Apr 20, Monday, Lijiang

Today we started with a stroll through a local park on the way to the old town.  We heard a lot of songbirds, which Jenny said were primarily Thrushes.  It turns out they had dozens of bird cages scattered throughout the park in which they keep the birds…hence the presence of so much birdsong.

Bird cages with songbirds

We also saw several groups of people out for their morning exercise, dancing in the various plazas to music.  Mary didn’t join them this time.

We wandered through Zhong Yi Market, a gigantic daily morning market.  Snow Mountain could be seen many areas of the market.

Many Chinese do not have refrigerators at home so buy their food daily.  They much prefer it this way as their food is always fresh.  There were many fruit and vegetable vendors,,,

and an entire large building dedicated to meat, poultry... 

and fish (and other water based species such as dragon fly larva, eels, and itty bitty shrimp like animals).  

Much of the fish and poultry were live, waiting to become a meal. 

Mary recalled an old saying about using everything on the pig except the squeal.  That seems to be the case here with pig ears, heads, feet and all kinds of entrails up for sale and being bought.  There was little beef being sold and Jenny indicated that it is not a particularly popular meat for the Chinese.

Pig ears for sale.

We also saw a small truck with a cage containing half a dozen dogs.  However, Jenny promised that they do not eat dog in that area so the dogs were probably waiting for a new home.  We can only hope...some of them were pretty cute.  We’ve seen lots of dogs running loose, which we assume are wild.  We have also seen a large number on leashes, a huge percent of which are miniature poodles.  They seem to be a popular breed in China.

The market also carried a variety of housewares,  other food items and some services.

Stuffing pastry balls

  

From the market we wandered into Old Lijiang.  The area is a warren of street, alleys, gates, plazas, and courtyards dating back centuries.   

  

And something we did not expect - when the cobblestones were wet, they were very slippery.  

Walking on cobblestones in high heels - not recommended.

Some walks were along pretty little canals.

There were lots of souvenir shops plus many carrying goods for the locals.  

Silver goods are very common here and we saw lots of silver shops, many with artisans working on silver right in front of the shop using furnaces or blow torches and anvils. 

Some shops were opening and young women (usually) were taking down doors to open up the front.  The doors would be get piled in alleyways or around the corner from the shop.

One plaza was complete with a McDonald's restaurant and a number of older women performing native dances.  The crowd was invited to participate (we took pictures instead).

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Another plaza has some very picturesque water wheels.

We occasionally caught glimpses of Snow Mountain to the west of the city and when we got to Black Dragon Pond there were some great views.  

Part of the walk to the Black Dragon Pond was along a pretty canal.

And the pond itself had great reflections of the Snow Mountain and the bridge across the pond.

Other sites visited today included the Dongba Cultural Museum.  The Dongba culture (the culture of the Naxi people) refers mainly to the language and religion.  The Dongba language is composed of 1,400 symbols and picture-like characters that are still in use.  It is the only living hieroglyph in the world.  In 2003 the Dongba classical literatures was accepted as a written world heritage by UNESCO.  Dongba religion dates back approximately 900 years and is rooted in the Tibetan Bön religion.  Dongba means “wise man” in the Naxi language. 

Some of the most interesting items in the museum were the “murals” of some pictograms and an old priest who was writing using the pictographs (although he appeared to be napping before we showed up).

We also took a walk (and a lot of stairs) up to the Wangu Pavilion at the top of a hill overlooking Lijiang.  

The views of the mountain and the rooftops of the old town were great.

The day ended at a theater to hear the Naxi Orchestra give a concert of Taoist ceremonial instrumental music.  The music was introduced to Yunnan province from “mainland” China over 1200 years ago and is virtually unchanged since then.  About six members of the orchestra were introduced by name and age (all over 80).  The concert included a variety of musical pieces including a flute solo, soprano solos, a solo on the Chinese zither and several full orchestral pieces.  It was good that they had a variety of pieces because the full orchestral pieces all seemed to sound alike.

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The old, original Lijiang is totally surrounded by new Lijiang for which construction started in 2002.  The population of the Lijiang area is 1.2 million, so the new town has sprung up very fast.  When the Chinese governments decide to build, they don’t mess around.