Shuhe and around Lijiang

A small path in a temple at Shuehe Ancient Town, Lijiang China

Nearby to Lijiang is the ancient town of Shuhe. I’d read that there was an entrance fee to get in and so by following the advice on TripAdvisor, we tried to find a back way in. The road was hard to find and we eventually got into the town but later found out that there wasn’t a fee.

Shuhe is smaller than Lijiang but not without it’s own character. There is still a main square with many restaurants and has a larger shallow pond that reflects the sky. The pond is an interesting feature although, like the river and creeks nearby, is filled with water grass. We had a good dinner at a small restaurant while it poured rain, literally starting when we sat down, and then explored up a river where I got this beautiful picture.

It had just rained so water droplets were still falling off the tree branches. I imagined that in the sun it would be a spectacular mirror, Shuhe Lijiang China

Shuhe was a nice day trip out of Lijiang to see a different perspective on the ancient Chinese towns. Also in Lijiang, we took a bus out towards a lake but had to walk the rest of the way. When we got off the bus we found a recently constructed residential complex that was completely abandoned. I wondered if this was like the documentaries I’d seen on TV about the Chinese building cities to boost their GDP but that aren’t actually lived in. It was really pretty and almost luxurious.

We wandered through some of the buildings and up to the roof top patios. The buildings themselves were all completely finished on the exterior and looked quite nice but were bare inside. Some partition walls hadn’t been put in and the electrical wiring just stuck out of holes.

Then we walked down a road that was suppose to lead us to the Lake. Instead, it took us past more empty construction and to a large field where cows were being herded. We were really close to the lake but didn’t know it. We didn’t want to disturb an old man sitting on a ledge so we backtracked and found another way where we ended up having to jump over a small creek.

The lake ended up being a man-made reservoir with concrete block siding. Several people were siting on the slope fishing and on the far side was a golf course. We didn’t stay long because it started to rain and was soon pouring down on us. Unfortunately I’d broken the umbrella hoping some barbwire earlier so we got soaking wet walking back to the bus stop.



Another lake we went to was on our horse riding trip. This was a nice pond of still water with rice grass growing.

The lake and the boats, Lijiang China
But this isn’t a real lake. This is a little man-made lake that tourist get to ride a boat across after riding their horse. The real lake is much further away. The lake use to be here, it use to extend much closer to the mountains but I suspect because of the over farming that has occurred over the centuries, the lake has slowly dried up as more is taken out than is replenished. We walked out to the edge of the lake where it is muddy. There’s a channel that’s been cut into the ground for the boats that is more than a couple meters deep. With this channel, we can see several layers of sediment. I also saw seashells which made me think that the lake is now salt water as well.

The Lake, Lijiang China