Lijiang Ancient Town

Lijiang Ancient Town, also known as Dayan Old Town, was a former trading town and a stop for traders carrying goods on the Ancient Tea and Horse Road. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

The architecture of Lijiang Ancient Town is noteworthy for blending elements from several cultures — Naxi, Bai, Yi, Tibetan, and Han. The town also possesses an ancient water supply system of great complexity and ingenuity. Now, Lijiang Old Town has been commercialized, and millions of tourists visit every year, but through different, its character is now even more appealing — it's a travelers' magnet.

Lion Mountain surrounds Lijiang in the west and Elephant and Golden Row Mountains in the north. These mountains in the northwest shelter it from the cold wind. In the southeast, there are fertile fields, which are dozens of kilometers long. Natural favored Lijiang with plentiful sunlight, an east wind, and clear spring water, which flows in three streams and reaches every family. The streets are paved with the local stone slabs, which do not get muddy in the rainy season and are free of dust in the dry season. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they built many stone bridges and arches in the city, and orderly roads and lanes extended to four directions from the central square. Residential houses are made of timber; most have a screen wall in front, and some have a quadruple courtyard, in which local people plant many flowers.