July, 22, 2013.
Today we had to say goodbye to our friends who we met in Kunming a few days ago. We were continuing our journey by bus from Dali to Lijiang (丽江), which lies about 190 kilometers away. Our friends didn't want to travel to Lijiang, fearing what damage the rainy season has done along the way. It was at its worse now in China and Lijiang suffers most from it between July to August. Some mudslides had been reported in these areas, but since the bus was running we thought the bus company might know the roads are in driving condition.
The trip took a few hours and we arrived to Lijiang after sunset. Our hotel Pingshui Xiangfeng (萍水相逢) was nice with good service. The hotel is situated in the Shuhe Old Town, which is relatively unknown compared to the Old Town of Lijiang, thus being more rustic and tranquil with cheaper food and lodging and less crowded streets. Shuhe is also named Longquan Village (Dragon Spring Village, 龙泉村). It isn't the easiest place to travel from to the Old Town of Lijiang (busses pass irregularly), and Wikitravel advices to avoid this "more artificial area of Lijiang" and because you have to pay to get in (as you also have to in the other old town), but we never paid anything and enjoyed our stay here. Shuhe has similar old architecture to the Old Town of Lijiang and Naxi people. It was once famous for its developed leather working and education. Now it is a part of the Old Town of Lijiang.
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| Details of our hotel room. The keyboard is actually a coat rack. |
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| View from our hotel room to the Old Town of Shuhe |
Lijiang is an important transit point along the Ancient Tea Route. It was a center for the economic and cultural communication between various ethnic groups such as the Naxi, Han, Tibetans and Bai. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, Lijiang's Naxi people still preserve much of their native Dongba culture and deep spiritual connection to nature. The city is nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains, and is a great place to escape stress; it has spectacular natural scenery varying from snowy mountains and highland glacial lakes to majestic canyons, making it a great place for outdoor activity lovers.
Some of the Lijiang sights include Jade Water Village, the Tibetan-Burmese Naxi people's Dongba village, Old Town of Lijiang (丽江古城), Baisha town and Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡, a great trekking area), Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山, at 5,596 meters), Blue Moon Valley at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Black Dragon Pool (黑龙潭, Heilongtan) at the Yu Quan Park (Jade Spring Park), Lugu lake (泸沽湖, the Kingdom of women, at the Sichuan and Yunnan border, 6-8 hours drive from Lijiang) and Shuhe Ancient town.
July, 23.
JADE SPRING PARK AND ELEPHANT HILL
On the first full day we walked through the Shuhe old town to find a bus that leaves to the Lijiang city center, where you can easily reach most touristic places. On our way we met many Shuhe dogs, who kept guard at the local shops and hotels and were very friendly and well kept. They might be a way to lure in a tourist or are just pets, but these dogs offered a good way for navigating inside the town; if you memorized where each dog was you could find your way around the area that sometimes seemed like a maze. There were dogs of all sizes, but most were pure breds and larger than I've seen in any other countries. The dog in our hotel was a golden retriever.
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| Dogs we met |
Instead of getting a bus (busses 6 & 11 go to Lijiang Old Town) we caught a taxi sooner and it only took about ten minutes to get to Lijiang. First we went to the Jade Spring Park, where the Black Dragon Pool is. At the time of our visit (2013) the pool was mostly dried up. It was filled again in 2014 and is now a water conservation area. We started our visit with a climb to the Elephant Hill (Xiang Shan, 象山). Before getting there we crossed a bridge and saw glimpses of the emerald coloured water that was left. The pool is home to many birds, fish and plants.
Before entering for the climb we had to sign ourselves in for the park ranger due to robberies or in case we got lost. Entering to climb the hill requires at least four persons in the group, so we climbed with two foreign Chinese students. Lijiang lies at an altitude of 2,400 meters (7,900 ft) and the top of the Elephant Hill is at around 2,650 meters, leaving not much to climb, but the climb wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. The path, mostly dirt with just few stairs, doesn't go straight to the top but wriggles and we climbed there with just tofu and juice for breakfast. There are two pavilions at the top, Songbe and Wanxue, and on the way up a small cemetary with the tombs of Yunnan historian Fang Guoyu and Fong Ziyun.
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| A tombstone at Elephant Hill |
The first beautiful sceneries of the city can be seen after just ten minutes of climbing. Here you can see the Old Town of Lijiang and the park area. But the grand views are at the top and take about 40 minutes of climbing. Here you can see the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the city, artificial lake nearby and farm land. The wind is quite strong and it got cold soon, so we sat inside the pavilion for a while to take pictures. It took us over an hour and a half to do the roundtrip to the mountain and we spent another hour down at the park.
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| View from Elephant Hill to the Old Town of Lijiang (on far left) and Jade Spring Park below |
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| View from Elephant Hill to North to Qingxi Reservoir |
Most of the buildings in the park can be seen along the way walking out of the park. There are many temples and pavilions from Ming and Qing dynasties: The Deyue Pavilion (Moon Embracing Pagoda, center of the lake, was originally built in the late Ming dynasty. The current structure is a reproduction from 1963 after a fire in 1950), Dragon God Temple (Longshen/Longwan Temple, constructed by local Naxi people in 1737) and the threefold overlap Five Phoenix Tower (Wufeng Tower, built in the Ming dynasty in 1601). The tower was moved to Jade Spring Park in 1979 from the Fuguo Temple 30 km away. The park also has Dongba Culture Research Institute and the Dongba Culture Museum.
There weren't many people in the park when we visited it so it was peaceful. The local tourists can get very noisy here. The park probably wasn't a big attraction at the time because the main pool was dry. Nowadays it looks very different than at the time of our visit.
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| We entered the park from North through this bridge. This part of the pool was not dry. |
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| Hanyue stage and Deyue Pavilion in the back |
The Suocui Bridge is one of the main sights here. The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain reflects perfectly to the water below the bridge (now that there is water) and makes a great place for photography together with the pagoda. We had bad luck with both the dry pool and the mountain being behind the clouds, so we didn't get the perfect picture, but if you want you can have a local photoshop the mountain etc to your picture taken at the park. We didn't go for that.
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| Suocui white marble bridge and the dry Black Dragon Pool (also called Heilongtan) |
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| Deyue Pavilion and Suocui bridge, with little water on the other side. The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is hidden in the clouds. |
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| An idyllic place for a break |
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| Dry scenery at the park |
Walking to the Old Town of Lijiang from here is easy. You follow a path that follows the Yushui river flowing from the pool and goes straight to the Old Town. It's not a long walk and after the park you follow just one street that comes to Yulong Bridge in the Old Town.
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| One of the bridges at the park near the Old Town |
OLD TOWN OF LIJIANG (DAYAN)
A good landmark in the old town is the big waterwheel near Yulong Bridge at the North Gate. Around it you can find many restaurants with food (even McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut) and live music at Bar Street, which starts from the waterwheel, and it's easy to start sightseeing the area from here to many directions. The only way to get around is by walking, but the town is so small that you can cover it in a day. The old town stretches to Jin'an Street in the east, Xianghe Road in the south, Minzhu Road in the west and Elephant Hill in the north and is a similar maze of winding cobblestone streets to that of Shuhe town.
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| The impressive waterwheel at the Old Town North Gate |
The town has an ancient water supply system with waterways and bridges. There are three canals and the layout of the town was established to conform to the flow of these streams in adherence to Feng Shui design, so there was water and waste disposal for the inhabitants. Some famous bridges were built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), like Retaining Green Bridge, Big Stone Bridge, South Gate Bridge, Saddle Bridge and Longevity Bridge. All these details make the old town a unique place, which time seems to have forgotten. Due to its characteristics it is hailed as the Oriental Venice and Suzhou in Highland. It is also called Dayan Old Town and is the only old town without a city wall among all famous historical and cultural cities of China.
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| Welcome to the Oriental Venice |
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| One of the canals |
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| A beautiful scenery |
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| Lijiang Old Town |
The Old Town takes up an area of 3.8 square kilometers and was first built in late Song Dynasty (860-1279). It is located on Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau with an elevation of 2,400 meters. The town blends elements from several cultures. It differs from other ancient Chinese cities in architecture, history and the culture of its traditional residents the Naxi people. From 1523, when the Naxi chieftain was given the surname of Mu in the Yuan Dynasty, 22 generations of Mu chieftain ruled Lijiang for 470 years based on a hereditary system. The Mu Palace is at the foot of the Lion Hill and in its forest the Mu chieftains worshipped the sky, their ancestors and Mother Nature.
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| Naxi woman at her home door |
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| A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997 |
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| One of the beautiful courtyards in the Old Town |
The town attracts young Chinese artists, students, and travelers. There are various shops for all tastes and you can watch locals at the streets make their own piece of art. Many of the tourist merch sold in China is the same as in Laos' Luang Prabang. I don't know who makes them, might be that the Chinese buy them from Laos or the other way around, but the colourful handmade clothes, bags etc are beautiful and not too expensive either. All the shops played the same tune over and over again and we couldn't figure out what it was and its importance, but it seemed to be local music and probably was Naxi classical music. The tune played in our heads still days after this visit.
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| Bar Street near North Gate with a lot of restaurants |
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| Drying corn |
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| One of the shops, mostly selling wooden handicrafts |
Overlooking the old town is Lion Hill. The climb to the hill is not strenuous, but it is a hill and the cobblestones aren't the easiest to walk in. Here both the old and new city of Lijiang are visible and also the surrounding mountains and the entire Li River valley. At the summit lies the restored masterpiece of Qing Dynasty architecture, a 33 meters tall wooden Wangu Pavilion, which is covered by 10,000 dragon carvings. We only glimpsed it from afar, because it was either closed at the time or too crowded.
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| Wangu Pavilion |
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| Building on Lion Hill |
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| A mountain scenery from the Lion Hill |
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| The many details in the Old Town together with willow trees and nature make the Old Town a charming place |
We ended up walking a total of ten hours today. Mainly we were just wandering around and marveling at the Chinese history, architecture and nature, we didn't have any specific needs to see something. The last few hours we spent finding food, some supplies, an internet cafe and finding a bus or a taxi. Surprisingly the small supplies we bought were more expensive than in Finland. We couldn't find a vegetarian restaurant so we ended up eating tofu from the street again. As for the internet cafe, where we were supposed to print out our flight tickets for Chengdu the next evening, we found one but couldn't use the internet as we weren't Chinese citizens.
The last bus to Shuhe town didn't arrive. We waited for nearly an hour for it with locals, who were also wondering where the bus is at. Then we tried to get a taxi, but they didn't stop for us, so we ended up walking most of the six kilometers to Shuhe town, only catching a short ride from another bus, and walked the rest of the way to the hotel.
24.7.
This morning we had a lazy day in Shuhe town. As Shuhe is much smaller than the Old Town of Lijiang, it only took a while to check it out. You can even ride here in a horse carriage. The cobblestones and canals are present in Shuhe too and the town is very similar to the Old Town of Lijiang. Shuhe is a very important town in the Ancient Tea Route (Southern Silk Road) that leads to Tibet. The route started from Dali, Lijiang, Diqing, Lasa and led to India in the west. Shuhe is a famous cobbler town and is also known as the Village of Leather. The leather products are best sellers in Ancient Tea Route. Unfortunately fur is also sold here and some fur looked like it was from dogs. Because of trading activities along this road, the Naxi people gradually gave up the nomadic life, settled for farming and later started to do business.
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| Horse carriage at Shuhe Old Town |
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| Fur products. Some of them look like they're from dogs. |
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| Shuhe is called the Village of leather. Here is one beautifully made costume from it. |
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| Wood carvings |
Two rivers run on each side of Shuhe and go through the whole village. The rivers, canals and roads make a dense web and link the town in a tight structure just like a honeycomb. Just like Lijiang Old Town, Shuhe is also a very picturesque little town, where time seems to stand still. The little canals that run through each house were dug this way so that each house would get water. When you walk on the streets you have to be careful not to fall into them, as no fences are around them. The town has many small bridges and boardwalks to walk at and they add more charm to the little town. Chinese are very skillful in making their environments attractive and serene. The houses here are more natural also than in the Old Town of Lijiang, as people use stones from the nearby mountains to build their house walls.
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| A canal on the street (on right) |
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| Sifang square |
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| One of the boardwalks at the Sifang square |
Some of the sights include;
- Jiudinglong Pool (九鼎龙潭), from which the overflowing water winds through the village, has rainbow trouts. The fountain head of the pool is regarded as a holy spring by the local people.
- The Beiquan Temple (北泉寺, North Spring Temple) built near the pool is the same style as other temples in Lijiang.
- The Sansheng Temple (三圣宫, or Three Saints Temple) stands above the pool and is a traditional Chinese quadrangle.
- Longquan temple (holy palace) should also be somewhere near the pool.
- Qinglong Bridge (青龙桥, Green Dragon Bridge), built of stone pieces during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), measures about 25 meters long (27 yards), 4.5 meters wide (4.9 yards) and 4 meters high (13 feet). It was built by the Mu Family 400 years ago and is the oldest and largest stone arch bridge of Lijiang dam.
- Sifang street square is where the market is held during the daytime and here four paths lead to different directions. When we were here it was very busy, with a wide variety of foods on offer (except vegetarian) and handicrafts. You also find bars, restaurants and teahouses here.
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| One of the entrances to Shuhe Old Town |
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| Shuhe architecture |
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| Shuhe architecture |
We only spent one full day and two nights at Lijiang, which wasn't enough for the sights the area has to offer. We missed out on so much, especially the hike at Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Tiger Leaping Gorge, but these areas were closed at the time due to the weather. Because they were the main sights for us in Lijiang we decided to leave to Chengdu on a days notice. We also had to think of the days we still had left in China, we only had a month here. Chengdu was one important stop for us because of its pandas.
At five p.m. we got a ride to the Lijiang airport that lies thirty minutes from Shuhe. We had no paper confirmations about our flights, as we couldn't print them in the internet cafe or our hotel. We showed the confirmation from the laptop and that was it, nothing else was needed! The woman on the desk even spoke English, not too fluently, but still. Everything was strangely easy for us this time. Next we tried to find dinner, but somehow Western food for Chinese seems to be just pizza, burgers, French fries and baguettes. The only vegetarian food we found was French fries and fruit salad, so we had that. Meat burgers were everywhere. For breakfast we ate one dry rye bread and juice. That was our food for the whole day. It has not been easy to find vegetarian and decent food in China, especially when you don't speak the language.
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| Lijiang specialty sold here, dried yak meat. |
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| Various snacks |
Our one hour flight left at eight p.m. to Chengdu. We had a strange but kinda funny incident at the plane at take-off. As you can expect anything from the Chinese, this time one Chinese passenger was messing with his bags when the plane was already waiting to take off. The flight attendant got his bags sorted out only after the plane had already started gaining speed and he had to run fast to his chair to reach it before it was too late to walk or run anymore! We've never seen anything like this. The flight attendant was just seconds away from being bounced around at the aisle from "g-forces"!
We had a huge thunderstorm on the way with beautiful lightnings above the clouds. I even saw horizontal lightnings, which lit all the clouds in the area. It was amazing! I would've wanted to stay there and watch the whole thunderstorm through.
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| Lijiang airport at eight p.m. |
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| A dragon shaped cloud said goodbye to us |
More info on Lijiang: Chinaculture.org
Next blog: Chengdu and pandas!
