This week I'm on holiday in Lijiang, an ancient town in the southwest of China. I first heard about the place about 20 years ago when I watched a 12 part documentary (Beyond the Clouds) following a year in the life of the people here. I think it's one of the best documentary series ever made - I always remembered it and decided that someday I'd visit Lijiang and its people. And now, 20 years on - here I am!Sadly, this is now a world where the tourist is king and Lijiang has become a huge tourist destination for the domestic market. Four fifths of the local Naxi people have moved away due to the influx of tourism and instead, many of the traditional houses have been turned into tourist shops. However, compared to what has been done in other areas of China, the streets and houses are mainly still authentic and there are still out of the way parts that follow the life of their ancestors. I went for a walk this morning and still saw many, many people collecting water from wells, washing clothes in the streams and wearing the traditional Naxi clothing.
Lijiang has fast flowing streams running along every street and the place is a maze of winding lanes and waterways. There must be several thousand bridges - mainly wooden but a few stone ones over 500 years old.
Naxi society was traditionally matrilinial and this follows through into the language. Basic nouns are made bigger by adding the female form and smaller by adding the male, so a female stone is a boulder and a male stone is a pebble.
Some of the many wooden bridges
Street cleaner who sat next to me while I was watching the world go by
Naxi woman and her grandchild (or more likely, great grandchild!)
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