Splendid Yunnan Finale

This is the final part of the Splendid Yunnan series. I decided to write less, but post more photos. Enjoy the beautiful scenaries in this wonderful place on planet earth.

Splendid Yunnan Part V - Lijiang Old Town (丽江古城)

You can't claim you have been to China if you have not visited the Great Wall, you can't claim you have been to Yunnan if you have not visited Lijing Old Town, a world heritage site.

Lijiang was once an important town along the trade route of horse & tea between China and the South Asia sub-continent. The horse and tea merchants stopped at this town to refill their supplies before embarking on a rough journey further ahead. This once prosperous old town withered after a new trade route was established in the 2nd half of the last century. Surrounded by mountains and without proper roads, this town was hard to access from the outside world. This inaccessability somehow helped preserve this charming old town its century-old beauty. Then an serious earthquake a few years ago brought this town to international fame and attention.

Why did I choose a water-mill photo to begin this blog entry? To answer that question, I must give you some background information. Lijiang old town, oddly doesn't have any city walls! The walls were not torn down to make way for the modern development. They simply were not there at all when the town was first built! In a place like Yunnan, where bandits frequently come to loot the merchants and law-abidding people, how can the residents of the Lijiang old town protect themselves in the old days? Obviously there is a reason. The family ruling the Lijiang old town in the old days was the Mu family, Mu (木) means Wood in Chinese. If the Mu family living within a wall, that is the Chinese character for imprisonment (困)! How can the Mu family let that happen?! Therefore, they decided not to have any city walls at all. How to defend the town from bandits? They built the whole town according to the BaGua formation (八卦阵). Only people who know the tricks can come into and go out of the town without losing his/her way. This BaGua formation still remains intact till this day. As a tourist, the locals would advise you to walk along the stream that powers the water mill. Walk in the same direction as the water flow when you go into the town, and walk against the water flow when you come out of the town. Now you understand the significance of the water mill? :D

There is a famous street in Lijiang old town, thanks to modernisation and its fame to the western world. It is called the bar street (酒吧街), or the YangRen street (洋人街), which means a westerners' street. As the name implies, there are bars after bars at this small little but long street hidden at one back alley of the old town. Water flowing past the front, willows swinging in the wind, red lanterns lighting up the night sky, everything looks so much like a Chinese painting. No wonder the westerners fall in love with this place.

When you are in Lijiang, you have to try the delicious Lijiang GuoQiaoMiXian (过桥米线), translated into English literally, it means "crossing the bridge rice noodle". It is rice noodle, served in a clay pot of thick chicken soup, with fresh vegies, ham, chicken drum stick, and many other fresh ingredients. For RMB30.00, you can get a big portion enough for two! It is value for money.

Splendid Yunnan Part IV - GuanFang Villa

This is Part IV of the Splendid Yunnan series. You can find Part I, Part II, Part III.


Take a look at the beautiful garden in the picture above, guess what it is? It is not an ordinary garden, but a garden in the GuanFang Villa in Lijiang, Yunnan. GuanFang Villa is a service-apartment type of accommodation for the tourists, equivalent to a 5-star hotel. It consists of a group of 2-story villas for tourists, and 3-story villas for private residents. The architecture is predominantly traditional Chinese. Living in GuanFang Villa makes you feel time has gone back to the Ming or Qing Dynasties, but with the 21st century comforts.

From your window, you can see the peak of the Yulong mountain (Jade Dragon Snowy Mountain) immersed in the golden morning sunshine.

Each villa has a beautifully decorated facade in traditional Dali style. There are two twin-share bed rooms and one suite on the 2nd floor. The suite has a spacious living room, which you can see in the photo below, and a twin-share bed room.

There are two twin-share bed rooms, one common living room, one dining room, a kitchen and a rest room on the ground floor. Broadband internet is available for free use. I was very amazed by their connection speed, it was fast! However, I had a bit of bad luck during my stay there. When I used the broadband service for the second time, the speed went to a crawl. Foreign networks were completed unreachable. Only days later, I got to know that the undersea cable was damaged by a major earthquake in Taiwan. Too bad ;P

A unique feature of GuanFang Villa is each villa/unit also has a dedicated housekeeper to take care of the entire place, he/she will prepare the breakfast every morning for the guests. The photo below shows we were enjoying our breakfast in the dining area, the living room is at the back.

If you are traveling with a group of friends, it is more economical to rent an entire villa unit to yourselves. The rate is actually better than GuanFang Hotel (a 5-star hotel) rate.

At the end of this post, I must ask my readers whether I had made a mistake in some of the pictures, in terms of photo-taking techniques. Go spot the mistake :)

Splendid Yunnan Part III - Li Shui Jin Sha(丽水金沙)

This is Part III of the Splendid Yunnan series. You can find Part I, Part II, Part IV


A few years ago, a major earth quake struck Lijiang, the statue of Chairman Mao and the theatre where Mao's hand is pointing at were the two only man-made structures that were not damaged. That earth quake was so serious that it attracted the attention of the international media. From then on, Lijing became famous in the international arena. An old Chinese saying fits well here: Luck is where trouble originates, trouble is where luck originates (福兮，祸之所倚；祸兮， 福之所倚)

A performance titled "Li Shui Jin Sha" that showcases the beauty of the different ethnic minorities living in Yunnan are staged at the Lijing theatre every night. Yunnan is a province of great diversity. Geographically, it is bordering Laos, Vietnam, and Burma. Historically, there was a Dali Kingdom (大理国), which rose to great fame centuries later, for being mentioned in the famous sword-fighting novel Tian Long Ba Bu (天龙八步) by JinYong (金庸). Other than that, Yunnan preserves the ancient DongBa culture, which is different from the general Chinese culture.

What would be better than starting the Li Shui Jin Sha show with the famous Naxi Music (纳西古乐)? The Naxi Music was originated from the central plain area in ancient China, it miraculously passed down unaltered in Yunnan, thanks for being inaccessable to the outside world for centuries.


There are 55 ethnic minorities in China, you can find most of them living in Yunnan. Dai, Bai, Yi, Naxi, Miao, Moshuo, to name few. Each of them have their own unique costumes, their own cultures. As Yunnan is a neighbour of many South-east Asian countries, you can find many traces of inter-influence between them.

For example, the Dai tribe have very similar customs with the Thais. Thai New Year is called Songkar festival, where people would splash water to each other, strangers or close friends and families, the Dai have exactly the same festive with the exact tradition of splashing water.




If my memory does not fail me, the photo above depicts the beautiful world of the Third Kingdom of Yulong. The tribe that lives at the foot of the Jade Dragon Snowy Mountain has this tragic yet romantic tradition of committing suicide for love if they could not become husband and wife. The folklore says that those who committed suicide for their love ones would ascend to the Third Kingdom of Yulong. The Third Kingdom of Yulong is a heaven of sunshine, blossoming flowers, and a world of plenty. You will have eternal happiness there with your loved one there. That tradition is said to continue till this day.




Tickets to the show are available at RMB160, RMB120 I think. Get the RMB160 one, it is definitely worth your money.

However, life is not always that colorful and beautiful. When some people are happy, some people are upset. A not-so-widely known fact is that for the Yi tribe, there are two factions, the white Yi and the black Yi. The color signifies their social status. Before the communists came to Yunnan, the Yi had a slavery system, the black Yi were the masters, while the white Yi were the slaves. The communists abolished the slavery system and made everybody equal. The black Yi lost their slaves, their ownership to their land. They hated the communists till this day. A gypsy life they lead, moving from place to place. Once they come to a new place, they would burn the grass to fertilise the soil, plant their crops. A few years later, when the soil becomes infertile, they then move on to a new place. To maintain their high-class ancestry, they would never marry anyone other than a black Yi. They don't welcome visitors other than black Yi, either.

Splendid Yunnan Part II - Tibetan Home Visit

This Part II of the Splendid Yunnan series. You can find Part I, Part III, Part IV


We visited a Tibetan home while we were at Shangri-la. Look at that handsome guy below with many many Hada's on his neck, that was our host. It is a Tibetan tradition to present to the guest a piece of Hada, to show their hospitality. As a guest, you should then say "Zha Xi De Le", which means lucky and happy in Tibetan.

The host and his siblings performed some traditional Tibetan dances and songs to entertain the visitors. Look at that wooden pillar in the centre of the living hall. The size does matter here. The bigger the pillar is, the more wealthy you are. It is a symbol of status in Tibetan culture. A typical Tibetan home has 3 floors. The ground floor is the stable for their horses and cows. It is usually built with clay and rocks. The 1st floor is where the living room is, which is built with wood. Trees in Tibet grow at a snail pace because of the extreme weather conditions. As a result, bigger trees take longer time to grow, and less common, and more expensive. The centre pillar in the living room is from a single tree trunk, so the bigger it is, the more expensive it is, the more wealthy the owner is. The 2nd floor are for bed rooms.

I didn't know Tibetans are such good singers, especially when it comes to the high keys. Sky is the limit to them. Anyway, they are living closest to the sky in planet earth.

Look, here I was happily drinking the Tibetan rice wine. I actually likes the Tibetan rice wine a lot. Shangri-la is at an altitude of 2800m above sea level, high altitude sickness made me have a bad headache. And I was having a flu at that time. The Tibetan rice wine, together with the Tibetan tea, relieved my high-altitude sickness, and cured my flu! I think I drank at least 10 cups of Tibetan rice wine that night. What an acoholic I am! Not actually. Tibetans respect people who are good drinkers. Look at the small cup that I used? Real Tibetans never drink with such a small cup, they use bowls. When ethnic Chinese entered Tibet in the early years, they were totally scared off by the Tibetan way of welcoming their guests. When you enter a Tibetan home, the host will present to you three bowls of Tibetan rice wine. You have drink all 3 bottom up. In recent years, the younger Tibetans have toned down that tradition when they receive Chinese guests.

Haha, here comes the hightlight of the day - The roasted suckling Mao-Nu. Mao-Nu is a kind of cow/ox which you can only find at very high altitudes. The meat is tender and delicious, however, it is also very heaty, in traditioanl Chinese medicine terms. That probably has something to do with the extreme cold weather that the Mao-Nu live in at high altitudes.

Chairman Mao's portrait occupies a prominent place in the living room. The host said Tibetans thank Chairman Mao for liberating from the slavery system. I am a bit skeptical about this. In Shangri-la, there is a Tibetan Buddhist Temple, which is called 'the little potala'. The temple was open to the tourists until very recently. Now the temple is closed to tourists as a result of a dispute between the lamas and the local government. The relationship between ethnic Han Chinese and Tibetans is still tense.

And if you are still wondering what noise is in a digital photograph, you can find plenty in the photos in this entry. All were shot at very high ISO settings, and none has gone through the noise reduction process. Spot the noise :)

Splendid Yunnan Part I - Jade Dragon Snowy Mountains (玉龙雪山)

2006 had been a busy year for me in terms of traveling. It saw me travel to Cambodia in June, then Vietnam early December and Yunnan during Christmas period.

This is Part I of the Splendid Yunnan series. You can find Part II, Part III, Part IV

I would like to share with you my travel photos in stages. Here is the first part of my Yunnan series - Jade Dragon Snowy Mountains (玉龙雪山)