiang River (长江第一湾)
Changjiang (长江) begins at the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. On our way back to Lijiang after visiting the Tiger Leaping Gorge, we stopped by to view the first bend of Changjiang.

It is supposed to be a brief stop here, but we spent quite some time just to enjoy the scene. It feels so comfortable and the place was really full of serenity and peace.

Lijiang Attractions - DongBaGu

There are a few places we visited in Lijiang, which worth to journal down. Today, I will focus on our first top in Lijiang - DongBaGu (东巴谷)

This is a cultural village in Lijiang, displaying some major tribes and their cultural activities. Unlike the Yunnan Cultural Village (云南民族村), they do not really have a schedule for performance. As and when tourists are grouped together and led by their tour guide, when the group arrives at any tribal village, they would perform.

They also display some of the Yunnan 18 Peculiarities (云南十八怪), which were explained in their cultures.

Entrance to the cultural village.


Here is one of the 18 peculiarities – They sing more than they speak. As we read that, we entered into Lisu tribe’s village, and we were welcomed by this couple, who sang us a Welcome Song (video).


Apparently, in Lisu tribe, they believe in relieving evil/ghosts from pains. So, in some sacred activities, they climb knife ladder like this:


The ladder was really made of sharp knifes!


In the same Lisu tribe, they also have a ritual to chase away ghosts (ghost-buster?). In the performance, this old lady actually burned the steel till it was red hot and she actually licked the hot steel.


I think it was just too painful to watch. A tourist voiced that out to the guide, pleading them to stop this, which I think is a brave action! And I think he was doing the right thing!


Here is another peculiarity in Yunnan. Their wok cover is made of straw hats! Look at the smaller pots in the lower right of the picture above, they are all covered with straw hats.


Here are some fried rice cakes, which they fried on the spot and selling for RMB1 per stick. Delicious!


In some tribes, their doors are very small and low. This is to pay respect to the people staying in the room – you have to dip/lower your head as you enter the room!


In the old days, they do not have fridges, so the best way to preserve meat is to air dry the meat. In the pic above, the pig (left) is already mummified, and was already 8 years old! The ones hanging at the ceiling are dried pork and their jaws. Can’t imagine how they would use them. In fact, later on when we went to some restaurants, we also saw these air dried meats in their kitchen and storage area – really wonder if those are the meat they served us. :p


There are just so many snacks available. We bought a few others in DongBaGu. But nothing beat the rice cake mentioned above.

I have to admit one of the most unique culture I observed in Naxi Tribe is their environmental awareness and practice. Their religion teaches them to love and respect the environment, to observe ecology balance and not to destroy the nature. There was a section in the cultural village that exhibits things that help create the awareness.


In the pic above, they have a graveyard for extinct animals, with reasons of extinct and the animals last words. The writings are quite critical. Take the right one as an example, what was written are:
巴厘虎
产地: 亚洲
灭绝时间: 1937年 9月 27日
死因: 皮好, 肉鲜, 骨可入药
凶手: 人
遗言: 森林, 多保重, 我走了

(Bali Tiger
Geography: Asian
Extinction date: 27 Sep 1937
Cause of death: Good skin, delicious meat, bone has medical benefit
Killer: Human
Last words: Forest, take car, I’m leaving)

Related Topics
Overview of My Lijiang Trip
China Lijiang Trip Itinerary – useful for people planning to visit

China Lijiang Trip Itinerary

Here is our itinerary for our Kuala Lumpur – Shanghai – Kunming – Lijiang – Dali – Kunming – Shenghai – Kuala Lumpur trip. You can buy Kuala Lumpur – Kunming- Kuala Lumpur flight ticket from MAS and reduce the trip by 2 days.

Day 1 Kuala Lumpur-Shanghai
We (SM & I) flew MAS to Shanghai, arrived around 2pm. Went to TM’s house to refresh, then out for dinner near XinTianDi. Slept in TM’s house.

Day 2 Shanghai-Kunming
The 3 of us (SM, TM & I) flew Southern Airline to Kunming, arrived around 3pm. Signed up local tour package in the airport, purchased ticket for YangLiPing (杨丽萍) show. Headed to check in Hotel YunLiang (云粮大酒店), left to KunMing Hall (昆明礼堂) for YangLiPing’s show at 7pm. Dinner nearby the hall before show starts.

Day 3 Kunming-Lijiang
Flew first flight to Lijiang, arrived around 9am. Went straight to Naxi tribe’s DongBa Cultural Village, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山), and a few other Naxi’s interests. Had our lunch at one of the attractions. At night checked in Motel TianYuanMuGe (田园牧歌) inside Shuhe historical village (束河古镇). Dinner in the motel. Joined local to dance in the dance square after dinner.

Day 4 Lijiang-Tiger Leaping Gorge-Lijiang
Departed from motel at 8:30am to Tiger Leaping Gorge, which was 3 hours driving distance from Lijiang town. Lunch nearby the gorge. Dinner in Lijiang historical village (丽江古城), in a Naxi restaurant - Amayi (阿妈意).

Day 5 Lijiang-Dali-Kunming
Morning returned to Lijiang historical village, visited House of Mu (木府). Had lunch nearby, then depart to Dali in a car. After dinner in Dali, took a train back to Kunming (arrived 6:30am next day).

Day 6 Kunming
Checked in hotel in the morning, refreshed and out for lunch in town. Visited DaGuanYuan garden (大观园) after lunch, adjoined to Yunnan Cultural Village (云南民族村) by boat. Dinner in cultural village.

Day 7 Kunming-Stone Forest-Kunming
Departed from hotel at 8:30am to the famous Stone Forest (石林), which was around 3-4 hours drive from the city. On the way back, visited Seven Colour Yunnan (七彩云南) – a commercial place set up by government to ensure quality of Yunnan’s specialties. Dinner in Kunming city center.

Day 8 Kunming-Shanghai
Checked out after breakfast, free & easy in Kunming city. Flight back to Shanghai at 4pm.

Day 9 Shanghai-Kuala Lumpur
Morning flight back to KL.


My Recommended Itinerary
I would recommend the following itinerary, especially if you have time. We didn’t really research well, and due to the detour to Shanghai we wasted some time. A few attractions were missed out as we were short of time. Shangri-la was missed too due to the recent Tibetan issues.

Flights from Kunming to Lijiang can be obtained from this website: http://flights.ctrip.com/.

Day 1 Kuala Lumpur-Kunming-Lijiang
KUL-KMG 0935-1310.
KMG-LJG 1630-1720. (Costs from RMB 200 to 600)
I would recommend staying in one of the motels (客栈) in the historical villages, good experience! Enjoy the night activities in those villages.

Day 2 Lijiang Sightseeing
Visit Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and a few other attractions like DongBaGu (东巴谷). Seriously, I feel that only the snow mountain and dongbagu worth visiting, though we went to quite a few others (which we can’t remember them!).

Day 3 Lijiang Sightseeing
Spend a full day strolling the historical villages - both Lijiang Old City and the Shuhe Old Village are worth visiting.

Day 4-5 Lijiang – Tiger Leaping Gorge – Shangri la
Depart to Shangri la in the morning. On the way, visit Tiger Leaping Gorge. There are 3 spots to be visited. To save time, can visit the most famous spot – the Upper Tiger Leap (上虎跳).
Shangri la is best visited in May, June and July. In May they have lots of activities. June and July are the most beautiful period.
Spend 2 nights in Shangri-la.

* Day 4-5 Alternative: Lijiang – Luku Lake
Luku Lake is very beautiful and worth visit due to its special tribe – the Mosuo People (摩梭人). Mosuo tribe is also regarded as the Women Kingdom (女儿国), the famous kingdom in Journey to the West (西游记).
Spend 2 nights in Luku Lake.

Day 6 Shangri la/ Luku Lake – Lijiang
Return to Lijiang

Day 7 Lijiang-Kunming
LJG-KMG 0840-0930.
Rent a car to the Stone Forest.

Day 8 Kunming Cultural Village
Take a cab to the cultural village, worth spending a full day and should start in the early morning (8am), as every tribe has their own cultural dance, scheduled at different timing.

Day 9 Kunming-Kuala Lumpur
KMG-KUL 1420-1750

Related Topics
Overview of My Lijiang Trip
Lijiang Scenes & Activities - Dongbagu

Overview of My Lijiang Trip

As my Enrich points going to expire last year, I redeemed return tickets to Shanghai, intended to visit its surrounding areas (Suzhou, Hangzhou, etc) since two of my friends are living there. After further discussion with my friends, we ended up going to Lijiang from Shanghai, and it was decided very late – almost near our departing date. :)

So, the route that I take is definitely not a recommended one to anyone intend to visit Lijiang, as you would end up spending too much on flights! I went to Shanghai, then flew China Southern Airline to Kunming, then flew over to Lijiang. The total trip was 9 days 8 nights, with actual time spent in Kunming-Lijiang only 7 days 6 nights.

The recommended route would be to fly directly to Kunming with MAS. This will save you time and cost. For me, I don’t mind this as I also intended to meet my friends who are currently staying in Shanghai. :)

I will split my Lijiang trip into a few posts, starting with the next one on our itinerary and my recommended one!

Related Topics
China Lijiang Trip Itinerary – useful for people planning to visit
Lijiang Scenes & Activities - Dongbagu