Lijiang Travel Guide

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• What to see?
• What to eat?
• Where to stay?
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• Lijiang Nightlife
• Lijiang Miscellaneous

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Lijiang Overview

Lijiang will spoil you with its cobbled streets, willows-lined canals, hurly-burly markets and waterside cafes. It's a great place worthy of a few days' away.

Lijiang in Naxi the language means "the bend of the JInsha River". Lijiang is located on the first bend of the Yangtze River. Lijiang Ancient Town was added in to the World Heritage list by the UNESCO on December, 4th, 1997 for its unique Naxi culture.

There are lots of interesting sights around Lijiang. The lofty snow-capped Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, 35 km north of Lijiang appears on almost every postcard of the area. The First Bend of the Yangtze River and the Tiger Leaping Gorge make good day excursions. Lijiang is also a practical hub for preparation for trips to the surrounding regions such as the Laojun Mountain and Lugu Lake. The crystal Lugu Lake and the unique Mosuo matriarchal culture flourishing on its shore is 7-8 hours from Lijiang. The Mosuo people still keep their unique way of life. Men and women are not united by marriage and have a casual cohabitation relationship.

In addition to the beautiful scenery, Lijiang is an old center for the Naxi people with rich and textured culture- the Dongba Culture. The small Naxi minority group with a population of 28,000 created the splendid Dongba culture over hundreds of years of social practice. In general, the Dongba Scriptures based on the Dongba Religion is a unique living pictographic script; a "living fossil"

From the time of the Tang Dynasty the Naxi people began to assimilate pieces of the Han culture from the Central China and the Tibetan culture from the northwest and gradually developed a culture of their own.

Lijiang is the start of Tea-Horse Road, a trade route linking China's west frontiers with central China.

With a population of one million fifteen thousand Lijiang has jurisdiction over one old town and four counties including 22 minority nationalities which make up 57% of the whole population of the city. And among the 22 minority nationalities ten of them have a population of more than three thousand. They are as follows: Naxi, Yi, Lisu, Bai, Pumi, Dai, Miao, Tibetan Hui and Zhuang.

code：0888
Postcode: 674100