Wonderful Lijiang
 

I'm not very good at writing a trip report so I've uploaded some pictures of our trip to Lijiang and Shangri La(Zhongdian) for your viewing pleasure!

http://khun-pook.smugmug.com/

I recommend that you use the "slideshow" with the caption button turn on.

Lastly I would like to thank Rizzuto for your kind help with my many questions.

Enjoy!

Great photos, looks like you had a great time (and fantastic weather, too).

I especially liked the full moon shot of Jade Dragon at night -- must have been fantastic!

Thanks Rizzuto!

Yes perfect weather with bright sunshine around 20 C (68 F) during the day and cold at night around 3 C (37 F) for Lijiang. I didn't figure on the very bright and strong sunshine and now my face is quite burnt and pealing! Sort of like being on a ski slope on a perfect day. For Shangri La it was the same but more extreme with very cold nights and by morning most of the still water are frozen over. Just a few days before we arrive we were told that it had been raining hard for over a month and that you could not even see Jade Dragon Mountain because of the clouds and rain.

Jade Dragon at night - I thought I'd give it a try since it looked so nice under the full moon but didn't have any tripods with me. I just placed the camera on our compound wall and used the self timer at ISO 1600 with 3.5 second exposure and hoped for the best!

Glad you enjoyed the photos!

Fabulous photos Hanuman, thanks. Looks like you hit the perfect weather. Now on my list of places to see

Aloha!

Thanks for posting your photos, Hanuman. I really enjoyed them!

Mahalo HT and I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures Kathie. We had a lot of fun and we got really lucky with the weather and with meeting new friends.

Hope you guys will go and experience it for yourselves.

Excellent pictures. Nice camera. May I ask what lens did you use?

Thank you Rkkwan. I have a few lens but I just took one for this trip and that was my favourite 24 - 70 F2.8L. In hindsight I should have taken something longer as well, like a 70 - 200 F2.8L IS or more. I reduced the pixels for "smugmug" from 13 million to about 20% of the original and then "smugmug" enlarged on the reduced photo(I didn't know that it would do this) but the pictures still came out quite decent looking. Next time I'll post it in the original size.

I went to SW Yunnan last year with the 10-22 and 17-85IS with my XTi. I'm going to some remote parts of SW Sichuan this Christmas with a 40D. I know I definitely will bring the 10-22 and 17-55IS, but haven't decided if I should also bring a 50/1.4 or 70-300IS. Or if I should bring a 430EX flash. Hard to decide sometimes.

That 24-70<b>L</b> you have is nice piece of glass!

Check out my friend's post and pictures for some really good photo:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34956593

Rkkwan,

Sorry for the rushed reply last night but I had something to do.

I have the 50 f1.4 and the 70-300 DO IS as well and I do remember using them with my old 10 and 20 D which has the same size sensor(APS size = 1.6x crop factor) but far inferior in comparison to your 40D's Digic III. I found that those lens were hard to use on a 1.6x camera and went out and bought a 17 - 40 f4L which met all my need for close up and indoor shooting. Still you can't beat the ultra sharp 50 f1.4 so I would take everything if possible. I brought along the 580x flash but didn't use it once and would opt for my daughter's Ixus with it's built in flash when the occasion called for it.

Enjoy your trip to Sichuan and don't forget to let us view your photos!

Hi, i'm wondering when did you go to lijiang? I'm planning to go during the winter, january, but dont know if it'll be too cold.

Kevin

I was in Lijiang for 4 days in mid-February this year, which would probably be just a bit warmer than January. Daytime temperatures were in the mid-50s (F; about 12-14C), and it got down to just above freezing at night. It was not at all windy, so was extremely pleasant with an appropriate jacket.

Hey rizzuto

thanks for that info. If I go to lijiang during winter, is it worth it to go hike leaping tiger gorge? It seems like its well thought of, but when i look at pictures on the internet combined with the cold tempteratures, not sure if its worth it!

Thanks for your insight!

Kevin,

We were there just a few days ago, Oct 22 - 28 and the weather was fine. I did ask the hotel and my guide about what it will be like during the winter months and they all said that it's just a tad colder. For Lijiang it will be fine in January I think, but the furhter North you go the more cold it will get. I don't know if this will help but I found this blog about travelling around Lijiang very useful:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...dID=1000411021

TLG, I think that there are many type of hiking you can do there, from the extreme to the very safe and relaxing. We went on a very mild type of trek, walk on a cement path with railings on lever ground, for about 1 or 2 miles and that's it.