Things to Do in Lijiang

Lijiang is wedged between snow-capped Jade Dragon Mountain and pine-scented valleys; its old town is a tangle of stone lanes where canal water chatters beneath arched bridges. Morning light skims grey-tiled roofs and copper door-knockers burnished by generations of Naxi hands; by dusk, red lanterns tremble above narrow streams and charcoal smoke drifts from street-side grills. At 2 400 m the air stays thin and cool, even in summer, and your stride shortens as you drift past timber shops selling yak-butter tea and embroidered bags. Beyond the UNESCO core, new Lijiang fans out along wide boulevards, yet the rush of water still trails you from the old town’s aqueducts. Most visitors come for the postcard lanes, but stay a few days and you’ll hear village drums rolling across the valley and smell pine resin drifting down from the mountain forests.

Breakfast means steamy bowls of baba flatbread dunked in thick yak-butter tea from stalls outside the morning market on Xinfeng Road. Mid-day, head to Qixing Street’s family canteens for Naxi fried cheese with mint leaves and salty pork ribs that arrive smoking on cast-iron plates. After dark, Xinhua Street turns into a grill corridor - choose the stall with the longest queue of locals for cumin-dusted lamb and chewy yak jerky. If you’re splurging, reserve a table at a Mu Mansion courtyard restaurant for pineapple-stuffed rice steamed in bamboo; vegetarians do well at tiny Buddhist kitchens tucked down Wuyi Street alleys where tofu skin comes wrapped in banana leaf.

April to June brings warm days, rhododendrons on the mountain and clear skies for photography - though sudden afternoon showers send tourists scrambling into teahouses. September and October offer crisp air and golden wheat fields around Baisha, but nights drop close to freezing; pack layers. July and August are rainy and thick with domestic tour groups, yet hotel prices dip and the waterfalls along Tiger Leaping Gorge roar at their loudest. Winter is quiet, bright and bitter cold; guest-house stoves glow and you might have Jade Dragon Snow Mountain almost to yourself.