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Wenhai, Lashihai, Liming (Laojun Mountain), Tiger Leaping Gorge
This fantastic trip starts in Lijiang on a sunny morning, we are prepared to go to our first destination : Wenhai.
To get there, it requires a one hour drive, you arrive in the authentic Naxi village and experience Naxi culture. But lets not rush, allow me to present you some terrific things to you !
On the way from Lijiang to Wenhai, the Naxi traditional architecture will always suprise and amaze you, there are not huge groups of buildings, rather small singular houses that comprimise a Naxi village. Origional Naxi buildings are built in Naxi wood well style, but after years most Naxi houses you see are combined with the Han building style, other buildings incorperate the Tibet and Yi minorities building styles too.
After the scenic drive you eventually reach your destination...Wenhai
Wenhai Village is located 23 km northwest of Lijiang City, with an alttitude around 3100m. The entire village is surrounded by mountains, in the highg season, which is in summer, this treasured area is called ‘flower sea’ by the locals. During the dry season wenhai is mostly grassland and the grassland transforms into a lake during the rainy season.
But people come here not only for the scenery and wild animals; this area is one of the best locations to view all the peaks of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. If your lucky enough, no matter what time of day, the majesty snow mountain will make you awe at its beauty!
With the combination of beautiful scenery, a quiet environment and the kindness of Naxi people, how can you expected more in life!
Stay in the Wenhai ecolodge, it is a traditional Naxi building adapted for the tourists. The rebuilt work finished by the help of the nature conservancy (TNC), all guest rooms are clean, beds are comfortable with a public bathroom. Dinner here is perfect, with the local vegetables and meats cooked to perfection using Naxi cooking styles.
On the first day, we also visit Baisha Old town, which is in the north of the Lijing City, around 10 miles. Here is the Mu’s family birthplace, also, the old town is recognised by people for its traditional Naxi style and being the earliest Naxi Village.
The traditional embroidery is worth the visit, you can see some of the greatest hand embroidery in the world, all the stitchery are two sides
and the needlework can only be done by the most patient of people.
Waking up with the birds singing and smell of the breakfast. We had eggs and boiled potatoes, with a delicious pepper sauce!
Trip begins again; both of us are impatient to visit the next exciting site!
It takes almost two hours to get to Lashihai, on the road, different local plants and crops just break my level of agricultural knowledge and it's great to see that the natural environment here is not damaged. All the way to Lashihai the sound of streams and varied nature follow us along the road. We also see some local laughing trush on the road, they are one of the most rare kind of bird I have see in my life!
Arrived ! it was almost noon when we arrived the local family’s place in Lashihai, can’t wait to know more ? let me give you an insight into Lashihai.
Lashihai is the largest lake in Lijiang city, and an important habitat for over 57 species of migratory birds, the highest water bird species diversity of any lake in Northwest Yunnan. During the winter months, the lake is home to tens of thousands birds coming here. The birds come to Lashihai to feed on its abundance of local crops, aquatic plant and fish.
The old Yi community is found in the higher upland areas on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the Yi minority were known as a fierce, slave-owning society, but in recent decades they have given up their slaves to live peacefully with their Naxi neighbours. People here are very friendly and welcoming to guests.
Living here has other pleasentries, the local family’s warm hospitality is the most treasurable memory, a small flower garden and a vegtable garden with herbs and spices such as pepper, fennel and mint, they also have a small stable which houses some pigs and cattle.
After settling in we take a stroll around the area, it’s almost evening, the sun going down and its getting dark. No matter who we passed, the local people just gave us a smile and said hello.
One thing to mention is that during the day, we also visited a Temple named ‘ZhiYun’, it is a Tibet temple for people here to pray. In this area, there are not many Tibet people but to show respect for them, the local government decided to build a temple for them.
After a nice rest taking by Lashihai, Liming is our next station.
After driving 3 hours, we arrived in the Lijiang Laojun Mountain National Park which is situated in the core of Three parallel rivers of Yunnan protected area, also near the Yangze river. The mountains mark the start of tiger leaping gorge which is the border of Jade Dragon Nai country and shangri-la.
Taking a short rest in the far away guesthouse, we started to climb the mountain, all the way is around 2700 meters, from the bottom of the mountain to thousands tortoises mountains, if depends on your leg is fitness enough or not, even all the path are fixed by the wood stairs, you need some energy to get there.
During the climbing path, Liming sight area have carried on business firstly based on perfect infrastructure and convenient transportation system. Danxia landform scenic area mainly distributes in Lisu autonomous township of Naxi country, it contains four administrative which are Liming, Liguang, Meile and Duimei, and covers 541 square kilometres which is the largest Danxia landform scenic area in China, and it also develops the most completely.
Move to the last destination : Tiger Leaping Gorge,
More than two hours road, we finally arranged to there, during the road, most of the village people plant tabac here for living, the car is just following the Yangze river and crossed by many small Yi or Naxi houses.
The Tiger Leaping Gorge is bout 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of Lijiang Old Town lying between Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and Haba Snow Mountain is; which is believed to be the deepest gorge in the world. From the top of the gorge you look down the steeply angled (70-90 degrees) mountain sides to the rushing Golden Sands (Jingsha) River with its 18 frothing rapids more than 200 meters (about 700 feet) below.
The gorge is naturally divided into three sections, the first section, which is the narrowest and uppermost section, is the mouth of the fast flowing Jingsha River. In the midst of the river's mouth is a large rock that is positioned at the gorge's narrowest section-only 30 meters (33 yards) wide.
We did around one hour walking to see the stone tiger which is the symbol here, it is a very living carving beauty who is waiting to jump the big rock to cross the river, here is a good opportunity to take photo, so take your camera and bring a raincoat with you.
Some tips:
1. Take your passport always with you, when you need to buy a train tickets or sometimes even the metro.
2. Do not bring the knife with you and pay more attention when you want to buy something from the monger, not only the price, product quality is the matter.
3. A raincoat and a comfortable sport shoes. Lijiang area always get rain but will not taking long time during summer time. So do not worry about going outside for activities.
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