Lovely Lijiang

(Allison)

We hit a bit of a rough patch in Kunming…fortunately Lianna and Mark are feeling much better!

Lijiang is a beautiful and very well preserved ancient town in the Yunnan province of south west China. It is only 250 kilometers away from Tibet. Lijiang is 2,400 meters above sea level. The town is located at the base of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, part of the Himalayas. The mountain is breathtaking.

We had a very full intinary for the day. Our first stop was to get sunscreen.  We headed into the town with our new tour guide Diana.  Second stop -- the Yuhu (Jade Lake) Naxi village. Naxi people are a Chinese minority group who inhabit the area of Lijiang. China actually has 56 different minority groups, but they are only 8% of the population. The majority of the population identifies as Han (96%).

The Naxi people became wealthy by trading tea, in the form of bricks, with the people of the Tibetan plateau, in exchange for a type of medicine that was only available in Tibet.  The Naxi men of Lijiang would travel for two months up the mountains to engage in trade, and then two months back. As a result, the women became the head of the households!

In the village, we visited the home of Joseph Rock, an Austrian American renowned botanist. Rock came to the area of Lijiang originally to study the plants of the area, but then became very interested in the Naxi culture. He ended up writing a book, Ancient Kingdoms of Southwest China and introduced south west China to the western world. The Naxi people work very hard at preserving their way of life and culture.

Second stop -- Yushui (Jade Water) Mountain Village. The Naxi religion is called Dongba, and they worship the god of nature. We visited a beautiful Naxi temple, and then a historically preserved Naxi village.  I met an old man and he gave me a piece of paper that had Naxi writing on it. The Naxi have their own system of writing..it is a language based on pictographs (similar to the cuneiform of the Mesopotamians).  Diana interpreted it as saying “wishing you safe travels”. Lunch time – the native food of Lijiang is very spicy..we had some sort of interesting chili that had bacon on top..and some other spicy dishes.

Third stop – the Yofeng Lamasery/Temple. Walking up a hill we noticed some older Naxi women in their traditional dress scurrying towards the entrance of the temple. They joined hands and burst into song. They then encouraged us all to join in. It was so fun – they were so friendly and happy!

We then climbed several stairs in order to see the ten thousand flower camellia. The tree itself is 500 years old. There was an old man, dozing off with a smile on his face, sitting in a chair near the tree. Diana informed us that he was 86 years old, and that his job for the past 50 years has been to take care of this tree…at the bottom of the stairs we explored the Tibetan Buddhist temple.

Back to the van..fourth stop – to visit a very old fresco that depicted the history of the Naxi people….but before we reached the fresco, we explored another temple..but this one was a Confucius temple.

After viewing the fresco we were very tired and needed a break. Diana took us to this open air café called the Buena Vista. We ordered milk shakes…but they were not as good as the ones in Yangshuo. Back in the van – again.. headed to explore the  old town of Lijiang!

The ancient town of Lijiang is wonderful..! There are canals and humpback bridges…shops, restaurants. Diana took us up to the highest peak so that we could take a picture. We then walked through the narrow streets and did some shopping! Alex bought a necklace. Mark went on a hunt for a Tibetan singing bowl!  Ginger candy is soooo delicious! We watched it being made and then had to buy some. 

Diana took us to a restaurant called Mishi Mishi. We had such good food! We tried fried lotus flower root – delicious! After dinner, Diana took us to this wonderful tea house. She kept telling us that their tea was of very high quality. We tried several different types of tea. One was three years old, another was eight years old…the tea had to be seeped twice, before we were able to drank it..to clean it. After we had enough tea..we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our laptops and went in search of an internet café.