The Ancient Town of Lijiang Ladies and gentleman: I am very pleased to serve as your tour guide.Today we are going to visit the ancient town of Lijiang------before we get there, I‟d like to give you a brief introduction to it.
Located in northwest of YN province, Lijiang is about 580 kilometers away from KM with an average elevation of 2400 meters.The population of Lijiang is about 1.12 million.Among which the population of Naxi the main nationality here, is 260000.so how about the surroundings of Lijiang.Located in the north of Lijiang town, the Yulong snow mountains is the
southernmost modern marine glaciers in the temperate zone of the north hemisphere.the other famous scenic spots around Lijiang are--- the Laojunshan mountain, Lugu lake and the Tiger Leaping Gorge which are also very famous and attracted many tourists.The famous characteristics of Naxi culture are the 3 living foils, they are----the character foil.Created in Tang Dynasty, the Dongba character was regarded as the only existing hieroglyph; and the music foil, the Naxi ancient music, later we will fully appreciate the beauty and mystery of the music, I will give you more details; and the third foil is the human society foil, the Mosuo matriarchal family.Most Mosuo people living near the Lugu lake still practice their „walking marriage‟ custom.At night the man comes to the woman‟s house and return to his house in the morning, so they live separately.Women manage the households and yield works, play a more important role than men in family life.Now we have come to the ancient town of Lijiang, which enjoys the fame „eastern Venice‟.And it has another name-Dayan town, which literally means –a great ink slab, with Lion Mountain in the west and Elephant Mountain in the north, the ancient town is surrounded by green hills, so it looks like a jade ink slab.The town was first built in song dynasty and has a long history of 800 years.In 1997 it was listed in the world culture heritage.
Now we are arriving at the entrance to the town, as you can see, there is a big carved wall in front of us, from the figures on the surface of the wall, you can see a character who has similar image to a monk, but in Naxi culture he is a Dongba whose function is like a priest in Christianity, he plays a very important role in Naxi people‟s life.Especially for faith.
Going ahead we will see a white screen with an inscription by former leader Jiang zeming on May 2 1997 meaning –the world‟s cultural heritage: the ancient town of the Lijiang.Now you can see the old town has no walls, it was said that the hereditary ruler of Lijiang used to be surnamed Mu but If this character Mu was surrounded with a frame or a wall, it would become an another Chinese character ---Kun, which means siege or predicament.So there is no stone wall surrounded, very different from other old town in china right?
Ok let‟s pay attention to the two waterwheels, which are said to be lover waterwheels or mother and son waterwheels, but no matter what they stand for, they have the same meaning---they will nestle to each other for ever.
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Follow me, Let‟s walk up to the Yulong bridge, the spring from the Yulong snow mountain is divided into 3 branches and sub-branches to flow into the old town.So let me give you a tip, because there are so many streets and lanes in the town, it is like a maze.if you are lost , you can easily find the entrance to the ancient town by walking up any of the streams.So everyone is here? Let‟s go into the old town.The road under our feet is parallel to the streams which can wash the road when blocked up, so the streets are neither muddy in the rainy season nor dusty in the dry season.The town depends on water for existence, so there are so many streams that more than 350 wooden or stone bridges in the town were built.And the most famous bridges are the Baisui Bridge and Dashi Bridge which also called Men Bridge.Through the Dashi Bridge, now we have come to the Sifang Street, which means Square Street.Because it looks like a Chinese seal meaning ruling everywhere, it is the center of the ancient town.The square street is surrounded by five main streets; they are Xinhua Wuyi Qiyi Guangyi Xinyi leading in all directions.In ancient times ，it had been an important marketing center on the ancient Tea-Horse Road.The trade history was more than 300 years.But now many handicraft shops, tea houses and restaurants make it a sea of the visitors.In every Saturdays evening.The Naxi people usually gather and dance here, unfortunately today is Monday we can‟t catch that fantastic night.And around the square there are many protected Naxi traditional building, the typical styles are “three houses and one screen wall” and “four houses and five courtyards.This building is called Kegong Archway, it was built 100 years ago to honor the 3 brothers paed the provincial official enrolling exams.The original building was 2 storied, but it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt as 3-story on the former site Now the Naxi boys and girls are coming, you can see the Naxi men have the same clothes as Han people, on the contrary, most Naxi women wear blue blouses and trousers, covered by blue or black aprons.The T-shaped traditional ape On the back symbolizes the heavens, the seven embroidered circles symbolize the Dipper.2 larger circles, one on each shoulder, symbolize sun and moon, which mean they work day and night, so it is very lucky to marry a Naxi woman, (bachelors should not mi this opportunity.) Now we are enjoying the Naxi ancient music, it was praised by the contemporary as the “living foil of music “it is composed of “Baisha Fine music” “dongjing music” and ”huangjing music” and all the performers are Naxi minority.There are usually 24 players in the group, some of them are aged.They use the original instruments, which are not seen in other parts of the world.There are more than 5 theaters for this Chinese claic music.But all of them are quite atmospheric, with wooden stages for the musicians and wood chairs and benches for the audiences, sitting here, listening to the Naxi music; you will be lost in this china‟s Shangri-la.Now our visit to Lijiang is drawing to a close, I am afraid everyone must be hungry.Now we will go back to the hotel and have supper.At night we will join the campfire with Naxi people.Let‟s go!!!!
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