Red Lanterns Everywhere, Lijiang Old Town, China

Lijiang's old town has a great feel to it. Full of boutiques, cafes, bars and restaurants with lots of red chinese lanterns swinging away, it is a very lively town. It's a crazy maze of cobbled streets cut with little waterways and little stone bridges. It's really great. Being so close to Tibet, the locals have quite different faces. The local Naxi women - old and wrinkly, with toothless smiles - dress in their traditional blue and white dress selling their wares - mostly roasted pumpkin seeds, postcards and dried yak meat! (Haven't tried it yet - still plenty of time for that). Our timing wasn't great though, as we arrived during National Holiday Week - a week that most Chinese take off. This meant that it was super busy. Pretty nuts. People absolutely everywhere! Most of them making merry with lots of singing and dancing, competing with one another from bar to bar across the little waterways and streets. Pretty funny. Of course, the prices were jacked up for the week, but since we arrived at the end of the week Mama's prices were on the way down starting at 25 Yuan each down to 15 Yuan ($3-2! still pretty cheap). Even with the masses of tourists, Lijiang still manages to keep its charm and great atmosphere. Our favourite town in China by far - Lijiang gets the thumbs up! * Mush