Travel to Lijiang by bus

The bus station is located south of the old city. Regular services to/from Shangrila and overnight service from Kunming stop here. You can take the bus 8 in front of the bus station to the old town or take a taxi. From Dali, minibus/bus at 55/60¥ about every 30/60min, ~4h (highway in construction, oct 2011). There is a direct bus from Chengdu which starts at 11:20 at Xinnamen station in Chengdu. It takes about 24 hours to do the trip, and cost about 280¥. Alternatively, you can take a train from Chengdu to Panzhihua (15h, ~191¥ for a hard sleeper) to arrive in the early morning. At the exit of Panzhihua train station, take one of the bus 64 on the left of the exit and get off at the terminus, which is the bus terminal (3¥, ~1h). Then, you can take a bus to Lijiang, which run every 45 minutes from 7AM to 1PM (from 83¥ to 92¥, ~8h).