Mr.Thomas,

There are many ways:
No.1 go to Red Sun Square to take No.7 tourist bus from Lijiang to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. It costs around CNY 10. Be ware of those fake No.7 tourist buses and don’t be lured to ride horses.

No.2 take a taxi from Lijiang to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. It costs less than CNY 30 and just takes around 20 minutes.

No.3 rent a car from Lijiang to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. It costs around CNY80 to 150.

It's 25 kms from Lijiang City center(Mao's Square)to the Jade Dragon Snow mountain.
Costs 10 Yuan to take No.7 bus to the Mountain,but taking a taxi to the mountain will at least cost 100Yuan for one way,as taxi can't ride passengers back to city most of the time,so no driver will use meter to go to the Mountain.
Renting a Mini van(it's the cheapest passenger vehicle in Lijiang) to the mountain for 5 hours costs 150Yuan at least,but usually drivers ask more from foreigners.Don't be upset by it, because almost every driver believes foreigners don't shop on the way.No commission leads to more rental.

If you only want to hike in the mountain,don't follow the tour group,just go to the Yuhu Village at the foot of the snow mountain,where you can start your nice hiking to the mountain without paying the extremely expensive entrance ticket.but sometimes the village people may stop the trekker and ask them to buy a ticket or riding their horses,then just neglect them and go ahead.But why not ride a horse ,if the poor village people give you a good price? Horse riding to the altitude of 4000 meters costs 150Yuan,and takes four and half hours.

Attention! no fire in the Mountain,the forest Police keep watching you!