Category: Traveling

The short version: if you only had a day to spend in Shangri-La, visit Balagezong National Park first. And if you have a second free day, allocate it to Tiger Leaping Gorge, horse riding at Napa Lake — and squeeze

Our heads still bopping a bit from riding on horses, we next continued onto Pudacuo National Park. This park is famous for its two high-altitude lakes: Shudu Lake and Bita Lake. I didn’t take many pictures inside the park itself,

We had just two activities for Day 06 in Shangri-La county today: visiting Napa Lake (also known as Napahai Nature Reserve) in the morning, and Pudacuo National Park in the afternoon. Napa Lake is a vast grassland surrounded by mountains.

It took us another 2 hours’ drive to get from Tiger Leaping Gorge to Dukezong, and the drive up gradually increased in elevation: from 1,900 meters at the Gorge to Dukezong’s 3,200m. Dukezong is a Tibetan town in Shangri-La county,

Our itinerary for Day 05 today was light: we said goodbye to the lovely and very warm hospitality of our stay in Lijiang at 9:15AM, and were picked up by our next driver for the Shangri-La segment of the trip.

Our place of stay in the city of Lijiang was the E-Outfitting Boutique Hotel, a small establishment that has maybe 8 or so rooms. Our notes and comments from the two nights we stayed at this property! Windhorse Tours initially

We stayed two nights at Z Garden in Dali. Random notes and comments! Z Garden is a small boutique hotel located just outside Dali Ancient Town’s south gate. It’s about a 10-minute walk from the hotel to that south gate

Our last stop of the day: to ascend Jade Dragon Snow Mountain! We’d been thoroughly briefed by our guide the day before that this was not going to be an easy trek, given the sheer height of the mountain. Basically,

The famed show at the mountain was initially not on our itinerary in view of how packed our day was going to be visiting the natural scenery in the area. But our assigned local tour guide managed to squeeze in

One thing I miss about our trips to South Korea and Japan are the English maps and guides that are often found in their places of interest and attractions. In comparison, I haven’t been able to find English brochures or

The majority of first-time visitors to Yunnan would find time to do a full-day tour of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain region located in the city of Lijiang, and many would follow a route that covers at least these places:

It’s a short walk from Black Dragon Pool to Lijiang Ancient Town. The town is particularly famous for its system of waterways and bridges, and has numerous alleys and streets. The area was pretty busy again — it being Sunday