Mengtian Xiaozhu Hostel Lijiang

Naxi Alphabet

by srd130

I was amazed with the Naxi alphabet. It is a pictorial alphabet (the words resemble the thing they are describing). Of course Chinese is pictorial too from an ancient perspective, as obvious in such characters as 'center' and 'person'. But the Naxi is more like drawing little figures.

Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of it, but you will see it. The streets signs in Lijiang's new town are written in Mandarin, Mandarin in Roman letters, and Naxi.

And be certain to try and learn some of it, as the Naxi alphabet is an art in itself.

Happy owner of Cafe

by jasmine_ding about Rembrandt Cafe

Near Stone Bridge, a wooden house stood beside a water way, lightened by red lanterns. It was Rembrandt Cafe. The first time I stopped at Rembrandt Cafe because I liked its name and location.

Three lovely girls worked there. One of them, Sasha, was the owner. She and her cafe have been in Lijiang Old Town for 6 years. I enjoyed talking with her, a happy, independent and intelligent woman. But the stars were two little doggies, you will see them in the pictures.
I liked the decoration and atmosphere of it, quiet, natural, simple and comfortable. And I liked the staff.

If you go to Rembrandt Cafe, I hope you enjoy your time there, delicious Italian food, maybe the girls can still remember me. About food, I recommend pasta, mushroom pizza, XXX pizza( sorry, I forgot the name), Naxi fried rice.

The trek

by sunshinee

On the paper that we picked up on the floor, it said that it is a 2 hrs easy trek to get to the Naxi Family Guesthouse. Their definition of "easy" definitely is different from mine. We arrvied in Qiatao a small town at 4pm and ate some food and started to trek. It was ok at the first half hour and then you started to see the big mountain and the high path in front of you. I wanted to head back and contiune again the next day but my friend insisted that we should finished it so I tried my best to finished it (I can't stand heights) and we just reached the guesthouse before it got dark.

Take a guided tour around the village

by albaaust

We agreed to a guided tour with Richard and Li who solicited us off the street. The tour included a visit to a Yi village up on one of the slopes, Bashio (village), Lashio Lake, lunch, viewing the first bend of the Yangtze River and a Mu Village. If we had wanted to they offered a number of other options such as visiting a local market.

Cost 150 Yuan as there were four of us.

The Old Town and the New Town

by John195123

"Old Town"

The Old Town, the reason one goes to Lijiang, is quite the picturesque place, if you overlook the rather disgusting nature of all the souvenir shops. I say disgusting because the reality of the "local" goods is that many of them are not, in fact, locally made. You find the same "Naxi" crafts for sale under the name of "Yao" goods and "local Muslim Xi'An" goods. Now, there's more to the place than tourist shops, but they and restaurants dominate the Old Town. This is truly the westernized tourist trap, though the jammed streets are mostly packed with Chinese tour groups moving as herds behind their flag. Many western tours slog through the area as well, and hotels in the area provide great information. English menus, English-speaking hotel staff and clean streets are part of the draw for western tourists.

It's beautiful, it really is. But it's a tourist trap. From the labyrinthine souvenir streets to the water wheels built just for you, Lijiang is, in many ways, what most people think of when they think of Chinese villages. It's not the concrete reality of the new part of the city. It's calm, relaxed and peaceful, aside from the crowds. If you want to see the Old Town, you'll need to walk as no cars are allowed in the Old Town. The streets are old, worn stone, slippery and packed, and, unless you get up early and hit the streets around sunrise, most tour groups get out around 8:30 am and then it can get bad. Take the side streets that parallel the main walkways to avoid much of the congestion.

The people are friendly, and Lijiang is also the starting point for trips to Tiger Leaping Gorge and other villages, such as Baisha and Shuhe. If there are no Shuhe or Baisha pages, I'll write about them here on the Lijiang page.

There are maps around town to guide you.

"New Town"

Separating the Old and New towns is Shizi Shan (Lion Hill) on which you find the Looking at the Past Pavillion, also known as Wangu Tower, I believe. The New Town, primarily a concrete Han-style mess, is west of said hill, the Old Town is East. But the New Town has also grown around...

There's not much to say about the New Town... it's like any other Chinese city, with lots of small restaurants and plenty of China Mobiles. Like any minority area of China, the small area of minority is hemmed in on all sides by the tides of Chinese that swarm and build, like Mont St. Michel in France, except there's no chance the tide will go out. Once again, it's a sad reality of China. People go to where the money is, and tourism is one of the big providers, regardless of the damages to the land or cultures.

For many more images of Lijiang's Old Town, see the Travelogues.