Outside the ancient city of Lijiang, there is also an even more ancient city, on top of the boulders

Number of days: 12 days
Time: May
With whom: With friends
Tour kinds: self-driving, humanities, free travel
The author went to these places: Lijiang Locke House Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Yuhu Village here Baoshan Stone Town Lijiang Ancient City
Updated: 2020-06-01 13:53

Xiaoyuan sat on the high platform of the ancient city and had a good conversation with the old man Naxi. Behind it are towering mountains, and below is the rolling Jinsha River.

I have been to Lijiang many times, because the mountains are high and the roads are far away, I have never been to Stone Town, thinking about the worse traffic conditions of Locke back then, but I walked out of a Shangri-La landscape. First visit Locke's former residence, this time I plan to follow Locke's footsteps to see how the predecessors walked the most beautiful southwest. The former residence is located in Yuhu Village under the Yulong Snow Mountain outside Lijiang City, and during the post-epidemic period, the former residence was not open, so it could only pay attention. This was the base camp for Locke's research work and the starting point of Locke's expeditions, where he lived for 27 years.

Stone Town is about 120 kilometers away from Lijiang, which does not seem far, but it is all mountain roads, and after passing the sound, it basically detours in the mountains, and the canyon area is often a narrow cliff road, and there are collapsed sections from time to time. When you see a turquoise river flowing through the bottom of the valley, you will arrive at Stone Town. The villagers used this turquoise waterway to communicate with the outside world, which was really beautiful and hard.

Park the car on a small flat dam halfway up the mountain, and from this angle, a boulder is densely packed with ancient houses, depending on the river.

From another perspective, the stone city is surrounded by cliffs on three sides, and a stone slope plunges straight into the Jinsha River, with a unique geography, dangerous terrain, both offense and defense, and a five-foot-high stone wall is built around the cliff rock, making the stone city easier to defend and cover, which seems to be a place of refuge.

According to historical records, the ancestors of the Naxi people migrated here around the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and later a Mosuo people joined. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan prince Kublai Khan marched south to Dali Kingdom, and crossed the Jinsha River by sheepskin bags and rafts on the "Mugudu" and "Baoshan" respectively, and the Yuan army crossed from Baoshan was stationed in Baoshan Stone City, and the major event in the history of Lijiang "Yuan Cross Leather Sac" came here. The repaired riverside wharf under the city seems to be able to feel the smoke of history.

Looking down from a high place, the ancient city is spread out in the shape of a fan, in fact, the lower part is the original shape of the ancient city, and there is a circle of walls, and the upper part was later expanded.

The ancient city has two stone gates in the north and south for access, which shows that it is a natural city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The residents of the ancient city are good at farming, they built their homes on boulders, reclaimed their lives around the ancient city, used local ready-made stones, built stone terraces, built layer by layer from the depths of the canyon, to the high slopes two or three thousand meters away from the river valley, planted rice, wheat, corn, etc., forming layers of terraces surrounding the boulders, so that the originally barren land became self-sufficient. The wheat ripens in May, the rice is yellow in October, and the turquoise and golden wheat sea rice waves are the most beautiful season in Baoshan Stone Town.

Down the stone steps, the streets and alleys of Shichengli are narrow, people take advantage of the trend to build on the spot, one house after another, a yard and a courtyard, are all natural stone roads, some tables and stools are slightly carved with natural rocks, some chisel the boulders in the kitchen as stoves, some chisel the boulders in the courtyard into water tanks, and some even chisel the boulders in the house into stone beds. On such trails, mules and horses became their most practical means of transportation.

The alleys in the ancient city are crisscrossed, and you may get lost when you first arrive, at this time the little yellow dog will appear and take the initiative to bring you to the main road.

With the development of society, steep streets and alleys have also brought inconvenience to residents' lives, such as large electrical items can only be carried manually. I asked why mules and horses were not used, and the old man said: The roads in the city are tortuous and of different widths, and mules and horses will not avoid obstacles and will often get stuck.

In recent years, after the development of tourism, a number of inns have appeared in the city, but in the post-epidemic period, there are not many tourists, and few guests stay here.

There are nearly 100 households in the city, but most of the young people have gone to Lijiang or Kunming to work. The old people who stayed behind often came to sit together, chatting about their parents' shortcomings, and talking about things outside the city.

Sort out your makeup, for safety, we have to leave the ancient city before dark, leaving the rugged path of the mountains. The ancient city of Lijiang was built at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the stone city was arrived by Naxi people during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the courage and courage of the Naxi ancestors have been echoing in the mountain breeze surrounding the canyon on the way back.