Lijiang, Yunnan in southern China is home to a
famous old town, over 800 years old. Lijiang once prospered from being a confluence point on the old tea horse road. The town is now a heavily visited tourist center with much of the "old town" developed to take advantage of tourism. In fact. the tourism business shot off so much after an earthquake in the 90s, that the industrious Chinese have built a secondary "old town," with the same stylings as the old "old town."
Authenticity issues aside, Lijiang is an amazing, beautiful site. The village, situated on a bit of a hill, has small canals running through it, so fresh water continuously flows:
The locals would use these canals with a series of three basins, where they would traditionally have drinking water, followed by water to wash vegetables and food, then wash dishes and themselves.
Here's a closeup of people still washing veggies today in one of the basins:
The town of Lijiang is home to the
Naxi people, who originally traded across the Himalayas to India on the Tea Horse Trail.
The Naxi today do what many ethnic minorities in China do-- they dance and sing for the ethnic Han majority, in their national costume!
Often today people in China take a trip to Lijiang to get their wedding photos done:
It's a hugely popular destination in China for the necessary wedding photos, since Yunnan is one of the most beautiful provinces on earth. My wife and I had our photos done there...
But, it does cost viele geld:
Lijiang has many beautiful places where you can have your photo taken, for example the channels running through the city:
Or on picturesque horses:
Normally guys bring them around offering rides for photos, etc.
There's some really beautiful food in Lijiang's markets, e.g. Tamarind:
Oh the fruits are so beautiful in China.
I have them all in my most beautiful photos from China post.
At the time I was obsessed with finding a good pomegranate for the new year-- here's some again:
Wait, that's not a pomegranate!
OK here was some more:
And here's some more pomegranates by the main square:
Also they had an amazing machine that made walnut cakes:
And these are delicious looking
Baozi:
The grapes there look good too, but my wife insists on peeling grapes in China, so I don't like to eat them. She is afraid of pesticides- I'm not sure that it's worse than in the US.
They also have fish in the little streams through the town:
Sooo delicious....
Tasty animals also abound:
But vegan hipsters are everywhere, so I never once ate a single puppy on this trip:
Puppies abound in Lijiang-- one of the only places in China where I saw lots of dogs:
But seriously, instead we had some blood sausages:
And some cold, diet fuzzy bubbelech:
Some fizzleybubbelech:
They love meat on sticks in Lijiang:
And this dessert... Mmmmm... Honey!
Really though, you cannot escape how beautiful the streets are in Lijiang:
Even with a hipster, single-gear, tragedy of a bicycle, it's an amazing place:
There's beauty on every corner:
Even normal life, which makes it even more beautiful:
It's a rainy place though, so be prepared:
Sometimes tricycles will splash it up on you:
But they have plenty of warm clothes to sell there:
You can see the city from atop the hill, and for a small fee also get coffee:
OK, some more of my favourites, but I don't know how to alter this storyline to make it good, so just enjoy my photos:
This is one of the town gates, it says "Tatoo me on your left thigh," in Chinese:
This was also some wealthy family's old home:
It rains a lot in the south of China:
Also Chinese are afraid of the sun, so if it isn't raining, there's still a good chance the umbrellas are out:
Told you so!
Ahhh, so tasty!
Mmmm.... hot pot...
Some of the wedding area:
It was raining:
But Yunnan is amazing.
It is really one of the undiscovered gifts of the world:
Here's a flowery meadow a farmer made for wedding photos:
It's on the outskirts of Lijiang:
It's by a large lake:
Maoooo! For the redditors who have made it thus far, I pay my tax in cat.
