I want to have a go at the Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge trail this weekend, does anybody know if it's still easily possible to grab a bus towards Shangri-La and get off half-way at Qiaotou, or is the new highway already functional enough for most bus traffic to bypass Qiaotou completely?

To be more precise we're getting into Lijiang station at 5:30pm and would ideally like to make it Qiaotou the same night for an early morning start the next day, but I'm not sure how feasible this is (and which Lijiang bus stop we should head to)...

u can easily get buses to shangrila but guess theres no bus to shangrila after 5pm. recommend u stay in lijiang for a night and catch the morning bus to shangrila. u can ask the driver to pull over once u arrive at qiaotou. the express way will be available at the end of next year.