Lijiang

...is a perfectly preserved old stone-paved, canal-threaded, ancient-building-ed old town. What a great place! It's up there with Bruuge (Belgium), Sarlat (France) and York (England) in my top old places visited. Tastefully modernised with electric lights and fire safety stuff, it is often used for movies and historical dramas, it is so well preserved. We are staying in a wee guesthouse above an alley. A step away is the canal and many shops, restaurants, tea-houses and bars.
I URGE ALL YE WHO HAVE NOT BEEN TO GET THERE NOW! Such is its beauty, you must see it before the tacky tourist shops take over. Also it has a few rises and dips, bridges and part of it slopes up the hillside to a temple. Google it, it's great!
(I'm impressed, if you hadn't noticed - it was worth the awful noisesome trainride here.)
This is the view from our room.