China: Gorgeous Lijiang and Our China Budget

We can’t quite remember how we discovered Lijiang and added it to our itinerary. We had heard that Yunnan Province – where Lijiang is located – is beautiful and worth a visit, but we really did not know what to expect and, frankly, after three weeks in China, we were ready to move on. But we stuck the course and as a result, we got a seven day respite from heat and humidity and that was kind of a big deal. Lijiang is at the base of the Himalayas and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and sits at an elevation of 8,000 feet. No words can describe how happy we were to walk off the plane and feel clean, crisp air and zero humidity. And the views were breathtaking from every vantage point.

Lijiang is home to eleven Tibetan minorities, the most prominent of which are the Naxi (pronounced Na-see) people. It is a couple hours away from Shangri-La and Tiger Leaping Gorge, both of which we hoped to visit, but we took turns being sick in Lijiang (just some colds, nothing serious) and it also rained heavily for a couple of days, so we could not venture all too far or go to the higher elevations as we had originally planned. We still had our most favorite days in China in Lijiang.

Old Town

Lijiang has an old town and a new town. We stayed in the new town but spent many of our days exploring the alleys of the old town. Within old town are the most beautiful and quaint inns with rooms that surround courtyards filled with gorgeous flowers and greenery – they would have been perfect if we were traveling without kids. We technically could have stayed there but navigating our bags through the cobblestone streets would have been a nightmare, and our kids are not quiet and would have woken up all of old town way too early in the morning.

A small note about old town: it is a UNESCO Heritage Site. A 6.6 earthquake devastated the city in 1996, destroying more than 350,000 buildings, but the streets, bridges, and canals were beautifully restored. It has a bit of a manufactured feel but it is stunningly picturesque and still maintains an air of authenticity with its cobblestone streets, green willow trees, and narrow alleyways filled with shops, eateries, and street food.

Our favorite day in Lijiang included an urban trek through old town. We started with a hike up a narrow street that led to a hill called Lion Hill. Lijiang’s old town is typically very crowded and filled with tourists but Lion Hill was virtually empty and the walk up was serene and incredibly relaxing.

At the top of the hill we found Wangu Tower. The Tower is visible from most of the city, but we were told that not many people actually make the trek up (not sure why, it only took about 30 minutes to get there). The Tower is architecturally stunning. It is five stories high and is made entirely out of wood.

We had an unobstructed view of old town and all of Lijiang from the top of the Tower. The picture just doesn’t do it justice but here it is.

There is a tiny little tea house on the 4th floor of the Tower and we stopped to relax, enjoy the view, sip some tea, and have a snack.

We made our way down Lion Hill in the opposite direction, and we ate our way down through old town beginning with some corn on the cob for the kids and a traditional marinated tofu snack for the spicy eaters. We ran into fresh and delicious foods the whole way down and snacked on cucumbers, baby strawberries, yak jerky, yak cheese, and ended with popsicles.

It was such a nice and relaxing and fun day, with almost zero whines and complaints.

Trek in the Yulong Mountains

It was cold and rainy much of the time that we were in Lijiang (by cold, I mean 65 degrees), but we were determined to get a trek in. We knew it would be too much for the kids to go to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (two hour drive each way + an elevation that requires oxygen canisters), so we booked a day trek in the Yulong mountains that surround many of the nearby Naxi villages.

Knowing that I would be carrying Miles on my back and that we have a four year old, our guide, a beautiful Naxi woman named Gamá, asked if we wanted our trek to be a two and a half hour hike up, or an hour and a half hike down. Gluttons for punishment that we are, we chose up. It was hard. There were a lot of steps and they were steep, especially at the end.

About five minutes after the above picture was taken, our guide and I turned around and realized that Robby, Reed, and Ari were not behind us. Our guide followed the path down some to see if she could locate them, but she couldn’t find them. Robby was also not answering any of my calls or texts (there was cell service). So I pulled up Find My iPhone and saw that Robby was .2 miles in the opposite direction. Our guide quickly ran after them and brought them back. We still don’t know how we got separated but super thankful for modern technology!

The water rushing down the mountain was so clean, we were able to fill up our water bottles. It tasted fresher than the bottled water we brought with us.

It started to rain pretty heavily as we got to the top of the mountain and we were deep in a cloud so we didn’t have the beautiful views we hoped for.

We are not above bribery and we bought Ari a pack of gum the day before the hike and dangled it in front of her the whole way up. She had four pieces over the course of the trek and made it up without a single complaint. She also loved our guide and was happy to hold her hand and talk about her friends.

We had lunch and tea in a small Naxi village at the top of the mountain, then explored the lake and meadows surrounding the village.

We ended with hot chocolate and coffee in Baisha Village, a very old and peaceful and tiny nearby village featuring embroidery shops and local textiles. Reed has been reading about the cultural revolution and found a copy of Mao’s Little Red Book that he bought for himself to get more context. (The Little Red Book is a collection of Mao’s Communist propaganda and it fueled the cultural revolution.) It felt pretty awkward to watch him thumb through it while we sat and drank coffee.

Food

Yak meat, yak milk, yak yogurt, yak jerky, yak cheese. We tried all of them. The meat tasted like beef. The cheese was not cheese-y at all, more like a yogurt stick.

• 

• 

Insects, larvae, and maggots are staple snacks. Ari and Reed tried a maggot. They did not love it.

• 

• 

• 

There were a ton of fish hot pot restaurants on a street near our apartment, and all had identical pictures of what looked like salmon sashimi next to a hot pot bowl. We were determined to give it a try. [Trigger warning: if you’re vegan or vegetarian, you may want to stop reading here.] We chose a restaurant, pointed to the fish hot pot picture, and I was motioned to follow one of the workers to an aquarium. Reed and Ari followed me. The guy pointed to the fish and I got the hint: I was to choose the fish that we were going to eat. I let Reed choose. The fish was taken out of the aquarium and flapped around wildly as the guy tried to weigh it. Not surprisingly, the guy couldn’t get an accurate measurement so out came a hammer and we all turned away as the worker ‘subdued’ the fish. We were told to go back to our table, and 15 minutes later, out came three very large plates of salmon sashimi. So much fish. We started to dip our fish into the hot pot but the server ran over to us to motion that the fish is not meant to be cooked. So we had three enormous plates of sashimi and soup.

This meal was emblematic of our quest for food in China: we just never really knew what we were ordering. So we ate a lot of street food. It was just too tiresome to try to figure out a menu and it was easier to just point, pay, and eat. We did get sick of it after a few days and found a Western restaurant that served everything from curries to burritos to burgers for a bit of variety.

Airbnb

We loved our Airbnb (except for the kitchen which was devoid of any useful kitchen tools). The views of the surrounding mountains were incredible. A tea table was set up on a ledge in the living room overlooking the view. The kids had tea parties there, and Reed did most of his schooling there. We found Miles staring out at the view from his room one morning.

• 

• 

• 

Thoughts and Musings

Robby finally found dim sum – at an “international” food court (international referred to the various regions of China only). If we wanted dim sum, we should have gone to the Canton region. Lesson learned.

Our budget. We discovered a pretty amazing budgeting app in preparation for this trip called Trail Wallet. We set our daily budget, enter in every expense in local currency or US dollars, and it keeps track of our spending. It’s a pretty great app and so easy to use. Without airplane transport into and within China, we spent an average of $153.52 per day. That includes accommodations, guides, food, taxis, entertainment, diapers, bus rides, entrance fees, and all non-airplane transportation. We spent the most money on food (35% of our total expenses). Not too shabby for a family of 5.

Diapers. We’re pretty sure Miles is one of the biggest kids in Asia in diapers (he’s just 2 + 3 months). He is size XXL, and there aren’t many XXL packs in the stores. We stand by our decision not to potty train him before we left.

Hardest part of the trip so far: meals. I’m going to take a moment and vent. The primary reason we chose to stay in Airbnbs is use of a kitchen. We envisioned having breakfasts and an occasional dinner in our apartment. But we have had no oven, barely enough kitchen equipment to throw together pasta and sauce, and certainly not enough cups and bowls for each of us to eat or drink with. We have managed to get some breakfast food, but we have eaten out nearly every meal. Can you imagine eating every meal out with a 2 year old and a 4 year old? Don’t. Take my word for it, it is painful and we are working on changing this.

Easiest part of the trip so far: [crickets]

Best part of the trip so far: everything.

We left China happy to have explored some lesser known cities, and even happier to board a plane to Vietnam, where we have been for two weeks now. We love it here, and look forward to writing about it soon. Thank you so much for reading! x