Not a list of everything — a short list of what's worth your limited time, with the practical notes we give our own guests.
A UNESCO maze of cobbled lanes, willow-hung canals and grey-tiled Naxi courtyards, backed by the white tooth of the snow mountain. Yes, it's popular — go at dawn or after 9pm and it's yours, all trickling water and red lanterns.
Thirteen glaciated peaks topping out at 5,596 metres, looming directly over Lijiang. The Glacier Park cableway reaches 4,506 metres — as high as most travelers will ever stand — with Blue Moon Valley's glacier-blue terraces waiting below. Reserve entry ahead; clouds build by afternoon.
The Bai kingdom's old capital between the Cangshan range and 40-kilometre Erhai Lake: the thousand-year Three Pagodas, a walled old town, and a lakeside ring road of fishing villages, cafés and tie-dye courtyards in Xizhou. The drive around the lake is the attraction.
The Yangtze — here called the Jinsha — squeezes through a 16-kilometre gorge beneath walls rising 3,900 metres, making it among the deepest canyons on earth. The paved upper path to the rapids viewpoint suits everyone; the two-day high trail is a world-class trek for the ambitious.
At 3,200 metres, the Tibetan world begins: the 300-year-old Songzanlin Monastery — 'the little Potala' — rises in gilded terraces above a marsh lake, and the rebuilt lanes of Dukezong turn the world's largest prayer wheel. Two days added to any Lijiang itinerary, with altitude paced properly.
Before Lijiang, there was Baisha — the Naxi kings' first capital, still a working village of mural halls, embroidery schools and elderly men playing cards under the mountain. The 600-year-old religious murals mix Tibetan Buddhist, Taoist and Naxi imagery found nowhere else.
Want them without the logistics? Our Yunnan day tour links the essentials door-to-door, and the 5 days journey covers the full set at a relaxed pace.