Lijiang
This is an ancient, picturesque land. This is a land everyone admires.
Nature the Great Creator showed extreme affection in his ancient piece of land. Apart from its abundant land, biological and mineral resources, Lijiang has huge reserve of tourism and hydropower resources. In Lijiang, there is the contemporary glacier which is the southernmost one on the north hemisphere. The Yulong (Jade Dragon) Snow Mountain is praised as the "Museum of Glaciers" and the "Kingdom of Plants". Xinzhu Natural Botanical Garden is known as the "Gene Bank of Plants on the Hengduan Mountains" and the Laojun Mountain in Lijiang is renowned as the "Kingdom of Rhododendrons". The "Morning Sunglow" scene of the Red Cliffs treats visitors with 3 sunrises and sunsets within a single day. The Ten-Thousand-Flower Camellia in Lijiang is praised as the "First Tree under Heaven". Entering Yuquan Park, visitors find themselves in the fairyland ...
The ancient Dayan Town of Lijiang has a history of over 800 years. The Town is well-known to the world because "each of the household is built by the stream and surrounded by willow trees". Therefore, Dayan Town is praised as the "Oriental Venice" and "Suzhou on the Plateau". Dongba sculptures of Lijiang were written in pictographs which are the only living written language of its kind in the world. In the Baoshan (Mountain of Treasures) Town, all people of the village live in a world of stone because almost everything there was carved out of stones. Baisha Murals in Baisha village have been listed for national-level protection of historic relics. The "Dongjing Music of the Naxi" bearing the melody and rhythm inherited from the Tang and Song Dynasties is known as the "Living Fossils of Music"... The natural and humanistic scenes of Lijiang have drawn many keen-sighted personages. It is no wonder that Li Lincan, the former Vice President of Taiwan's Imperial Palace Museum "got such extraordinary thoughts in his old age when he came to this land of never-melting snows", and wrote his voluminous books Magnificent Jade Snow Mountain and Thoughts Roaming the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Dr. Rock, an American Austrian, was so deeply enchanted by the Dongba Culture of the Naxi that he stayed in Lijiang for 28 years during which he wrote more than 10 books. Guo Moruo, the literary giant of China showed extraordinary love in Lijiang, and wrote, "My heart is yearning for Lijiang, and I am always dreaming of visiting Lijiang again!"
