Lijiang Old Town, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Blue Moon Valley, Four Days from Luoyang

A midday flight, then north from the airport past harvested fields, the white top of the mountain showing through cloud ahead. No touring on arrival: sit in the guesthouse courtyard with water and wait for the sun to drop before going out.

Attraction introduction: Lijiang old town sits in Dayan at about 2,400 metres, a highland town of the Naxi people where the Jade River is drawn off from Black Dragon Pool and split into three channels running through the streets, the lanes following the water over a paving of five-hued stone. Sifang Square was the old market centre, ringed with shops and guesthouses. The town has no wall, which suits its role as a caravan stop on the tea-horse road where mule trains needed to come and go at any hour. The Mu residence below Lion Hill was the office of the Naxi chieftains in the Ming.

Tips: Guests generally find themselves overexcited on day one, hauling suitcases up slopes and then walking all evening, and wake with a headache. In practice we leave the first afternoon empty and only walk a short stretch of the water channels after dark. The stone paving is punishing for wheels, so have the guesthouse collect your bags.

Away at seven, twenty minutes to the park gate, shuttle to the cable car station. Fifteen minutes up to 4,506 metres, then the timber walkway climbing a little over a hundred metres to the 4,680-metre platform, ten steps and a pause. Down by midday, Blue Moon Valley in the afternoon.

Attraction introduction: Jade Dragon is the southernmost area of modern maritime glacier in the northern hemisphere, thirteen peaks strung north to south with the main summit, Shanzidou, at 5,596 metres and still unclimbed. The Glacier Park cable car lands beside the ice, and the walkway ends at 4,680 metres, the highest point open to visitors, looking down on the glacier tongue and its moraine ridges. Blue Moon Valley lies at the foot of the mountain where the Baishui River runs over a travertine bed in stepped shallows; copper ions in the water push it towards blue-green, vivid in sun and milky white under cloud.

Tips: Guests generally find they are dizzy stepping off the cable car, which is no moment to start walking. In practice we sit inside the station for ten minutes with hot water before deciding about the walkway. Oxygen cylinders cost thirty to sixty yuan up here and about half that at a pharmacy in town, so buy before you come.

No alarm. Walk the lanes of Baisha, which is far smaller than Dayan, one main street done in a dozen minutes, rammed-earth walls and timber gateways either side. Yuhu village nearby in the afternoon, then back to sit in the courtyard.

Attraction introduction: Baisha was one of the earliest Naxi settlements, home to the Mu chieftains before they moved to Dayan in the Ming. The Baisha murals survive in Dabaoji Palace and Liuli Hall, Ming-era work that sets Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhist and Taoist figures in the same composition, a mixture rare elsewhere. The tie-dye workshops still ferment their indigo from dried leaves, and cloth pulled from the vats hangs in the courtyards until the whole lane turns blue. Yuhu village at the foot of the mountain builds its walls from local five-hued stone and weights the roofs with rocks against the wind.

Tips: Guests generally find Baisha more agreeable than Dayan precisely because it is empty. In practice we give the whole day to Baisha and Yuhu rather than going back into the city. Tie-dye sessions need booking a day ahead; walk-ins are usually turned away.

Back into Dayan in the morning to finish the lanes, climbing behind the Mu residence to the Wangu Tower on Lion Hill for the whole roofscape. Down by half past eleven for lunch, then out to the airport.

Attraction introduction: Lion Hill stands on the west side of the old town and the Wangu Tower on its summit gives the best overview, a sweep of grey tile with the Jade River cutting a line through it and the snow mountain behind on a clear day. The Mu residence was the mansion and office of the Mu chieftains, laid out on the pattern of a princely seat from the Central Plains but detailed with Bai and Tibetan work; the stone archway of Loyalty is original Ming. The three-tiered wells of the old town encode a Naxi rule of water use, drinking from the top basin, washing vegetables in the middle and clothes in the bottom, still observed.

Tips: Guests generally find on the last morning that they have bought nothing. In practice we shop in the old town before noon, buying Dongba paper, copperware and pu'er from the small shops on Wuyi and Qiyi streets, cheaper than around Sifang Square. Airport security restricts liquids, so check honey and liquor into your luggage.