Lijiang

Lijiang lies in the northwest of Yunnan and on the south of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The terrain is precipitous with imposing landscape and magnificent scenery. On this land is Lijiang--famous as Oriental Venice. Dayan village and numerous winding lanes which link up all parts of the town. Sluggishly trickling rivers flow across the streets paved with colorful stone plank. Houses belong to earth, wood, tile-roofed structure. Flowers and trees are planted in the yard. Square street--the center of town where Naxi minority nationality live in compact communities.

Dayan Town

The ancient city of Lijiang is found in Dayan Town, a largely Naxi settlement first built during the Southern Song Dynasty some eight centuries ago. In December 1986, the State Council designated the place as a famous ancient historical and cultural city of a national caliber. In 1997, the UNESCO put Lijiang on a list of the world's major cultural heritages.
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis and founder of the Mongol dynasty in China, came this way in 1253 on his conquest of Yunnan and established an administrative office which 23 years later became the Lijiang Military and Civil Protectorate. Thereafter the name " Lijiang " began to be used.
With Sifang Street at the core, the entire city spreads out in all direction, and is crisscrossed by a labyrinth of flagged streets and alleyways. Most of the dwellings, scattered at the foot of a mountain or by the rivers which flow through every nook and corner of the city, are brick-and-tile structures with carved doors and painted windows. Traffic across the rivers is facilitated by a large number of tiny stone bridges. The entire city is evocative of a town south of the Yangtze River.

Yuquan Park

Yuquan Park Popularly known as Black Dragon Pool, the Yuquan (Jade Spring) Park at the foot of the Xiangshan Mountain north of the city of Lijiang derives its name from the pool, which is as sparkling as jade and as clear as spring water. The entire park, tucked away in the shades of swaying willow trees,is covered with green grass. Under the Shuocui Bridge a waterfall creates a constant roar as it cascades down the stream.
With the Jade Dragon Mountain's reflecting in the Black Dragon Pool, green willows stretching their soft branches and chestnut trees standing around, Moon-Embracing Pavilion (Deyuelou) beside the white marble Belt Bridge,and the Five-Phoenix Hall (Wufenglou) that seems to be alive and ready to soar into the sky, the park is really a nice place to take a delightful stroll.

Yulong Snow Mountain

Fifteen kilometers from the ancient city of Lijiang stands the Yulong Snow Mountain (Snow Mountain in the image of a Jade - Carved Dragon), a modern maritime glacier in the southernmost of northern latitudes. Shanzidou, the main peak of the mountain, looks like a gigantic dragon, clad in white snow all the year round at an altitude of 5,596 meters above sea level.
It is a botanist's paradise, a " kingdom of medicinal materials." Of the 1 3,000 kinds of plants in Yunnan, more than half of them can be found on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain as well as 400 types of trees in 20 primeval forest communities. It has more than 50 species of azalea, 60 kinds of primroses, eight species of poppies and 20 lilies, four species of peonies, five camellia, 50 species of rough gentian, and six kinds of flowering crabapple. It is home to a rare tea - Wild Snow Tea -which the Naxi insist is good for high blood pressure. The mountain is also a sanctuary for animals, many of them rare animals that live at different temperature levels.
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is yet to be conquered by a human, albeit mountaineering teams from the United States, Japan, China, and other countries have tried.
It is an awesome mountain, a whimsical mountain.

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