Atlas of China
Lijiang 丽江Lìjiāng
Spring-fed canals, a glacier-hung peak and the Mosuo of Lugu Lake
About Lijiang
Lijiang is the homeland of the Naxi, whose Dongba priests still write in a pictographic script and whose rulers, the Mu family, governed here for centuries. Lijiang Old Town, a World Heritage Site since 1997, is threaded with spring-fed canals, and Black Dragon Pool frames the classic view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The Baisha murals and Shuhe Old Town show a quieter side of the plain, and to the north-east the Mosuo live around Lugu Lake on the Sichuan border.
What to eat in Lijiang
- Lijiang baba flatbread (丽江粑粑)
- Naxi lentil jelly (鸡豆凉粉)
Featured places in Lijiang
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Lijiang Old Town 丽江古城
Cobbled lanes, rushing canals and Naxi courtyards beneath a snow-capped peak
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Lugu Lake 泸沽湖
A clear alpine lake on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, home to the matrilineal Mosuo
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Jade Dragon Snow Mountain 玉龙雪山
A glacier-hung massif on Lijiang's doorstep, with a cable car to over 4,500 metres
Listed sites in Lijiang
14 sites in Lijiang are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Black Dragon Pool 黑龙潭 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Black Dragon Pool lies in Jade Spring Park at the foot of Elephant Hill, just north of Lijiang Old Town, and its springs feed the streams that run through the old town. - Guanyin Gorge 观音峡 4A scenic area · on the map
Guanyin Gorge, at Qihe south of Lijiang, is a scenic area described as the southern gateway to the Lijiang basin, where the old Tea Horse Road passed through the Yulong Pass. - Lashi Lake 拉市海 4A scenic area
Lashi Lake lies at about 2,440 metres in a basin on the south-eastern slopes of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, 8 km west of Lijiang, and is the core of a provincial wetland nature reserve set up in 1998. - Liming Danxia, Laojun Mountain 老君山黎明 4A scenic area · on the map
Liming, a Lisu township in western Yulong county, has about 240 square kilometres of red Danxia sandstone landforms within the Laojun Mountain area, part of the Three Parallel Rivers World Heritage Site. - Maojiawan, Yongsheng 毛家湾 4A scenic area · on the map
Maojiawan, a village in Chenghai town at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain south-west of Chenghai Lake, is promoted locally as the ancestral home of Mao Zedong's forebears. - Shuhe Old Town 束河古镇 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Shuhe, about 4 km north-west of Dayan, is one of the earliest Naxi settlements around Lijiang and grew into a market town on the Tea Horse Road, known from the Ming dynasty for its leatherworkers. - Yushuizhai 玉水寨 4A scenic area · on the map
Yushuizhai, at the southern foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on the northern edge of Baisha, is a Naxi Dongba cultural site built around a sacred spring that drops down the hillside in a three-tier cascade. - Baisha Murals and Dabaoji Palace 白沙壁画 National heritage site
Baisha village, north of Lijiang and part of the Old Town of Lijiang World Heritage Site, was an early political centre of the Naxi, and its Ming-dynasty halls hold the best-known group of the Baisha murals. - Baoshan Stone Town 宝山石头城 National heritage site · on the map
Baoshan Stone Town is a Naxi village built on top of a huge rock outcrop above the right bank of the Jinsha River, in the north-east of Yulong county. - Guanyin Pavilion, Yongsheng 观音阁 National heritage site
Guanyin Pavilion, also called Lingyuan Guanyin Temple, sits beneath a cliff above the Lingyuan stream on the eastern edge of Yongsheng county town. - Jinlong Bridge 金龙桥 National heritage site
Jinlong Bridge is an iron-chain suspension bridge across the Jinsha River between Qihe in Lijiang and Zili in Yongsheng, built in 1876–1880 and long an important crossing on the Tea Horse Road between Lijiang, Yongsheng and Sichuan. - Puji Temple, Lijiang 普济寺 National heritage site · on the map
Puji Temple stands at the foot of Puji Hill, about 6 km west of Lijiang Old Town, and is counted among the five main monasteries of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism in the Lijiang area. - Qina Old Buildings 期纳古建筑群 National heritage site
In the Ming dynasty a post station, Qingshui, was set up on the official road through what is now Qina town, and garrison officers and wealthy families built houses, ancestral halls, temples and schools along it. - Yingpan Village Tombs 营盘村墓群 National heritage site
On a hillside above Yingpan village in Liude township, the Taliu, a Yi subgroup living around Taliu Mountain, built some 7,000 stone-faced tombs between the late Ming and the Republican era, most of them in the late 17th and 18th centuries.
Getting to Lijiang
Train, flight and driving times from the cities most visitors come from, with stations, fares and how many run a day; each opens the full comparison.
- Shangri-La 香格里拉 high-speed train 1 h 10 min, 10 a day, from ¥70
- Dali 大理 high-speed train 1 h 56 min, 7 a day, from ¥80
- Kunming 昆明 high-speed train 3 h 29 min, 9 a day, from ¥190; 2 nonstop flights a day, 1 h in the air
- Jianshui 建水 train 6 h 48 min with a change at Kunming
- Chongqing 重庆 train 9 h 34 min with a change at Kunming; 3 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 40 min in the air
Trips with Lijiang
- Yunnan by train: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La 9 days · Kunming, Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La
On the map
Open Lijiang on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Lijiang on the map