A Vibrant Ancient City

By staff reporter WANG TONG

Bridges of various shapes add special charm to Lijiang.

LIJIANG is a small city on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in southern China with an 800-year history. Word of its ancient language and music, and unique natural scenery has spread over the decades, and Lijiang is now known throughout the world. It was added to UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage List in 1997, and is one of the ten most favored destinations for Chinese tourists.

Lijiang is the only ancient Chinese city without walls. Three limpid streams spanned by 365 wooden and stone bridges, their sources the nearby Yulong Snow Mountain and the city's Black Dragon Pool, run through it from north to south. The city roads are paved with centuries-old colored stone slabs.

Since Lijiang was designated World Cultural Heritage in 1997, the municipal government has substantially invested in preserving its originality. The city is distinct for its wooden, white-walled dwellings with black tiled roofs. Auspicious designs on walls, and inscribed boards and carved tablets seen in courtyards reflect the cultural traditions and aesthetic concepts of the Naxi people that live in Lijiang.

One famous scenic spot is the rectangular Sifangjie (Square Road), regarded as the soul of the city, around which Lijiang City was built. Sifangjie was originally an important commodity distribution center along the 4,000-kilometer Tea-Horse Trading Road in southern China that opened up trade with neighboring Nepal, India and Burma.

James (left) describing his happy life in Lijiang to friends.

As Lijiang's tourism grows, the local government redoubles its efforts to protect the city's cultural relics. An Ancient City Administrative Committee has been set up to collect the funds necessary to renovate old houses, harness rivers, beautify the environment and preserve Naxi Culture. In 1994 alone, the Lijiang municipal government invested 70 million yuan in restoration of cultural relics. In 2003 still more was spent on placing power, telecommunication and cable TV lines underground, and renovating its 12,500 square meters of paving stones. Developing tourism will help to improve local living standards, which will in turn raise the people's environmental awareness, and diminish the threat to the old city of Lijiang of being, like other old civilizations, subverted by modernity.

Bringer of Lijiang to the World

The name Joseph F. Rock is familiar to every Lijiang household as it was he who made Lijiang known to the rest of the world 70 years ago. Rock came to China as a United States Department of Agriculture special envoy. He headed a caravan and arrived in Lijiang on a sedan chair carried by four locals. Rock stayed in Lijiang for 27 years, and completely assimilated into the community. He wrote many stories about Lijiang, which he sent with pictures to other parts of the world. On his death bed he is reported to have said, "I don't want to die in this bed. I wish I could be with my Naxi friends." It was Rock's works, along with British writer James Hilton's novel The Lost Horizon, that first aroused Western interest in Lijiang.

In 2000, James, a French petroleum businessman, came to Lijiang with his wife after completing a business project in Daqing in northeast China. Impressed by Lijiang's fresh air, clear water and amazingly well preserved state, the French couple stayed on and opened a bar on the riverbank, where they do a brisk trade. At nightfall, it is pleasant to sit and drink a beer or cup of tea and take in the tranquil night scenery.

Traditional Naxi Music

When visitors come to Lijiang, the first cultural event they attend is a Naxi music concert, usually performed in a traditional quadrangle.

The Naxi is one of the ethnic minorities of China, and the majority live in Lijiang. Naxi music was originally the reserve of the nobility, but over the last half century it has entered ordinary people's lives. Usually performed by elders on traditional string instruments like the guzheng, guqin and erhu or on the bamboo flute, its beautiful melodies evoke waterfalls, birdsong, and other sounds from nature. Those fortunate enough to get the chance to listen to Naxi music find it an unforgettable experience.

Naxi music, as performed by 74-year-old Xuan Ke and his Naxi music troupe, has been enthusiastically received in 20 countries and regions of the world. Xuan Ke speaks seven Chinese minority languages and is also fluent in English. He says of Lijiang's development, "Since the 1996 earthquake, Lijiang has become more and more open. It now has far more fans of foreign movie stars than lovers of Naxi music. As ancient Indian music has incorporated into it Western classical elements that make it more suitable for contemporary performance, traditional Naxi music should also be adapted to modern tastes." Some changes have already been made, such as applying piano playing techniques to music performed on the stringed guqin.

Many Naxi musician elders have passed away in recent years, leaving the future of Naxi music uncertain. Twenty-six-year-old Zhang Shoukang is a young Naxi musician. For him, performing Naxi music is an honor, but as tickets to concerts are costly, he also gives open-air performances for free in Sifangjie. Visitors first listen and later ask him about his instruments and the Dongba Culture. The Dongba was the sacrificial official within the primitive religion of the Naxi people, and Dongba, seen as part of pottery decorations on chinaware in Lijiang, is the only pictorial language still in use in the world.

In order to carry on the Naxi culture and music, Lijiang's elders offer free Naxi music classes to acquaint the younger people with its essence.