China's environmental issues

are clearly an issue- anyone who visits knows this sentence from a recent NYT article on Lijiang

The word “breathtaking” when applied to a Chinese city too often refers to respiratory-attack-inducing smog.

and we had such an experience in our visit to Beijing and Xian years earlier but we were confronted with a different issue when we visited Lijiang in Yunnan Province. You may recall in a very early post about preparing for this trip that I had some postcards the travel agent had put together for us to send from China- (http://semifreelife.blogspot.com/2013/09/preparing-for-china.html)   here is one of them from Lijiang-

this is the famous Black Dragon Pool-  here is a sign for the site as you enter:

 



specifically note the line: "it was listed in the World Culture Heritage as an important component of Lijiang Old Town." - and - here is what we saw...

the current state of this park is a horror-  and makes signs like this a joke!

this site is so famous it was on the cover of the guide book we chose for this trip-

there are still folks using the park- seniors playing mahjong (men and women) - the women dressed in traditional Naxi clothing- the men in more western style dress...

we stopped at a temple (Five Phoenix Hall)which was converted to a shrine for a local politician who seemed to have done a lot for the people of Lijiang.  there we finally saw a man "finger painting" - which was famous at the Chen Family Academy in Guangzhou but we didn't see it because our guide Dragon told us it was a sales pitch...

after circumnavigating the path that surrounded the once beautiful pool we headed to the Dongba Center (the Naxi religion) to learn about the pictographs-

 

 

below an traditional Naxi dwelling- from inside the museum-

 

and before I leave Black Dragon Pool - I want to add one more photograph where the actual spring that feeds the waterways of the city is shown-

the overuse of the resource has shrunken the pool to a small portion of its size and while they have plans for correcting the problem- the plans won't come to fruition for years- who knows what will be left of this once lovely park...

but we press on to lunch and then head out of town to visit Baisha- the original capital of the Naxi people... more later-

More of Lijiang

so as we exit town (through the entry gate) Anna decides to take us for a tea tasting of the famous PUR (pronounced "pour") tea from the Yunnan province.  It is excellent- not bitter and with tannins that are under control.  how do they do it? fermentation- some of the teas here are aged for decades - and they are sold in the compressed discs you may have noticed in prior posts.  while tasting we were served a sesame and fig cake that was perfect to tide us over until lunch.

we head back out of town and pass a number of eateries and shops along the way to the "gate" of the city which is decorated for the fall season-

 

so we leave the old town of Lijiang - thoroughly enchanted with its beauty... but the next stop has almost the opposite effect upon us- so stay tuned...

 

still in Old Town

we are still meandering the lanes of Old Town Lijiang- all the canals are lined with mums for the fall festival...

 

the mountain looms in the background-

a Dongba prayer wheel with the Naxi pictographs carved on the drum...

a Dongba Shaiman- got to love the feathers!

 

and not to be confused with the "Indian" at the drum shop-

 

 

up next the Naxi traditional dress and the tea ceremony (where we learn about PUR tea - the region's famous tea)