FIRST TIME Inside China's MAGICAL FAIRYTALE Town Exploring Lijiang, China
We made it to our beautiful little boutique hotel here in Lijiang. It's so sweet. We're actually on the first or second floor, whichever one you call it. We've got this little cute wooden spiral staircase which leads to the rooftop which I will show you in a minute.
But we have some rooms just over to the side here. Nice little seat that we have just been swinging on. And then the cutest little cat over here.
So sweet. Oh, look at you. You want some attention? Let me show you our room. It is lovely.
We're in 201, and we have actually been upgraded, which is lovely. Oh, look, I see a leg over there. What are you doing? Listen, the the bathtub's so huge, I just couldn't help it.
Yeah, I had to get in. It's ginormous, right? Normally you're tiny in a bathtub. Normally the bathtub is tiny for you. This is big enough to have a little party. Look at this, we have bubble bath as well.
And then look at the rest of our room. We have a nice double bed over here which is lovely. We have a beautiful TV just here.
Then, maybe my favourite part is this one Look at this little mirror, a vanity mirror with a little ring light around it. Perfection. Then we also, oh, it changed colour. Oh, cool! There you go it's the little things, isn't it? Anyway, then we have a beautiful view out here. We are surrounded by lovely mountains.
You can't see properly because We're a little bit low but when I take you up to the rooftop you will absolutely see it's very, very nice. Big bed here. Yeah, just the way we like, it's got 4 pillows as well, so I like that Have you checked the bathroom? I'm going to show it just now. We have some table and chairs here with tea and coffee too which is lovely. And then in this little wardrobe we have some robes actually as well which is really nice. And then in here, shower, lovely, sink and mirror as well.
Guys, if you know us, you'll know we love an electric toilet. Watch this ready? It opens up. That is really cool. I wonder...
Oh yeah, look, it's got spray, child, bidet, dryer position, pressure. Has it got a seat warmer? I don't know. I don't think so It's got a dryer. I don't think it's got a warmer We have a disposable toilet cushion. This is a first! Get out.
Never seen this before, have you? That's like have a nice comfortable experience whilst on the toilet OK, come, let's go check out the rooftop. We're going to go up this little spiral staircase. Just make sure I don't fall and slip because it is little steps! Well, it's not old I was going to say it's unstable It's not, but it kind of feels like it. Wow, look at this. We are surrounded, 360, with the most beautiful mountains and look at this as well.
This is so cute This reminds me of like Cappadocia in Turkiye, right, with all the balloons that go up and they have these cute little cushions and rugs on their rooftops so you can get the perfect view and I see jade snow dragon mountain in the distance This looks so beautiful. Wow. I think we'll definitely probably try and take a trip there for sure, but for now, this is absolutely stunning. It's so bright out here right now. So
if you guys can't tell, I'm very, very red. Time to go put some SPF back on. Let's go! Good morning, good morning, good morning from Lijiang. It is a
beautiful town here in Yunnan Province and we this morning have come down to Lijiang Old Town so far, This might be our first paid ancient town, but stick around come see this because this town has apparently over 800 years of history, which is crazy! Ah, okay, no tickets? Okay, so we just scan? yeah, okay, perfect. OK, so we will just scan I think to get in, maybe you just have to register or something, but then we get to go in through this beautiful gate here We're at the South gate I believe. So we've come down to this side. We hopped in a DiDi from the other ancient town, which is about 6 kilometres It's not far at all.
Yes, we are staying there and it is stunning Let me tell you that if you want to stay somewhere in Lijiang, I highly, highly recommend it. But, let's do this! Yes, please. Much easier. Thank you very much.
It's probably like an attendance register maybe. Yeah, log yourself in when you're going in. I I also heard there used to be an entrance fee to all of the ancient towns here before COVID. If that's true, comment below, Let us know because I have no idea because I've seen ticket offices at the entrance of ancient streets. This is a service kiosk. Yeah, back where we're staying at Shuhe ancient Town...
Done? Thank you! And we go in, we have a little scanner over here, lovely And now, we head through some of the best ancient towns here in China. Like of all of the places the previous 10-11 cities that we've been to, these are the most authentic and the most beautiful ones. Minus the commercial. All right, I hear some of you might be saying right now like, all right, but this is so commercial right now and it's very tourist centric, yes, because you have to evolve with times, right? Previously, back in the day, I'm sure there must have been shops here as well.
People used to live here and there must have been trade and custom back in the day too. But now obviously they've kept the main structures intact and obviously there's businesses about now. So more than anything, yes, it is to attract tourists, but at the same time I think they've kept the the character and the essence of the place very much intact. I heard this one is definitely a little more commercialised than Shuhe Ancient Town, and this one is a little bit bigger. So we're going to wander the streets.
I've heard it's got a really vibrant nightlife I think this bin lorry is playing music... So nice. Speaking of music and culture and keeping the essence intact It's a dump truck, and it's got such amazing music that's playing Where else? Where can you find this guys? Where else? Only in China! This building looks pretty, so beautiful That's the headpiece. That looks like a crown That is so gorgeous.
Beautiful. Hello very beautiful, very nice. So, you might have also noticed that's the vehicle that I was talking about, by the way, playing all the music. I'm wearing an extra layer today because the thing in, Yunnan So far that we've noticed is, when the sun disappears, and it gets slightly overcast, the temperature plummets, like this by a good 10°C or something. Like yesterday it was probably in the mid 20s and in the morning today here in Lijiang, it was, I would say 17/16/17. Yeah, we're a little higher in altitude now as well So we're about 2300 metres - 2400 metres above sea level.
So no altitude sickness, so far so good. Cross your fingers for us. This town, like I was previously saying outside has over 800 years of history and it does show some of the ethnic minority groups here in the architecture, but the predominant one is the Naxi So we're not too sure if we pronounced that right, guys, but let us know. And it's supposed to have lots of different architecture here in th traditional and unique authentic style. I'm loving the traditional outfits as well.
It's like the head piece for the woman, it looks like they're wearing a crown. It does. Yeah, Hello! Can we take a photo? yes! I'm so happy. Me too! There we are.
Found a subscriber. Do you want me to take it? Give me. I'll do it.
I'll take it for you. Yes, I take it. I've got longer arm. Ready, guys? Thank you. Thank you. OK, I want to, yes! Thank you! Thank you.
Nice to meet you. Have a good day. Have a good day. You too. Bye. Bye.
Oh, that was so sweet! We have met so many subscribers and followers guys, so if you ever see us roaming around your town, feel free to come up to us and say hello. Let's take a picture together. Why not? So sweet! Do you know what I'm actually loving though? Is these ponchos hanging up This vehicle is following us. Let's get away from here, it's too loud.
This shop looks huge with All of the traditional outfits, yeah, I really love them. I'm not sure like what the pricing is you know, because I was curious and thinking maybe I should give it a try Maybe I should embrace the culture, go and take some photos, get my hair done, get my makeup done. It would be quite cool. To be quite honest, the last time we did it was in Xi'an. I was freezing cold, but it was still a great time! We have some really fun memories of Xi'an and great pictures too! Look at these buildings now. This is what I imagined the typical China to look like This is like your ancient China And this is very much,still, even if it's been remodelled, refurbished or whatever you want to call it.
This is the original structure, the original design from back in the day. Yeah. This is like your movie set of China, right? This is what you'd see on all the movies This is how I imagined it to be with the bin lorry playing the flute music That's what I thought it would be so magical! It is. It's really lovely. And you know, what I actually really like is the fact that it is a bit quieter right now.
People normally start slightly later here because it's usually tourists, yes! So they would be starting their day a bit late. But yeah, if you come out probably after two or three o'clock, then yeah, things will start picking up a little bit But, you put it perfectly This does feel like we're on a movie set because, it's like something we've never, ever seen before! Look at this behind you, the archway, the tree, like the weeping willow I want to say weeping Willow, but I'm not sure we are going to head further down this street Everywhere looks super picturesque and I honestly could snap a photo of everything but it's like depicting the history of the place It is indeed, so fun fact for you guys, someone's done their research. This is basically, Lijiang was a really important trading town on the Tea horse Road. Now if you don't know what the Teahorse Road is, then back in ancient China, it was a really important trading route where lots of the locals would trade things like horses, caravan and tea apparently So that is kind of the history and this used to be a really important town on that route and also it used to be a really important trading town too.
Look at that That is so cute. It's a little cat with the dress Is it a cat cafe or something? or are they just chilling? This is the cutest thing I've seen in a while. That is so cute. This cat's beautiful, but that cat's just, you know, having fun Pink's not really its colour, is it? This one suits the green. Yeah. So cute. There's another thing that I've noticed on this trip, like, outside quite a few shops, there's alpacas, there's dogs And in this area in Yunnan, there's huge dogs.
Last night we were out taking a stroll in our local area where we're staying and There's mastiffs down here. Like I'm talking about bears. They look like they're crossbred with bears. They're about this big. They are huge furry beasts Huskies too Huskies look tiny in front of them. They're like, I think we might have even seen a few Tibetan Mastiffs down here.
We could have. Yeah. Huge, beautiful, ginormous. Oh, look at these people. They're wearing the outfits they do look beautiful And then along the side we've got, like in most old towns here in China, they all run on sort of the same sort of style, but this one feels really, really different. You've got loads of little shops where you can wear the outfits.
You've got restaurants, souvenir shops. There's a lot of antique places. It's not, it is commercial but it doesn't feel overly commercial, if that makes sense, because there's no loud announcements or anything going on. Apart from the bin lorry. Yeah, apart from the vehicles and the bin lorries, everything else has been like nice, quiet and serene Tranquility at its best. But there's more souvenirs and traditional costumes and dresses and things.
Yeah, I think this is a really popular photo spot. Yeah. So there's loads of different places where you can rent, an outfit and get dressed up because I think it's a super popular place to come and take some photos.
And I don't blame people because it's so beautiful round here. Really picturesque. It's so unbelievably beautiful, just working our way, meandering through the alleyways. We just came from this one down here, wandering through all the way here.
So much character and charm to this place. Lijiang Old Town, I am loving you. We've got some noodles over there. And then wow, look at how this opens up. Oh my goodness.
Beautiful. Wow. OK, I was not expecting it to open up like that, but this place is absolutely huge. I think you can spend a whole day here, if not half a day for sure.
And we are now at Mufu Palace or Mu Mansion So here we go. This is basically the royal residence of the Mu family who ruled over the Naxi people. So this was the royal residence and they ruled over 4 centuries apparently. Wow. Crazy. Hey, let's go inside. Let's do it. So far, it's feeling very regal with this white and blue entrance gate.
I was going to say, As for entrances, it's making quite a statement. This one. Yeah. Oh, OK, here we go. Pretty photo spot, obviously. Very nice. OK, I think we have to buy tickets.
OK, 40 yuan. OK, so 40 RMB. Should we? Perfect Mu Mansion, formerly known as the Chieftain Mansion of the Mu's. There we go. OK started from the Yuan dynasty and it was completed in the late Ming dynasty.
During the Qing dynasty, the main building was destroyed by the war. OK, in the 1990's, the overall building was apparently totally rebuilt. So there we go. That was perfect timing. I read the history.
You got the tickets. I think this has played a lot of importance historically over obviously hundreds of years. Hello Four centuries Thank you. Have a look at this.
You would not expect this to be behind here wow, right? You would not expect this at all. This is beautiful, isn't it? Right. That's your royal residence. Massive forecourt. Host all your friends and your family.
Have some crazy parties happening here. All your royal ceremonies and events, I like it. Like as far as architecture goes, this is beautiful. What a grand entrance.
It is really stunning. I always think I would love to have a time with machine, right and travel back and just see like be a fly on the wall kind of thing. To just observe what was daily life like for these people because I think it's absolutely fascinating. The sun looks like it's making an appearance every now and then. It's struggling, but hopefully it will come out sooner rather than later.
As long as it's not raining, it's all good, right? Let's go up here and see what's happening. So I think this might have been the main hall, main reception area of the residence where they probably have their guests. Maybe I'm just completely guessing. I don't know. Or maybe this was the temple.
Oh, wow. No, that looks like a throne. Is that a tiger skin on that throne? That looks royal. Looks like it. I mean, tigers used to be in Yunnan, right? Yeah, Oh yeah, Tiger leaping Gorge, right. So no tigers nowadays, but many, many years ago I guess they could have been right? Yeah, and should have been. I think this is where the royal, they must have probably taken a seat, held court here.
This is where they would listen to people's problems or issues. Yes, because it has to be that is the main chair and this would be his ministers and stuff, right. His ministers will be here. That's the main man sat there. And he would hold court with his audience, the public and everyone. Yeah, that's fascinating.
Look at that. That is so intricate. And the golden looks absolutely amazing They're torture instruments, not torture, They're like weapons.
Are they? Yes Wow. These are real Look at this one. You don't want to get hit by that because that is 360 spikes So I think this is then the main hall where they used to hold court. Let's go further along. Oh, my days! Look at this. All right, You've got an axe here.
When I say little, by no means little, but look. This bad boy here. All right, all right, this is a good CN¥40 per person spent. I am enjoying this. Got some statues out here.
They do not look like they're as old as this building or the residence. I think this is a bit remodelled, so something unique to the Naxi culture is this here, I don't know if it's actually this, but they have something which is, what The text? specific hieroglyphic characters. Yes So it's different to how the rest of the language is written. Really?
how like Chinese is written Maybe you guys can let us know. Yeah. And apparently here in the Old Town, you can take, like, some classes to learn how to do the calligraphy called Dongba hieroglyphics or Dongba Characters. Yeah. So really cool. Really interesting. I'm not sure if that's specifically it, but comment below, let us know. Is this not the usual way of writing Mandarin? Maybe it's a different script, Dongba? Yeah.
But that's what I heard. So comment below, let us know. This looks so cool from back where we were standing because these are going down. Slight gradient, looks so symmetric and so gorgeous, right? What's happening behind here? I knew it. I knew it. See, that's why I said that's basically how the architecture was done back in the day.
There's like one building behind the buildings, another courtyard, then another building. Look at this. This is what I mean. OK, so you've got another area here, you've got a little pond, you've got another building out there, which probably served a different purpose altogether. I love it. And it keeps going on and on and on.
And as you go further along, I've noticed this in different parts of China, it keeps ascending. So this building, then the next one would be slightly higher and then you can see one back in the distance there that's on a slight I would call that a little hill We've seen that in, Forbidden City as well, remember? And Kunming as well, in that the Yuantong Temple was like that as well, wasn't it? Very, very true. OK, these are the statues that I was talking about, the ones that were inside the hall, the first building that we went in.
OK, maybe I might be wrong. These might not be replicas. These might be the real statues.
That tree is full of fruit. I don't know what fruit that is. Let's get closer to it. Is it pomegranite? I think it looks like it might be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's full of fruit. Yes.
Pomegranate. You're right. Correct! Look at that. If you feel hungry and your mum ain't made anything for you.
you know what? Just come out here, grab yourself some fresh fruit off the tree, pick it, eat it. Or juice. But they wouldn't have none of those electric stuff back then I've got so many people working at my yard. No problem. I can have somebody else do it for me.
What's happening here? Let's go check this out. This is an ancient script. Ancient.
Ancient. Wow. OK, don't quote me on this, but I think this looks like Tibetan text because the Tibetan writing is very different to Mandarin. Yeah, I think, I think all of you experts out there, you guys know more than I do. Comment below, let us know what kind of text is this? My guess, Tibetan.
Well, you're not going to believe this. What building or room was this? This was the library. How did you get that? There's scripts and there's text and stuff. Damn it. Yeah.
This is the 10,000 book tower. So I was right. So this is where the Chieftain of the Mu family had his library on this floor. And then I think on the 1st floor, we can go upstairs.
And it was where they had a private school. So the Mu family was really well educated. I should be a tour guide. You should, right? I'm really impressed. I had no idea.
And I'm not afraid to admit I just made that statement based off of all of this. All right, we can go upstairs. Let's have a look. So this was a library back in the day. All right, steep steps. Be careful. Look at the vantage. Oh, OK, books.
And there's some seats here where maybe the main regal personality back in the day, the rulers probably just take a seat here, take a seat, read their books. Just look at how much detail there is to the back rest here. Wow. The book covers alone, I don't even know what the text is inside, but the book covers alone are so mesmerising. They look like they're made from like metal? wood? Yeah, think so.
Let's go upstairs, see what's happening. Yeah, so many steps! I mean, we are going on more adventures later on after we're done with Lijiang. This is a good little workout. And in Lijiang as well. We're not done. There's still so much more coming up, guys.
So if you haven't subscribed yet, if you haven't followed yet, I don't know what you guys are doing. Go ahead, hit that Subscribe and like less talking, more showing the view from up here. There's a tour group down there The way the chairs are all laid out, it feels like this is where the main people would sit. Ministers, advisors, hold council, hold the courts and probably just talk about knowledge and things. This is nice. Not bad for a view, right? Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Very, very different to the other parts of China that we've been to so far. So Lijiang, first impressions, very impressive. A lot of history, a lot of culture, a lot of colour. We need to try the food out as well because I think there's a lot of emphasis here on yak meat, and I love meat, so yak is something that we've only tried once before.
Yeah, it's been quite a few years and I am so looking forward to yak again. So let's do that. This place so far, amazing. We're going to pop over to this building here. Now that one. Wow.
Now if this is not picture perfect, then I don't know what is. It feels like we're in some kind of fairy tale. All the beautifully pink flowers on the tree and then we've got this incredible design behind us.
This is absolutely stunning surrounded by all of the greenery up here. We've even got palm trees and this beautiful greenery down here too. Oh, I'm absolutely obsessed with this place.
It is so, so pretty at all angles. It doesn't matter where you go, it's stunning. Even the grounds of the palace are just as pretty as the actual buildings as well. Amazing for this entire place was constructed It started back in the 14th century and went all the way up, I think to the 18th century. So it started from the 1300s all the way to the 1700s, because with every single ruler and generation of the Mu family, they kept adding on to the main residential complex. And I believe back in the 90s, as recent as 1996, this place was destroyed.
Well, it was damaged quite badly because of the earthquake, but then again, they were able to put it back together again. And what you see right now is obviously a replica and quite a bit of restoration work has gone in as well. But for sure, I've done an amazing job keeping the the palace as true to its original authentic self as possible. Having a little photo. We're with this lovely family here, all right.
We're just trying to make up our minds what we want to have in the background. This auntie is a professional. I love it. Is she happy with the photo? She said she has a better choice.
Oh, yeah. I love this. If you're ever in doubt, and you need a photo taken.
You should always ask someone in China because they take the best. Yes, Chinese people take the best photos ever. But we're doing another one, she would like to go to on that stage. Oh, OK.
So she wants to go up there OK. Do you know what? That's what you call commitment and dedication. I love it. She's still trying to get the right angles. Oh, no. Still not happy without that one.
This one. Yes. She's like, move here, move here, move further along. Come on, everyone.
Oh, we stand here, OK. Take 5. Let's see, because I want to see what Auntie's done. Oh, she's back. Thank you! She took a great picture Yeah the whole tower， whole tower is in it! thank you thank you! Yeah.
Oh, she is so cute. That was so sweet. I love this. So nice. Yeah, absolutely. If you visit the West Lake in Hangzhou Oh, yes, We live near the Liangzhou city. OK.
It's also very famous. Yeah. Has the Chinese culture of 5000 years. Wow. So there are many kind of museums, some of them national. Wow amazing OK, yes. So I strongly suggest to you guys! We we will absolutely visit Hangzhou.
Thank you so much for that. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Bye, bye.
We've met the sweetest people. I think we sound like broken records, but I've never met nicer people than here. Stunning.
I mean, this trip so far has been full of friendly locals. Not that the previous ones weren't, but this time around they're super, super friendly. We're having the most amazing time as well. Guys, I am obsessed. Look at all of the outfits that they have along here. These are the traditional clothing, and I'm going to assume that these are probably the royal traditional clothing.
I want to say maybe you've got like a queen and a Princess there or something. I'm not too sure. But these outfits are amazing. And then we even have an instrument here. Should I? I'm so not musical, but that's as good as it's going to get. This is stunning.
And also there's projectors up here, so we were just thinking that maybe this is a stage of some sort. Are you going to give us a performance? Best dance move. I love it. Beautiful. Yeah.
This is so pretty. Wow, these are an example of some of the photos you can get done in these beautifully decorated costumes. I think this place with Mu Mansion, I think we're done. I think so.
We're going to take you to our next stop Shall we? Yeah, let's go. These old towns are an absolute maze, but we've definitely come out to a much busier side. People are down here. We've got people that were all the way up through this alleyway over this way. I think this is definitely the busiest side of the ancient town. Yeah.
This place we were having a look at the map is humongous. Yeah, it's actually, it's more than a kilometre. If you start from one side to the other. More than.
Yeah, no easily. It's absolutely, absolutely massive because when we started it was a quieter side. Yeah, I think so. This has picked up down here. OK. I need something to drink.
More shops coming up as well. I could do with something to drink. We've got really cute artwork along the walls here and then some sugar cane juice and coconut. We already had this. I think in Dali, didn't we? This is all different flavours we have. Oh wow.
There's loads of them! banana, blueberry lychee, rose, durian, passion fruit, yakult. Oh. I might have to see if I can persuade Taz to try a little maybe.
What have you seen? Fresh Yak milk tea? Oh Princess Naxi yak Fresh milk tea. Yum. Yak milk. We're from England? Are you from Malaysia? Malaysia. We were in Malaysia before we came to China Hi. Hello. I'm just trying to translate your menu.
Hey, we're chatting with people from Malaysia over here. And then we're trying to order the drinks. Are you guys here on a holiday? You here on holiday? Yeah. Oh, nice. Your first time? Yes Ah, cool. OK. And did you go to Kunming?
Yes. And then Dali? Yes OK. And then Shangri-La? No. OK, OK, nice! Ah sweet Are you enjoying it? Yeah, in Lijiang first time, but in China 4th time. Yeah. So we have been here a little bit before, but just placed our order.
What did you order? If you would like to know what I ordered was a Jasmine milk tea and it's got Cream on top. I think they said the cream is made from yak milk. I did ask the lovely girl that was taking the order And I was like, is this made out of yak milk? And she said the cream definitely is. I have also further up that way, seen black myth Wu Kong.
That's all the rage these days if you guys have played the game You'll know exactly what I'm talking about. But he's down there on one of the signs, that monkey. Oh, OK, the video game. Sorry, guys, I'm too bad at this. I have no idea. But apparently it's the black something, something over here that's popular.
So nice, she came after us She was like, take your drink, please. That's cute. But that's the black monkey? That's the main character, right? I I believe so, yeah. I haven't played the game, but I've seen the trailers.
It's all the rage these days. That is what everyone seems to be talking about right now. So maybe you guys, we might go to Shanxi It's not in our plans yet. But if you guys know us, we don't really plan a lot. We just go with the flow So we might end up there.
Who knows? But let's try this. This is yak cream. Who's doing the honours? Am I eating it first or do you want to try it? Have it. Oh, it's nowhere near as sweet, fluffy, fluffy, but yeah, it's quite thick It tastes like a mousse almost, right? Yeah. Oh, it's not as sweet at all. But the nuts on top are a nice touch Spoon? I actually really like it.
No, I was thinking for some reason because, Yaks, if you look at them, they look huge, right? So I thought maybe the cream might be a bit heavy and a bit rich. It's really fluffy. I love it.
Look at that. This bit, this place. And it's these people here. Princess Naxi Yak Fresh Milk Tea I have a straw for you.
Is that a straw? Yeah. Taste test it for us. Conserve our lungs. You might actually like this. Its Jasmine tea? Yes, Jasmine. The good thing about it is it's not too sweet.
Oh, good, that's so good. I love the cream though. Oh, that's so nice. 10 out of 10. I love it. What do you rate it? Definitely, 10.
I'm a fan of the cream. Creams very good So we have some cute little restaurants around the edge. We have a Bai style pineapple rice, lots of different traditional bits and pieces and snacks that you can grab there. And then look at this one over here. We have oh, this is a wax museum.
There we go. And this looks like we've got Wasn't sure who this is at first, but now it looks like President Putin. What are you doing here in Lijiang? He's here on holidays too. So yeah, he's here to come and see the sights The guy in the chair behind him, is he real or is he real or asleep? He's real. No, he must be fake because he's got a sign attached to him. I think he's fake, he's been sleeping too much, that's why. Too Sleepy!
So they put a sign around him. They're like haha Mr Putin is here, everything happening, guys. If you guys haven't been to Lijiang, why are you waiting? Come down here This is where everyone is.
That's hilarious. I love it. There's honestly photo spots everywhere. And again, like we said earlier, one of my favourite things about China is that they love to take a photo of wherever you go, which is perfect because we love to take photos too. So photo spots are absolutely everywhere. I'm going to have to stop talking, otherwise I'm going to have nothing left. This is almost finished now.
All right, let's go. Next up, let's do this. In case you guys did not know then this Old Town is actually UNESCO World Heritage site as well. It was designated one back in 1997, which is the best year by the way. But we're now wandering through these streets and we're trying to find what is supposed to be one of probably the most iconic sites here of this Old Town. Very popular landmark.
I've seen something else in the meanwhile. Look up. Oh yeah, beautiful with all the umbrellas and stuff. Wow. It goes all the way down, it does all the way to the end. This street is much quieter as well. It's like all of a sudden you come out from the hustle and the bustle and the noise of those cobblestone main streets.
Beautiful. These girls dressed up in the traditional outfit looks beautiful. So many cool and unique souvenirs. I see a bag, this looks like a Mickey Mouse made on leather here. That's so cool. Very nice.
And I see that Taz is already stopped I don't know what he's stopped for. What is it? It's something along the lines of a Rou Jia Mo But this is made out of yak meat. Look at that This does look good. Yak meat Patty 15 Yuan Oh, OK. Let's have a look.
I'm going to go for one first. Yeah, let's try see what it's like. So you've got some other ones that are just ready here waiting and then all the ingredients are along there. But I'm excited to try this. Yeah.
Thank you. There we go, make the payment on our trusty Alipay. Lovely. If you guys did not know it then get a load of this. So we have a news, we are going a little further than Shangri-La, so you're going to want to stay tuned in the next few vlogs. You've got a very, very exciting trip coming.
Give you a hint, not many people venture out there, and we told you at the start of the series, this is going to be an action-packed series. So much coming up and we are doing some adventurous stuff going to places that are off the beaten path, probably a lot more yak as well. Oh yes. So you guys might want to stick around for that. But for now, this is really hot! This is really, really hot.
Yay. I love that they're playing the drums over there again, a little music going. The sun has now come out again. It's a beautiful day and who's not wearing their sun cream Me! But don't worry guys, I have a hat in my bag so that I will not burn because we do not want that. So
time to get on that. Sorry mum, it was really cloudy this morning. I promise. Oh, ice cream. Yum. Look at those flavours. I think this is Sifang Square or Sifang Street Hello again.
It's definitely bustling round here. Lots of people, famous tour groups over here. We love them, love to see them. And now we're going to go up this way and I hope we're going to be able to go and see the cool little landmark, iconic thing that we wanted to go see. So stay tuned, see if we find it. We have a yak Patty, it's a little yak on there as well What's it like? Look at that It's...
The pastry, super crispy on the inside, nice and soft. It's got the yak meat in it. Maybe some like spring onions or some scallions. I don't really know if there's anything else in it, but it's quite a nice flavour, not spicy at all. The yak meat tastes super flavourful, really lean, I like it. I think there's, it's definitely got onions in here.
Scallions, spring onions, yak meat. This is tender. This is really, really tender. Because before you had yak meat, you always used to think that yak meat was going to be chewy and fatty, right? Yeah, It's not chewy one bit. Yeah.
And actually, do you want to know a little fact? We've only ever had yak meat on a pizza. There you go. And yeah, I thought it would be really chewy and with muscles because of it's up in the Highlands, right. So it'd be like really quite like fit, but it's actually not. It's really good. Really nice, really good.
Everything down here is yak based We're loving it. Great job. It's too hot, right? It's nice and crispy and on the inside, it's heavenly. I am loving China.
If this is not the biggest rabbit, I don't know what is. Oh my gosh, everything here is so quirky. Like you're walking down a nice ancient neighbourhood and all of a sudden you get hit by this A massive pink and purple rabbit with a heart. Love it though. All right, we're still on the hunt for that massive water wheel all along the side here, all the way down.
There's flowers everywhere and these are all real as well. These are real. And you've got these little canals on the side as well.
Such a beautiful setting. Beautiful. Some more girls getting the Insta perfect shots. Beautiful, gorgeous, very nice.
And another one, there we are. That is the traditional one that we've seen the outfit in Lijiang. This is a different outfit and then this is a different outfit. Wow. Hey, OK, that's Four different outfits, four different styles all together back-to-back, one after the other, and then there's three girls here as well.
This has to be the Flower Street then, so 3 here. There's some on the side as well over there behind these girls, and we've got more coming up. And just behind these girls, I see the water wheel.
Wow, I see you. There it is, here we are. This is one of the most popular landmarks here in the ancient Lijiang town. Let's get up there and show you guys what's happening. Something happening here as well. I think we've come out to another massive square here, but this is the main water wheel.
Let's go round here, get a better view, because we're too close to it otherwise. And I think they are setting up a stage back there, so there might be a performance about to happen soon. And I seem to have lost Libby as well. Oh, this girl, I don't know. I think I need to get some reins for her.
You know when you've got babies and you put reins on them because they keep running around everywhere. There she is. I was just speaking about you. I thought I lost you there for a minute. No, I'm here. This is so romantic.
I love this place. There's flowers, there's cute little waterways, there's beautiful buildings. There's girls dressed up in these traditional outfits. We've got a singer over here. This seems to be the main square, I think. I think, yeah, because this is the the most happening place, Water wheel, live music.
All of these bits here with the prayers and wishes and messages and things over here. They're setting up a big, big stage going up there. And I think this is where we've just come out of Sorry. OK, We've done it in reverse. We started from the quietest place to the busiest place.
But hey, do you know what better downhill, And then go up, make your way up from there. So that's the way to do it. Old Town of Lijiang. It's so worth it. Come here, visit. You've got to do it. There's so much history.
So fascinating to see. A lot of culture, we loved it. How much fun have you had though? I have had a world of fun here in Lijiang. It is beautiful. It's like a fairy tale town. So beautiful, so worth it.
Highly recommend it. It's definitely worth adding to your bucket list in China and in Yunnan Province. But for now guys, we're probably going to finish up the blog because we've walked and walked and walked and walked. Stunning place. There's still too much that we need to see and we will be doing quite a bit of walking even now from the looks of it, because there's no end in sight. Do you know what? As Libby was saying, highly recommended.
This is not like your average touristic or touristy area because there is a lot to do and see down here and there is quite a variety when it comes to food as well. So that is one thing that we don't normally enjoy in cities because you go to a pedestrian street and it becomes a bit monotonous. Yeah, the areas here, the pedestrian streets are the ancient towns in Yunnan have quite a variety and we've absolutely enjoyed it. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed it as well as much as we did. If you haven't subscribed yet, go ahead.
You know what the deal is. We shall see you somewhere in the next one. Hello. And we shall see you somewhere from China in the next one, guys. Let's go!!!!!!
2024-10-18 06:19
