Dzień wycieczki 355

DALI – LIJIANG (B/L/-)

Breakfast at hotel. In the morning, overland drive of 180 kilometers, or 3 hours, along the new highway to Lijiang. Visit the Bai village Xizhou and Shaping Market on the way. 23 kilometers north of Dali, Xizhou village has a more mixed population and cosmopolitan background. It grew and flourished in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) along with the fortunes of Dali’s renowned tea merchants that traded to Tibet. Family Yan’s courtyard is a good example of traditional Bai houses. And each morning, villagers in Bai dresses gather in a small market to buy and sell their produce and daily wares. Then continue driving to Shaping. Shaping Market is a local market on every Monday. The local people come to the market from surrounding villages to exchange their daily wares, farming products, traditional clothes, or simply foods and vegetables. Upon arrival in Lijiang, check in the hotel. Afternoon free for your first visit of the old town. A gathering place of rugged mountain people with the Naxi forming the majority, Lijiang is a small mountain town of stone and tile, laced with swift canals, which was enlisted as an UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 1999. Old town of Lijiang is a big area with its center, or Si Fang Jie (Square Street) in the form of an official ink stone, hence its name Dayan (ink stone) Town. It enjoys a long history of over 800 years and unlike most of the old towns in China, there is no city walls due to a superstitious belief of the local ruler whose family name is Mu (tree), when encircled by walls, would be Kun (besieged). Wooden structures, mountains, small rivers and lanes integrate harmoniously in this mountain town.
Lunch at local Chinese restaurant, dinner at leisure.