Bravely took my 70-year-old parents to conquer Jade Dragon Snow Mountain at 4680 meters!

When I was a child, my parents accompanied me as I grew up. Now that I’m grown, I want to take my parents to see more of the world. This is a commemoration of the first truly meaningful trip with my parents, successfully completed with a great sense of achievement! Here’s the itinerary and some tips: Day 1 ✅ Morning: Shanghai to Lijiang ✅ Check-in ✅ Afternoon: Baisha Ancient Town (lots of road construction, experience was average) ✅ Evening: Lijiang Old Town (quite commercialized and very large, impossible to see it all) Day 2 ✅ Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Prepare chocolate and oxygen bottles in advance (oxygen bottles are often psychological; in the end, my parents didn’t have altitude sickness, but it’s better to be prepared) 1. Entrance fee: 💰100 (can be bought online in advance or paid offline; free for over 70, half price for over 60) 2. Take a taxi to Lijiang Xuechuan Tourist Port 3. Glacier Park (check-in at 4680 meters, big cable car, 💰140 includes a bus ticket worth 20; tickets can be grabbed at 8 PM seven days in advance from “Lijiang Tourism Group.” I got the 8:30-9:00 slot. It’s easy to get tickets in the off-season. My mom’s knees are bad, so she only took the cable car up to 4560 meters and didn’t go further. My dad and I climbed to 4680 meters. It’s quite difficult, like climbing stairs and gasping for breath, taking about an hour with breaks to reach the top.) 4. Spruce Meadow (small cable car, 💰60, tickets available at 9 PM seven days in advance. If you already bought the 140 Glacier Park ticket, the 20 bus ticket is automatically deducted at payment. I got the 12:30-13:00 slot, which worked perfectly after coming down from Glacier Park. We waited a bit at the Spruce Meadow cable car station. The scenery is wide and very photogenic.) 5. Yak Meadow (medium cable car, 💰65, tickets available at 9 PM seven days in advance; we didn’t go) 6. Blue Moon Valley (take the sightseeing bus to Yun Yue Pavilion Blue Moon Valley station; Blue Moon Valley is stunning under the sunlight) Day 3 ✅ Lijiang Station to Dali Station ✅ Pick up the pre-rented car ✅ Afternoon: Haixi West, Longkan Pier (park and navigate to Longkan Ecological Park parking lot) ➡️ Panxi S Bay (park and navigate to Panxi S Bay Ecological Parking Lot). Haixi has many redwood trees and seagulls. After two days in Dali, my parents liked the scenery at Longkan Pier the most. ✅ Dali Old Town (National Highway 214 is under construction, parking is difficult; we finally parked at Manxinfu Hotel parking lot) ✅ Check-in Day 4 ✅ Haidong tour: Shuanglang Ancient Town (beautiful scenery, leisurely walking and stopping) ➡️ Little Putuo (many seagulls here too) ➡️ Ideal Gang (white buildings, a little Santorini; my parents didn’t like it much, felt it was commercial rather than natural scenery) Day 5 ✅ Dali Station to Lijiang Station (returning to Lijiang because I originally bought round-trip tickets to Lijiang; Dali was planned later. You can plan your return route according to your itinerary) ✅ Shuhe Ancient Town (unexpectedly the biggest surprise at the end; it retains an ancient and quaint style, with beautiful natural scenery and rustic stone paths. Highly recommended!) ✅ Lijiang to Shanghai