Three Towns, A Breath of Lijiang (Yunnan, China)

Lijiang at night doesn’t feel real. Fairy lights get tangled up in fake spiderwebs, paper lanterns swing off every roof, and I kept stopping every few steps just to take another photo I probably didn’t need. At one point I looked up and there were rows of umbrellas strung across the sky, each one painted with some anime character staring down at me. My neck actually started hurting from craning up at them for so long. Then round a corner, this huge mural of a girl crowned in real flowers just stopped me in my tracks, a red lantern glowing next to her like it was standing guard.

Baisha felt calmer, like the quieter sibling nobody pays enough attention to. Way fewer people. I sat at a little rooftop cafe and there was a guy on guitar and a woman on hand drum playing something soft, nothing fancy, just nice. When I stepped back outside the whole view opened up and there was Jade Dragon Snow Mountain just sitting there, half hidden in cloud, like it had been watching the town this whole time. Even the dry grass and empty backstreets felt like they belonged to the mountain more than to the town.

Shuhe is where I stopped rushing. Couples walked past me near Lovers’ Bridge, not going anywhere fast, just talking. Down one alley a beat-up blue delivery trike sat parked under a bunch of hanging umbrellas and fabric banners, and somehow it looked completely at home there. Further in, there were these wooden pavilions built right over still water, so still it mirrored the whole building perfectly, and I just stood there for a bit doing nothing, honestly. Some guy reached up and patted a golden yak statue, probably for luck, and near the end I wandered into a little paper and fan shop with dozens of leaf-shaped lanterns hanging from the ceiling, all lit up gold. Even then, the mountain was still there in the distance, same as it had been the whole day, like it never actually left.

**Photos 1–3: Lijiang Ancient Town**
**Photos 4–7: Baisha Ancient Town**
**Photos 8–14: Shuhe Ancient Town**