Lijiang, (possibly) a city that never sleeps

Honestly, I did not expect to love Lijiang. Before I went there, people told me not to expect too much from that city because it’s filled with tourist and touristy stuff. Well, I guess it’s kinda true, but Lijiang was still really amazing, to my surprise. Seeeee, go everywhere with an open heart. The less expectations you have, the better it is.

From Dali to Lijiang, it takes around 2 hours. If you are already at Dali Old Town, I would suggest taking the bus or hitchhiking. It’s really convenient because there are quite a number of people taking this route.

Lijiang Old Town

View from the top of my hostel

Writing at the roof of the hostel every morning. So much energy. Why am I not as disciplined in Singapore?

Lijiang is also where you will find things from the Naxi / Dongba culture. You can find so many traditional Dongba handmade paper shops in Lijiang Old Town itself. 

Hand-carved wood

Naxi writing

At Lijiang, I learnt the drums!!! That was totally the highlight of my trip. For those friends that have known me for a long time, they would know that the drums is something that I have wanted to learn since a really long time ago. I really appreciated the short but useful lessons from my “teacher”! He’s from the band at the bar that I visited.

Guess who is my drum teacher!

Buskers are a common sight in Lijiang

The bars in Lijiang are all of different styles and most of the bars/clubs have local musicians playing. I love places with live bands. Compared to Dali, the bars here close pretty late. There were some times I left the bars at 4am and they were still open.

Another crazy thing I did in Lijiang was to go onto stage to play an electronic instrument that produced different drum sounds (when I absolutely had no idea how to). At first, I hesitated about going up because I was pretty sure I was gonna screw up. But somehow, when I am overseas, I am so much more courageous. Someone at the bar told me, the fact that I dare to go up was already half the battle won. HAHAHA TRUE THAT

very bad photo, but heyyyy, i was really on stage

Lijiang’s really great. Maybe I would go back there, but then maybe not. Let’s see.

xx