Lijiang, Yunnan Province.

I have always wondered why late night flights are called the red eye, now I know!! We sat on the tarmac in a queue for a couple of hours in Chengdu, hungry and tired! finally arrived in Lijiang about 1.30am The hotel we had booked was in the 'old town' & no cars can go in there so no taxi. The old town is a labyrinth of cobbled streets and old buildings that were mainly closed up at that time of night. Very dark too. We asked directions over & over and people just kept pointing different ways and we seemed to be going round in circles. Finally a young Chinese guy visiting the town was very helpful, spoke English, and managed to find the way. It was a nice hotel and we discovered the next day actually really close to the rd, the bus driver had just pointed us the wrong way!! In hind sight seeing the old town at that time of night was great because the rest of the time was wall to wall Chinese tourists and once all opened up the shops were selling  tacky touristy stuff. We had a quiet day sussing out the town, next day we hired some bikes and cycled up to the national park and all around the neighboring villages and had late lunch, all fun until we hit rush hour traffic coming back into the city. I was sure I was in Beijing!! A bit stressful but I got back in one piece.  Yunnan is a province full of ethnic minority groups, in Lijiang they are the Naxi's and have a particular style of housing and dress. Villages quite poor, lots of stray dogs & rubbish. Lijiang old town is a UNESCO world heritage site hence the tourists. Too many people for us, we will head to somewhere quieter if possible.