Today is another early early start. We are visiting Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and we need to reach by 8am. Morning call at 6am, breakfast at 6.15am and leave the hotel by 7am.
Fun fact: Jade Dragon Snow Mountain limits the number of tourists per month to avoid overcrowding and over-tourism. For the cable car rides up to the Glacier Park, tickets are balloted and time slots are randomly assigned. The tour guide said we are lucky to get 8am .. imagine getting tickets at 5.30am…. gosh….
Enroute, we had a pit stop at a oxygen shop before heading up to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The government has shops to sell portable oxygen bottles to tourists to help cope with high attitudes. It’s recommended for everyone to buy at least 1 tank per person, with it costing around RMB 50/RMB 75 per bottle (I can’t remember the exact price). These shops are certified by the government and according to the tour guide, it’s not recommended to buy from unofficial sources (shops are selling for RMB 10 / 25 per bottle). You have no idea what they pump into these bottles, with some possibly collected and reused which is extremely unhygienic.
It started raining when we arrived so these were what we saw on our way up. Rain and mist… but fun as we have never been that high up above 4000 meters. We were told to take 30 puffs of oxygen (5 puffs each interval). We legit followed the guidance even though we were feeling fine. Uh well, better be safe than sorry.
We took the longest cableway (there’s 3 cableways at Mt Yulong) – the Glacier Forest Snow Mountain Cableway. It is said to be the highest cableway in China, with a total length of over 2900 meters and a vertical height of 1150 meters. The six-seat luxurious fully enclosed cable car is safe and comfortable, the ride bringing you up to 4500 meters above sea level in just half an hour.
Arrival at the top – as per the “hidden rules” of all tourists’ attractions worldwide, you are stopped and asked to take a photo against a green backdrop, which they will impose a nice backdrop for you.
OK, maybe we came at the wrong month. According to our guide, snow is visible around Dec to June every year. By Oct, nope, no snow. Sorry folks. It’s a barren stone mountain at most. But the scenery from up there is still very beautiful and cold…..
I think there’s a bit of snow up there (I can’t really see from down here) but you have to climb quite a bit of stairs to get there up to 4680 meters. We only had about 45 mins and we didn’t want to rush our way up and down when we are not really accustomed to high attitudes to start of with so we decided against it. Further more, we were panting for breath after climbing like 3/5 flights of stairs. No way I am going to rush my way up there. We happily stayed at the cable car station, admiring the beautiful scenery and enjoying the freezing cold before taking the cable car back down to meet up with the group.
Next stop Blue Moon Valley. Very beautiful place – the waters are sooooo blue. I will let the pictures do the talking.
Because Blue Moon Valley is soooo beautiful, everyone in the group is superrr engrossed in taking photos. By the time we got to our lunch venue, we only had half an hour for lunch before we have to rush to our next attraction. We were having individual hotpot with free flow vegetables! Such a good weather to have hotpot and free flow vegetables some more – I think I can sit there for hours…
After we rushed through our lunch, we rushed out to our next destination which is a 10-15 mins walk away. The large-scale live show Impression Lijiang directed by the famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou. The backdrop of the mountains, the passion of the actors & actresses accompanied by the background music is really grand and as much as it is staged – I would highly recommend not giving it a miss. Again, I will let the pictures do the talking.
It started raining towards the end and everyone start leaving their seats which is very unfortunate as the actors & actresses were doing the final speeches and saying their thanks and goodbyes. But believe it or not, rain or shine, the show goes on. Kudos to them.
Next we left Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to the famous Lijiang Dayan Ancient Town. The scenery along the way is as beautiful.
Arrival at Dayan Ancient Town. Lijiang ancient town is very famous and featured all over social media. I can see the reason why as it is very picturesque with all the flowers, the flowing rivers, the small bridges, the old cobble ways, the ancient shophouses and the old ancient vibes. But because of the same reasons, it’s over commercialized even though you can still feel the vibes. Again, I will let the pictures do the talking.
That’s all for Lijiang everyone. Dinner was at a Korean BBQ restaurant. Strange to be eating Korean BBQ in China to be honest. Given that there’s soooooo many Chinese restaurants, I am surprised at the choice for dinner but uh well it’s food for the stomach nevertheless. After dinner, back to the hotel to rest and pack up for tomorrow as we were departing for Shangri-La!