From Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, we flew over soft, mountainous terrain into the northern city of Lijiang. A white shuttle bus took us to Old Town Lijiang about 20 minutes away. Old Town Lijiang is a World Heritage sight and the primary reason visitors come to Lijiang.  

 

 

Old Town is where quite a few of the Naxi minority people live. They sell their trinkets by day and let out their homes to visitors at night. There are hundreds of guesthouses and inns to choose from in Old Town, so housing is never an issue here. The streets of Old Town are cobblestone and the houses made of wood in the Naxi style. 

 

An earthquake which hit Lijiang in 1996 leveled a good chunk of modern Lijiang, but Old Town seemed fine. Clear streams run through much of Old Town via canals; there was an article on the plane which compared Venice to Old Town Lijiang…though I think that was a little bit of a stretch.

 

 What I enjoyed most about Old Town was the attitude of the Naxi people. They are unpretentious people and singing and dancing, to them, is a natural part of life. Here and there, I could always hear a Naxi woman letting out a melody. The elderly Naxi women especially loved to dance together. 

 Naxi people dance in rings.

 

The weather was never very warm, a brisk 50 something degrees and particularly chilly at night. Despite it being low season, the streets were still filled with tourists; I wonder what spring and summertime are like here! 

 

The next day, we booked a round trip van ride to Lake Lugu, which was 6 hours northeast 

of Lijiang. Typically, a 6 hour ride can sound long, but bearable…for roads in decent condition!!!! Half of our trip was over unpaved road (made of cobblestone) with no safety guards to prevent our little van from falling 1000 feet or more down the mountainside.  Our driver was a man who thought he was on a mission; he ripped around the winding turns just as quickly as a straight path and bypassed every vehicle which came in his way. We went up, down, and over 2 extremely high mountains and avoided various rocks which had dropped onto the road from above. The view was, of course, very beautiful, but a little hard to appreciate given the imminent risk of death.

 

 

 

 

Finally, after much praying and screaming for help, we reached Lake Lugu, a clear high-altitude lake and home to the Muosuo minority people.

 

We were taken to an inn called Zhaxi’s House and checked in for the usual 50 RMB for a double room with private bath (that’s $6.41 USD). We walked about and noticed large white stone burners which honored the Mountain God.

 

A large rock mountain dominated most of Lige, the small ‘town’ where we were staying. Lige was more like a row of 10 wooden lodges along the lake and that was all. 

 

In the afternoon, we noticed young women outside roasting baby pigs over basins of timber fires. Being low season, the town had a certain deserted feel to it. I would say in total, there were about 15-20 guests staying in Lige that night.

 

 

After dinner we met Zhaxi, the owner of our lodge, in his restaurant on the 2nd floor. He was a tall, handsome Muosuo man. An entire wall of the restaurant was dedicated to photographs of him. He had been a monk for 10 years (from ages 8-18, I calculated) in Taersi Monastery before deciding to return to mortal life. 

 

 

He escorted us to the town’s little party at a nearby lodge where the young people danced Muosuo dances around a fire and sang Muosuo songs plainly for our amusement…though they looked like they were having some fun too.

 

Ironically, the guests, most of whom were Han Chinese, engaged in a kind of competition with the Muosuo group…on who could sing their songs better and louder. The Han Chinese would belt out popular Mandarin pop tunes over the Muosuo young people’s traditional songs. Innocent though it seemed, I couldn’t help but think that it was all too indicative of what the Han Chinese have been doing and are doing best…

 

What is most distinctive about the Muosuo people is that, here, the women run the show. The Muosuo are the only, if not last, remaining matriarchal society in the world. Women own the property and the lineage runs down through the women’s side of the family. This system evolved after countless generations and it seems to work for both sides! Maybe we in the West should take a hint! Here is how it works: if a Muosuo man wants to marry a Muosuo woman, he begins to visit her every night. During the daytime, he is expected to work and earn his living as part of his mother’s household. If he has children with his wife, the wife raises the children with her household members (i.e. mother, sister, brother, mother’s brother). The man isn’t totally scott-free though, he has the duty of raising his sister’s children. Each household earns their own income. If the marriage breaks up for lack of love, there is no wealth or property to separate nor will their children experience any change in guardians. Fascinating.  I could sense a little of the matriarchy by the way the young women behaved around men. They were friendly enough, but they also seemed a little on the haughty side. The young ones especially were conservative and didn’t commiserate with the men for too long. 

 

 

Before we left Lake Lugu, we visited another small town, Luoshui, on the west side of the lake. Though more populated and commercialized, the scenery of the lake from here was even more beautiful than from Lige. I’m sure the sunrise here would have been fantastic! As I wandered around the shore, the locals were sitting in circles of a dozen people or so, playing cards and having a good time of it.  Seemingly the best way to pass the time here…in a world where televisions and technology don’t mean much.

 

 

So there it is, the highlights of our trip to Yunnan. Hope you enjoyed it!