Early morning, I got out from south
gate of old town and took a bus to Red Sun Square 红太阳广场. 
Many buses and taxis pass South Gate (near South Gate Car Park) of
Lijiang Old Town 古城南门停车场附近有不少公交车/巴士/计程车经过
I knew that I needed to go early in
order for me to reach the peak of Jade Dragon Snow mountain and other scenic spots
before late afternoon. From there, I
took a private van to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The 50-minute trip
costed me about RMB25. 
Place (near Red Sun Square/HongTaiYang GuangChang bus stop) to take a van to Yulong Snow
Mountain Scenic Area/Jade Dragon Snow Mountain 可到红太阳广场车站附近乘搭面包车到玉龙雪山风景区
Upon entering the tourist area of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the driver
asked the passengers to pay RMB105 for Yulong Snow Mountain Scenic Area tour voucher 玉龙雪山风景区券.
What I paid for the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
trip are as follows:
To go back to Old Town, you need to go
to No. 1 car park/甘海子一号停车场. You may take a bus to get
there. If you have paid for Bus ticket RMB20 for Yulong Snow Mountain Scenic Area bus fare 玉龙雪山旅游观光专线车票 earlier, then you can just hop in
the bus at bus stop nearby Yuye Lake/玉液湖 or other bus stops to get there. No. 3 car park/ 甘海子三号停车场 has no cars to Lijiang Old Town. It is the car park nearby Snow Mountain Tourist Center/雪山游客中心. Snow Mountain Tourist Center/雪山游客中心is the place where you can buy
souvenirs, enquire information and buy tickets. This is the place where the
driver dropped me when arriving Jade Dragon/Yulong Snow Mountain Scenic Area 玉龙雪山风景名胜区. 
At Snow Mountain Tourist Center – On the right is the place to buy the
cable car ticket to Jade Dragon/Yulong Snow Mountain
于玉龙雪山风景区 -
右方便是玉龙冰川公园大索道售票处.
There was a tradeoff in exploring the scenic spots given the time constraint. I had to forego watching the grand
performance Impression of Lijiang 印象丽江 in order to go to Cloud Fir Meadow/Yunshanping/Spruce
Meadow 云杉坪 and all the lakes nearby Langyue gu lake/Blue Moon valley/蓝月谷. If I had more time, I would go to
watch the performance. The grand performance Impression of Lijiang starts at
9a.m., 11.30a.m. and 2p.m. Check the
time of performance and plan your trip at Jade Dragon/Yulong Snow Mountain
Scenic Area 龙雪山风景名胜区 if you wish to watch the performance. 
On 3356m altitude – The place to board a cable car to Jade Dragon/Yulong Snow Mountain. Tourists arrive here by taking
a short-distance bus in Snow Mountain scenic area. 于3356米海拔- 玉龙冰川公园大索道缆车乘坐处。玉龙雪山旅游观光专线车在载游客至此。
On 3356m altitude – The place to board a cable car to Jade Dragon/Yulong Snow Mountain 于3356米海拔- 玉龙冰川公园大索道缆车乘坐处. 
Cable car elevating to 4506m altitude 缆车升至4506米海拔
 On 4506m altitude, tourists are able to rent jacket (RMB50 rental &
RMB500 deposit per jacket), thick pants (RMB40 rental & RMB200 deposit per
pant), hiking boots (RMB40 rental & RMB200 deposit per pair), oxygen bottle
(RMB68 per bottle). 于3356米海拔，游客可租用羽绒服（RMB50 租金
RMB500 押金)， 防寒裤 （RMB40租金, RMB200 押金），登山鞋（RMB40 租金
RMB200 押金），活力氧（RMB68/瓶 ）. 
On 4506m altitude 于3356米海拔
On 4506m altitude于4506米海拔
One of the cable car
stations 其中一个缆车站  One of the cable car
stations 其中一个缆车站  From the cable car station, battery car drives the visitors to the entrance of Cloud Fir Meadow/Yunshanping 电瓶车把游客从缆车站載到云 杉坪人口处  Cloud Fir
Meadow/Yunshanping 云 杉坪  Cloud Fir
Meadow/Yunshanping 云杉坪  Wishes are hung on various locations at Cloud Fir Meadow/Yunshanping
云杉坪到处可见游客悬挂的愿望
 White Water River 白水湖  White Water River and
Langyue gu lake/Blue Moon valley 白水湖 及 蓝月谷  Waterfall at Yuye Lake 瀑布于玉液湖  Yuye Lake 玉液湖  To board the bus within Yulong Snow Mountain Scenic Area, we need to pay RMB20 for Yulong Snow Mountain Scenic Area bus ticket 玉龙雪山旅游观光专线车票(票价RMB20)可让我们乘车于玉龙雪山旅游观区 To go back to Lijiang Old Town, I took a private van from No. 1 car park at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Scenic Area to Red Sun Square bus stop 红太阳广场. It costed me about RMB25.  I took a van at No. 1 car park at Yulong Snow Mountain Scenic Area to get back to Lijiang Old town 我乘面包车从玉龙雪山旅游观区一号停车场回到丽江古城
You may take a tour to go to Jade
Dragon/Yulong Snow Mountain scenic area from Lijiang Old Town or your
hotel/guest house. The benefit of taking a tour is that you do not need to
think much and the main spots will be covered. The down side is that you may
miss some scenic places such as Yuye
Lake/玉液湖 and Cloud Fir Meadow/Yunshanping/Spruce Meadow 牦牛坪. Also, you may not have the freedom
of taking your own pace walking around to explore things. After all, it all
depends on what you want From Red Sun Square bus stop红太阳广场车站, I take a bus back to south gate of
old town and walked to the guest house. If you stay near Gu Cheng Squar/四方街, you may just walk back. I preferred
to take a bus as the walking distance to where I stayed (near south gate) is
about 50 minutes to 1 hour. 
Red Sun Square bus stop 红太阳广场车站
After showering, I packed and went to
railway station by taking a bus. I can say that taking bus in Lijiang is pretty
convenient. Bus No. 16 /No. 18 can be taken to railway station. I was told to
take bus no. 18 from 白龙广场 bus stop to Lijiang railway station.
To go to Lijiang Train Station, you may take bus no. 4, bus no. 16 or bus no.
18. 丽江火车站距丽江城区约10余公里。乘客可从丽江古城口(水平广场)乘坐4路公交车直达火车站,或 从古城南门白龙广场乘坐18路公交车直达火车站,也可从古城口坐11路公交车到福慧市场(丽客隆超市对面) 坐16路公交车直达火车站。
I had my instant noodles at railway station. Hot
water is easily available at railway station and airport in Yunnan. The noodles
with hot spicy soup 麻辣汤 is so yummy and it compensated myself well for all the rush. 
Lijiang Railway Station
丽江火车站 
Lijiang Railway Station
丽江火车站
I ended my day in a night train with triple-decker bed. Luckily I managed to get the lowest bed which was comparatively easier to access. In the bed, I could not help recalling the experience that I had just had from the
highest sea altitude before drifting off to sleep in the vibration of the night train. Day 1-2 (27-28 August 2014) - From Kunming to Dali 从昆明到大理 Day 3 (29 August 2014) – From Dali to Lijiang 从大理到丽江 Day 4 (30 August 2014) – Lijiang 丽江 Day 5 (31 August 2014) – Lijiang 丽江 |