Ancient Town of Lijiang
The residents in the Ancient Lijiang City are Naxi Nationality whose ancestor was one of the ancient minorities. Since they have been making a living by herding the yaks, they make the yak as their totem.
The ancestor of Mushi in Lijiang submitted to the authority of Kublai, the fifth emperor of the Yuan Dynasty in 1254 A.D.. The Yuan Dynasty was put out by the Ming Dynasty in 1368. The construction of the Ancient Lijiang City developed fast in the Ming Dynasty, especially the Ming Dynasty made a large number of people in Anhui Province to migrate into Lijiang in order to station the military troops and common people in the boundary areas, so the buildings of the ancient city were affected much by the inland building style in Anhui Province. The real buildings of Naxi nationality can only be found in the rural areas surrounding Lijiang City.
Naxi Nationality is a nationality good at absorbing the culture of other nationalities. Since Lijiang was a port in the Southern Silk Road and tea and horse trading road, it was a market between Yunnan and Tibet. Kublai stationed its military troops in Lijiang in 1253. He brought the foreign culture, and then Lijiang was affected by the culture of the Central Plain, such as the Tibetan Buddhism and Taoism, and then affected by the Christianism culture in the early 1900s and the ancient Dongba Church of Naxi nationality. Naxi Nationality can assimilate all these cultures and coexist and develop with other cultures. All these cultures increase the Ancient Lijiang City's meaning.
The beauty of this ancient city also lies its nature and harmony with its surrounding geological environment. The Yulongxueshan Mountain with the altitude of 5596 meters and the 4th generation of glacier relic lies in the place where is 30km away in the northwest of the ancient city. The human being has not climbed to the top of the mountain. The Ancient Lijiang City has no city walls, which is one of the features of this ancient city and different with other China's ancient cities. The Yuquanshui River includes three mainstreams, which flow towards the west, east and in the middle. The river running into the ancient city includes many branch canals, so the network of rivers mixed with the roads of the five-flowered stones. You can get the beautiful picture that " every house is surrounded by the rivers and the drooping poplars", so it is highly spoken by the architects of China and abroad. It is called "the Gusu in the Plateau" and "the Oriental Venice". Attracted by the ancient city and the Xueshan Mountains, millions of tourists come here and enjoy themselves in the ancient city of primitive simplicity, naturalness, tranquility and elegance.
Naxi people like planting trees and flowers. What is different from the Bai Nationality in Dali is that Naxi people in Lijiang like the noble and elegant flowers such as the plum, the sweet-scented osmanthus, the chrysanthemum and the orchid.
The residents in Dayanzhen Town also have the tradition to evaluate flowers. When the flowers are in the best time, the hosts of a household often invite their relatives or friends to come and evaluate the flowers. When they are evaluating the flowers, they often create poems or paintings. The men in Dayanzheng Town take it as an honor to be good at reading, paintings and performance of music.
You can hear the beautiful music from the dwelling houses in Dayanzhen Town at festival time or having a rest in the evenings. The performers are mainly the old folk musicians or the young fans, they carry their musical instruments to take part in a party in a household. The hosts of the household often prepare some tables, tea and burn incense. The musicians perform the folk music of Naxi Nationality in the happy atmosphere.
The ancient city has an altitude of 2,400 meters and covers 3.8km. At present, there are 280,000 people in the city, of whom 66.7% are Naxi people, 30% are engaging with the traditional national handicraft.
