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Words by Tim Wong

This is a continuation of the China series and in this post I will be covering the rest of Lijiang which includes the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yùlóngxuě Shān). First off I will started off with this great video I found on Youtube which creates a great sense of atmosphere for Lijiang. The song is an actual Naxi (the native people) song which I completely fell in love with when I was there.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain has many references in Naxi heritage and holds a cultural significance. The Naxi have a live musical show that tells of an ancient story of their history with the mountain which is seen right behind the show. This show is called Impression Lijiang which was created with some professional musical composition and directing.

Even though I’m not usually suckered into buying tourist junk, I bought the DVD and CD of the show because I really enjoyed the music and the show was pretty entertaining.

After the show, we walked over to a nearby restaurant to try out some of the authentic Naxi food for lunch.

As I said with my last post, the hotpot is a common way of eating with the local culture.

Soon after, we headed north toward up the mountain to a large valley.

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According to the show that told of the history of the Naxi people, the plot was very much like any other culture. The families would set up arranged marriages and as with any other star crossed lovers tale, the betrothed would find someone else they liked and as society rejects them, they would run off and commit suicide in this valley.

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Along my walk around the valley, I stumbled upon some wild rams sleeping in the shade.

Next up is the river that flows from the glacier.

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A few of the domesticated Yak were standing in the river.

I managed to get pretty close to them mostly likely because they are used to people, but I have to admit that in the back of my mind, I was still pretty cautious as they could still ram you with their horns.

Instead riding the bus down the mountain like the rest of the group, I walked along the river as it drained down to each lake which were quite a sight to see.

I can’t imagine I’d enjoy the trip as much as I did by riding a bus instead of walking through a completely new place. Every step is something interesting like walking right up to wild animals and touching the cold water of the river.

At the end of the lakes, we took the bus over to a restaurant for dinner. I snapped this shot quickly for the amazing wooden carving of the lion, but when I looked closer, I saw the artist working on it.

As with every other meal I had in Yunnan so far, there was fresh fish and roast duck.

This dish was particularly different from what I was expecting because it was barbeque ribs and french fries.

This was “Tim Pun” which Chinese for dessert. It was like a small pancake like bread which I had to drench in honey to even taste good much like a pancake and syrup.

The next morning, I got up early to revisit the Ancient Town of Lijiang that I featured the night life of in my previous post.

Some of the people were already up cooking up some street food and some setting up shop.

Many of the bars and clubs were obviously closed or at least cleaning up from the night before.

I found it rather interesting to see trucks rolling through the extreme tight roads.

As I made my way though the massive city toward the top, I eventually could see nothing but the rooftops of the buildings that made up this incredible view.

At the top, I found a temple tower that soared even higher.

At the top of the tower, the view was even greater.

By the time I made it back down to the village, many locals were up and moving about like these performing a native dance.

In the next post of this series, I will be traveling to Shangri-La. It will be a most interesting series of photographs.