Lijiang, Yunnan, China
Lijiang is famous for its UNESCO Heritage Site, the Old Town of Lijiang. The town has a history going back more than 1,000 years and was once a confluence for trade along the “Old Tea Horse Caravan Trail”. The Dayan Old town is famous for its orderly system of waterways and bridges, a system fast becoming but a memory as the underground water table drops, probably due to over-building in the suburban areas.
Lijiang’s culture combines traditional Nakhi culture and incongruous elements learned from Ming dynasty Han Chinese traders who settled in the region centuries ago. Nakhi people have kept alive a timber and mud brick housing style which they learned from Nanjing traders. Local carpenters still build elaborately constructed timber house frames from memory without blueprints or other diagrams.
Epic China Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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