9 Nov 2014
Greetings all,
I'm trying to get my entries caught up before I forget some details about the images, so forgive the temporary overload...my history of posting updates shows you it's 'boom or bust' for me...this is a boom period! It's turning a little cooler here in Shenyang these days...we're heading into our 5th winter here...hard to believe, but the calendar doesn't lie! Time marches on!
I left off last time in Shaxi enroute to Lijiang. Lijiang has the majoritity of Naxi people as a minority group. This group is particularly interesting to me as it's the women who run the show..they make the decisions, they do the work...they 'wear the pants' in the families. We saw evidence of this everywhere and I'll try to explain it in my images, but I'm not sure it will come through. All through this region of China, we saw people that look amazingly like the American Indians..same facial features, same hair...Rod and I are both convinced that if DNA samples were taken, we would find they are related and we think the American Indians are descendents of some early Chinese...but that's another story!
Anyway, Lijiang is another prosperous town (today's population 1.2 million!) on the old Horse Tea trade route and the Naxi women were known for their fine silk embroidery, until the Cultural Revolution when that, like many other cultural and heritage activities were stopped. The 'old town' of Lijiang is actually comprised of 3 separate market areas ( Dayan, Baisha and Shuhe) inside of the city limits of Lijiang and collectively they are a UNESCO world heritage site.
Below are some pics of our travels through all 3 market areas.
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| Shehe market |
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| Shuhe market in Lijiang |
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| In Lijiang, the Naxi people believe that a growling tiger on the room (Cat with big open mouth and teeth showing) will keep the evil spirits away...so most the roofs have a tiger the roof!) |
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| One of the Naxi women gathering rice |
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| Sarah admiring the silk embroidery of a Naxi woman in the Baishe market area |
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| Rod negotiating on the price of one of the silk embroidery pieces...hmm...was he successful? |
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| Hand Hammered copper ware in Baisha market area |
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| Sarah with the Coppersmith in Baisha market in Lijiang |
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| Sarah and Rod standing in front of the Jade Dragon mountain in the background |
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| One of the Naxi women at a construction site..that is about 80 pounds of concrete on her back! The band that you see going around the basket goes around her forehead. Note the Naxi man (not Rod) standing in the background watching, not breaking a sweat! When asked why the Naxi men don't work...it's just the way it is. When a Naxi woman is asked why the men don't work, they say they don't want to see a tire man in the bedroom at night! I have a video of Rod trying his back and forehead of this load, but it was too big to upload..probably good for Rod! |
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| Dayan market at night |
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| Dayan market in the daytime. In this market there are 3 canals running through it...beautiful with all the flowers flowing on each side! |
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| Rod in the Dayan market in the daytime |
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| Dayan market at dusk |
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| Naxi woman in one of the villages |
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| Close up of one of the humps of Jade Dragon Mountain...blue skies and clean air! |
We spent 3 days in Lijiang, and could have spent more! One of the toughest things we did was hike up a mountain...we were not prepared for this, and it just about did us in! When the tour agenda said a 4 hour hike..we thought relatively flat, 4 hour round trip...turns out it was straight up and down a mountain, 4 hours 1 way! We were exhausted..and of course our guide was just cool as a cucumber!
At the end of the hike, we were supposed to see a Shamin..but by the time we got there, the Shamin had left (and that was the only reason I signed up for this hike!!...so I took the guide and we went to find that Shamin...and we did! Below are some pictures of the Shamin!)
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| Close up of the Shaman hat |
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| A Naxi Shamin writing blessings...had to have one! |
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| Naxi Shamin writting a blessing for Health, long life, happy family and can't remember the other one! The Naxi have their own script...much easier to understand than Chinese for me..much more pictorial! |
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| Sarah riding a horse on the Tea Horse trail outside of Lijiang |
So that about does it for our short say in Lijiang. We really liked it there and could have probably spent some more time...I'm sure we did not see all of the natural beauty of Yunnan around Lijiang! As said up in the beginning of this post, the Naxi women do most of the work...as one parting evidence of this, when we checked out of our hotel, we asked for a bellman to get our luggage...and there was a boy that came to the door...when we showed him the luggage (2 big suitcases), he said 'OK' and left. Then a few seconds later, 2 girls came to the door and took the luggage away to our car...we were both dumbfounded! Go Naxi women!!
Until next time,
Sarah & Rod
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