Assignment CHN 101

Submitted to: Ms. Mindy Zhou Visiting Professor Chinese Director of Confucius Institue North South University

Submitted by: Abid Rahman ID # 073 453 030 Section: 2

Date of Submission: 30th May 2011

Lijiang: the ancient City

Someone said that Ljiang is the only fairyland which was left by God on the earth. Lijiang Ancient Town is in the embrace of Snow Mountains, accompanied by serene rivers, and bathed in the fragrance of flowers. People live leisurely in harmony with the nature and reserve their primary living styles. It is a virgin land untouched by the modern civilization, and the last pure land for the spiritual quietness. Lijiang is an important city in ancient China, with numerous minorities. Situated in the joint place of Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Lijiang has an altitude of 2418 meters and a total area about 20,600 square kilometers. It is a well-preserved ancient town with 12 minorities, among which Naxi Nationality takes the major part of the whole population. Lijiang ancient town is enrolled in the list of World Cultural Heritage. The local people still lead a primitive and pure lifestyle in modern times. Majority of the residents are Naxi Nationality. The Naxi people live on farming, stockbreeding and handicrafts. Reaches of the Jinshajiang River is abundant in botanical resources such as trees and medicinal herbs. But for those living beside Luguhu Lake in Lijiang, they still keep the 'walking' marriage which is the only remaining vestige of a matrilineal clan among all the ethnic groups of China. Despite of the ancient buildings and stone paths, you can find the other side of Lijiang in the bars. Different from noisy bars in modern cities, these bars have an atmosphere of tranquil and tender, which can be found only in beautiful places like Lijiang. Listening to soft music in the hazy light, tasting plateful wine, murmuring with your girlfriend and appreciating the night scene of Lijiang, you will find an eternal peace and beauty in your heart. The beauty of this ancient city also lays its nature and harmony with its surrounding geological environment. The Yulongxueshan Mountain with the altitude of 5596 meters and the 4th generation of glacier relic lies in the place where 30km away in the northwest of the ancient city is. The human being has not climbed to the top of the mountain. The Ancient Lijiang City has no city walls, which is one of the features of this ancient city and different with other China's ancient cities. The Yuquanshui River includes three mainstreams, which flow towards the west, east and in the middle. The river running into the ancient city includes many branch canals, so the network of rivers mixed with the roads of the five-flowered stones. You can get the beautiful picture that every house is surrounded by the rivers and the drooping poplars", so it is highly spoken by the architects of China and abroad. It is called "the Gusu in the Plateau" and "the Oriental Venice". Attracted by the ancient city and the Xueshan Mountains, millions of tourists come here and enjoy themselves in the ancient city of primitive simplicity, naturalness, tranquility and elegance. Numerous limpid streams, arising from Black Dragon Pool, crisscross Lijiang City, dividing it into several sections, which are again linked up by many plain wooden bridges

and buildings across these streams, making it a "city upon the water." Located at the foot of Xiangshan (Elephant) Hill to the north of Lijiang City, the park is built around Yuquan Lake (also called "Black Dragon Pool"). The crystal-clear water in the lake comes from underground springs. Amid the green trees in the park are many Naxi-style structures built in the Ming and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, such as the Deyue Tower and Yiwen Pavilion. Of these, the most attractive is probably the Wufeng Tower. Tso (dance in Naxi from original meaning of jump) of Naxi included both the religious Tomba-Tso and sectarian Me-da-Tso, Ro-Ro-Tso. Tomba Tso served as a physical accompany in ritual of Dobar and was believed to be weapon in dispelling the ghost who brought sickness and pain to Naxi, the body movement of Dobar imitate the animals and borrowed a lot from tribal martial art. Dobar Tso is thus divided into categories like Animal Tso, Martial Art Tso, the former show how Dobar borrow the power of big animal to avoid the danger from Nakhi's living environment. In Martial art Tso, Dobar use big knives ,clubs and boxing etc. to show how the human advanced in their fight with threats and dangers from the woods. The body movement and posture of Dobar Tso was recorded in hieroglyphic manuscripts of Dobarism titled Tso-Mo (dance notation or documentation). Young Dobar learns the skill of Dobar Tso from both their Dobar father's instruction and Tso-Mo. According to modern Dobarists, Tso-Mo is the earliest dance documentation in the world. A monumental building located in the ancient city of Lijiang, the tower is an example of wooden Dougong architecture (with sets of brackets on top of the columns supporting the beams within and the roof eaves without. A set that is cushioned with trapezoidal blocks is called Dou, and one that consists of tiers of outstretching arms is called gong). Thirty-three m. high, the tower has five stories and five tiers of eaves. The top story has 13 angles, representing the 13 peaks of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. Painted inside the tower are 2,300 auspicious patterns, representing the harmony and unity of the 23 ethnic groups living in Lijiang. The colorful murals in the tower are redolent of the traditional Dongba culture of the Naxi people. The Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is famous for its perilous, beautiful and grotesque landscapes, including famous tourist attractions such as the spruce platform, White Water River, sweet lake, sera forest, etc. A mountain formation movement which took place 65 million years ago and which created the Himalaya, known as the "roof of the world" gave rise to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In the southeastern part of this plateau and the northwestern part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, meandering mountain ranges tower to the sky and swift rivers roar in deep gorges, presenting magnificent landforms over an area covering more than 200,000 sq. km. This area is the beautiful Lijiang Prefecture. In short the total city is like a theme park except the part that people live in it and it is built by the nature itself.