Lijiang Old Town

Lijiang's old town grew as a trading stop on the routes between Yunnan and the Tibetan plateau, and it was built without a wall and without a grid. Streams from the Black Dragon Pool are channelled down the lanes and crossed by small stone and timber bridges, and the cobbles are worn smooth and slick. Naxi timber houses with carved doors and inner courtyards run up and down the slope around Sifang Square, once the market. Above the roofs, on a clear day, stands Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The Mu family compound and the hill park at Wangu Tower give the two best overviews of the tiled roofs.

History

The town, properly called Dayan, has a history of more than 1,000 years and was a meeting point on the Old Tea Horse Caravan Trail. Its culture mixes that of the Nakhi with what they learned from Han Chinese traders from Nanjing who settled here in the Ming dynasty: timber and mud-brick houses whose frames local carpenters still build from memory, and Chinese classical music that the Nakhi still play long after it died out elsewhere in China. About two years after a devastating earthquake, the old town, together with the villages of Baisha and Shuhe, was registered on the World Heritage List on 4 December 1997, and the damaged dwellings were rebuilt following UNESCO guidance (Wikipedia, Old Town of Lijiang).

Highlights

• Sifang Square - the old market crossing where the main lanes and water channels meet.
• The Mu Mansion - the walled compound of the town's ruling family, terraced up the slope.
• Black Dragon Pool - the spring-fed pond north of town with the snow peak behind it.
• The rooftop views - the run of grey tiles seen from Lion Hill above the lanes.

When to go

March to June and September to November, avoiding the summer rains. Mornings are the only quiet time; from late afternoon the bar lanes get loud and stay loud. Lijiang sits at about 2400 metres, so allow a day to adjust before going higher. Winter days are bright and cold with the clearest views of the mountain.

Good to know

The old town is a tourist economy end to end: guesthouses, silver shops, drum bars and costume photo studios, with very few original residents left in the core. A maintenance fee is charged on top of individual sites. Rebuilding after an earthquake means some fabric is newer than it looks, and the cobbles are treacherous in heavy rain.

Nearby

Shuhe and Baisha are quieter old settlements nearby, and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is an hour north.

Key facts