Shangri-La day trip from Lijiang

Number of days: 3 days
Time: January
Average cost: 1800 yuan
With whom: a person
Updated: 2021.01.07

After watching the Yunnan chapter of the third season of the CCTV documentary "Aerial Photography of China", I was attracted by the beautiful scenery of Shangri-La's Gedan Songzanlin Temple under the sun, just after New Year's Day in 2021, I took a 3-day vacation, and took advantage of the opportunity to discount air tickets back and forth from Hangzhou to Lijiang, and I went to see it.

The plane passed at 1:45 p.m. on January 4, stopped in Yueyang, Hunan, and arrived in Lijiang before 7 p.m., China-TravelNote picked up the airport for 83 yuan (20 yuan for the airport bus), and arrived at the scheduled Hanting Fuxing Road store, which was relatively close to the departure point of the big waterwheel and the airport bus. January is already the off-season for tourism in Lijiang, so the housing price is very cheap, and the driver on the road also said that due to the epidemic, there are few tourists, and no one is charging the maintenance fee of Lijiang Ancient City. This is the third time I have been to Lijiang, and I have been to the ancient city twice, once in 04 years and once in 17 years, and this time I will not go to the ancient city. After checking into the hotel, I chose a one-day tour of Shangri-La Songzanlin Scenic Area Dukezong Ancient City through China-TravelNote for 279 yuan, because I am a China-TravelNote super member, I reduced 20 yuan and bought a 10 yuan travel insurance, a total of 269 yuan. I received a call from the driver in the evening and asked me to wait at the hotel at 6:45 the next day. In the evening, I went out to the bridge opposite Lijiang International Shopping Center to Mengzi cross the bridge rice noodles, ordered a 68 Jinshi bridge rice noodles, this store was recommended by the driver who picked me up, said that the old store has been open for more than 20 years, the taste is okay, in fact, I later learned that there are also more than 10 yuan of rice noodles in the store, but the ingredients are a little less. After eating, go straight back to the hotel to rest. There was no talk all night.

On January 5th, I got up at 6 a.m., after preparing the things for the day's tour, I went to the restaurant on the 7th floor at 6:30 to ask if there was breakfast, breakfast started at 7 o'clock, and at 6:30 there were only rice noodles, eggs and two vegetables, the rice noodles were too late, so I ate a little, two eggs and a bowl of porridge and mustard. At 6:05, I received a call from the driver to let me go to the door, the car was an Iveco, the driver and tour guide and the master was a middle-aged man of the Naxi ethnic group for 78 years, very enthusiastic, saying that there were only 5 adults and 1 child in the whole group today, I think it is better to have fewer people, so that you don't have to wait for a long time at each attraction. After receiving the person, we set off at 6 o'clock, Lijiang was more than an hour later than the sunrise in Hangzhou, and we were the only car on the road. Passing by a Jinsha River Sangu (Valley) Water Scenic Area where you can take pictures of the first bay of the Yangtze River, you go to a toilet, this toilet has a unique style, very distinctive, it can be said that you can see the scenery while being convenient, the field of view is broad, and you have to experience it on the spot. Continuing forward, pass by a Haba Snow Observation Deck at an altitude of 3,068 meters, overlooking the Haba Snow Mountain, and take photos. When you enter Shangri-La, there is a harmony tower in the middle tower, which is very tall, and there is a small tower in the big tower, you have to go to the inside of the building to see, you can light a ghee lamp inside to pray for blessings and safety! Since I couldn't take pictures inside, I only finished shooting the exterior. Next, we went to the Napa Sea scenic spot, which was grandly introduced when the Yunnan chapter of the third season of "Aerial Photography China" introduced Shangri-La, and those who are interested can go and see it. Now in January, we are in the wrong season, it is the dry season, the grass is bare, and horseback riding can be recommended in the scenic spot, but we didn't ride it, and we walked around it.Be sure to go to a place where there is water to take pictures in the scenic spot, with the background of the snow-capped mountains in the distance, so that it is okay to take pictures. Next, the driver arranged a restaurant for dinner, there are fewer people but also beneficial, everyone can eat more, the food is okay, the driver master also specially arranged butter tea and yak meat. After eating, today's highlight came, I mainly saw the Songzanlin Temple, the car parked in the parking lot, and I had to take the environmental protection tourist bus of the scenic spot to the gate of the scenic spot. Songzanlin Temple, known as the Little Potala Palace, is the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Yunnan Province, built on a mountain and shaped like an ancient castle. There are 147 steps to climb from the gate of the scenic spot to the temple. The tour guide of the scenic spot said that the steps should be on the left, and when we reached the platform above, we saw that the lamas were dancing in a circle around the city to the music, and the scene was very spectacular. I followed the tour guide to the three halls of the temple to worship, and listened to the tour guide's explanation with a pious heart. Then take pictures everywhere, and after almost a few people arrived, they walked down the mountain and took an environmental protection car to the parking lot of the scenic spot. The tour guide then took us to the nearby ancient city of Dukezong. We first went to Guishan Park, went up the steps, and on the right was the world's largest prayer wheel, 21 meters high and weighing 60 tons, and it took several people to turn it very hard. After descending the mountain, I went to the ancient city of Dukezong, which suffered a fire in 14 years, burning down many ancient buildings and later rebuilding. The appearance of the ancient city is similar to the ancient city of Lijiang, many shops, not many tourists, and the personal orange feels boring! We chatted while walking, we didn't buy anything anyway, and we wanted to go back to Lijiang as soon as possible. Shangri-La departed at 3:30 p.m., there were many big cars on the way back to Lijiang, and the drive was not fast, and I returned to Lijiang city before about 7 o'clock. I was very tired that day, so I went back to the hotel and ordered a takeaway KFC, and I didn't go to the ancient city of Lijiang to see it, anyway, I had already been there twice, so I didn't go this time. I booked a ticket back to Hangzhou at 1:50 pm the next day, and when I arrived in Hangzhou at 4 o'clock, I could rush home for dinner. The master who picked me up when I arrived in Lijiang said that the hottest attractions in Yunnan are Tengchong in addition to Xishuangbanna, Heshun Ancient Town and geothermal volcanic scenic spots, such as "Where is Dad", and "Golden Pupils" and other films have been filmed there. Recently, many people have come to escape the cold, and the temperature during the day can be more than 20 degrees. I want to leave some regrets, next time I come to Tengchong with my family, as well as Lugu Lake and Dali.

On the morning of January 6, the hotel was closed, and at 10:30 I checked out, walked less than 1 kilometer to the departure station of the Blue Sky Hotel Airport Bus and took a bus to Lijiang Airport, 20 yuan per person, and before getting on the bus, I had to show the green code and measure my body temperature as usual.I arrived at the airport before 12 o'clock, Lijiang Airport is very small, there are not many people, the plane arrived in Hangzhou 20 minutes early in the afternoon, I wanted to take the newly opened subway to the Xueyuan Road subway station to go home, and then I was afraid of delaying dinner, so I went home with a discount of 83 yuan.

I wrote this travelogue briefly, and I have pictures of each scenic spot for reference!