I was told by local Lijiangers that many in Lijiang city were bought out, and they earned well.
Some outside the city sold the land for very low amounts, to the gubmint, who then sold it on to developers at a fat profit.
Sadly many of the farmers did not know how to handle money well. Much of it was squandered, drank, gambled away. If they are lucky some of the farmers can find work farming other peoples land, if not they face destitution.

I read somewhere, a few years back, that Lijiang was getting 60 000 coach tourists per day. How does the song go?

"You don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot"

I don't like Lijiang either. Most of old Lijiang's centre is owned by business people from Jiangsu and Taiwan now, or so I was told. But if you get out of the town centre, much of the old town if still populated by locals.
Try Shuhe, about 3km down the road. It is a bit hanified, as much of the real estate is new, but it is in the heritage park (entrance fee was 70rmb/3days). There are no cars in Shuhe. From here you can walk down the old tracks to the Naxi village, with its Naxi museum, all run by Naxi people.

Expos will usually have a conference, and private dinners on the side. You can pre-register as a delegate for the conference. You can buy tickets for the dinners, but you need to be an exhibitor or delegate usually.

Travelling as a kid is your parents' agenda, which can be like a mobile prison. Being forced to go where you don't wanna go, and do what you don't wanna do.
Whatever your parents did, do something else. If they had an itinerary to visit 6 cities in 5 days, then just have list of places you might go. If you just get as far as the first city, then decide to sit by a river, read a book and drink beer for a week, then enjoy it.
You can visit lots of places, and SEE a few things (5 minutes at a temple gate for a photo, 2 minutes somewhere else for another photo, etc.).
Alternatively, you can visit fewer places, stay for a longer period of time and experience more of the local culture, and get time to see the parts that most tourists won't see.