Lijiang, you stole my heart...

Michael and I just came back from a fabulous holiday in Lijiang, China.  It is like no place I have ever been.  When I stepped onto the cobblestone streets and saw the snow capped mountains surrounding the city, it was magical.  The air was cool and crisp, the freshest air I have ever breathed.  The city took my breath away instantly.  I know that there is no way I can put into words the beauty, majesty and history of Lijiang.  And there is no way the pictures can capture the feelings I felt, but I still want to share our holiday with you.  Michael and I both agree it was one of our best holidays yet.

Lijiang is a city that is south of where Michael and I live in Nanjing.  It is located in Yunnan province and it is surrounded by mountains.  It is very close to Tibet and there are a group of people living there, called the Nakhi.  They are an ethnic minority in China and many of them still live as they did thousands of years ago. 

This ethnic minority captured my interest immediately and I hope to be able to go back and stay with a Nakhi family for a more extended period of time, to really experience the Nakhi culture and to experience a life so different from mine.  We met a man, Richard, who is half Nakhi and have Bai, another ethnic minority in China.  He was our tour guide for a few days, along with his nephew Thomas.  Richard and Thomas both live in a Nakhi village and have welcomed us back, but they live rather close to the city center.  I prefer to go live in the mountains where people are a bit more primitive and Richard said he can arrange that, so I will keep you posted.

This is Richard and I

This is Thomas his nephew, who did all the driving

Richard was a bit eccentric but very informational.  The first night we got to Lijiang we were walking around the "Old Town" and Richard approached Michael and asked him if we needed a guide.  He said he could take us to places with less tourist or take us any where we wanted to go.  It is funny because if we were traveling in the United States to a new city and a stranger approached us and said he could show us the town for (x) amount of dollars, we where would never ever trust that person enough to go with them.  But here it is different. 

Lijiang's old town is certified by UNESCO as a heritage spot.  They are trying to preserve the buildings and the roads are still cobble stone.  The Old Town itself is rather touristy.  The streets are lined with shop after shop of the local artisan products to buy and a ton of other random stuff.  But if you get out of the Old Town, as we did and go up into the mountains there is a whole other world.  People that are from an ancient civilization, living just the way they did so many years ago. 

There are many, many things I could share and I will share as much as I can put into words and pictures, but I will try and break it up into a few posts, as I know that reading one super long post is not people's fave or maybe just not my fave. ☺ So I will leave you with some pics and post more about Lijiang again in a future post.

store fronts in Old Town

Old Town

Old Town

Old Town at Night

View over looking Old Town from our hotel

snow capped mountains surrounding the city

Old Town

Michael...poppin a squat in Old Town

More snow capped mountains...BREATHTAKING!

City at Night

More Majestic Mountains