The Fleet of Great River Great Journey / The Ode to the Yangtze Went to the Charming Old Town of Lijiang and Yuhu Village | Co-Organized by CBCGDF
2020/12/6 18:31:00 本站

On November 26th, the fleet of the Great River Great Journey / The Ode to the Yangtze organized by Xinhuanet, co-organized by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) visited Lashi Lake Wetland Park, The Old Town of Lijiang, and Yuhu Village in Lijiang City, Yunnan Province. They are all representative reserves and historical areas.

 

Lijiang is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of Yunnan Province, China. Old Town of Lijiang is a national historical and cultural city. It was built in the late Song Dynasty (late 13th century AD). It is located in the middle of Lijiang Dam. It is the most preserved and most Naxi-style ancient town in China. It is located in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. At an altitude of 2,416 meters, the city covers an area of 3.8 square kilometers. In December 1997, it was included in the “World Cultural Heritage” list by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

 

Yuhu Village is on the outskirts of Lijiang Basin at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Located about 15 kilometers north of Old Town of Lijiang, the Yuhu village, belonging to the Naxi minority, is the last village of the valley; and is situated at the foot of the Jade Dragon Mountain in Lijiang.

 

Yuhu Village is more than a thousand years old and most of the villagers’ houses still follow the old style. The bases and walls are mostly layered blue-grey stones, the roofs are paved with blue-grey tiles and the doors and windows are made from wood. Moreover, large numbers of local Naxi people hang fish on their houses' bridges. This is because fish represents water in the Five Elements and water is not compatible with fire; hanging fish on the houses’ ridges symbolizes that wooden houses will not catch fire.

 

Lashi Lake, on the southern slope of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and 10 km from the Old Town of Lijiang, is part of the Lijiang – Lashihai Plateau Wetland Nature Reserve. It is a paradise for migrant birds and thousands of them stay here over winter every year. It is also the origin of the Ancient Tea Horse Road. Despite being called Lashihai (Hai means sea), it is actually a lake cut off by Lashi Dam. Lashi is a word in the ancient Naxi language, meaning a “new desolate dam”. The lake was formed in the Pliocene epoch and is around 20 square miles. It is at an altitude of about 2,437 meters. Because of the lake, the wetland nature reserve was established in 1998. Now Lashi Lake is famous for viewing migrant birds by boat and also experiencing the Ancient Tea Horse Road on horses.

 

The snow water is clear with the swaying water grass in the Jade lake, blue sky and white clouds with the tall Jade Dragon Snow Mountain reflected in the lake, in which nature is in the bottom of the lake. There are hectares of beautiful and endless meadows here around Jade Lake. Grass and wildflowers are flashing among them in spring and summer, with the fair-sounding music of the cowbell and the shepherds. In the late autumn and winter, the meadow grass turns yellow and the large reeds in the lake are heaving with the wind.

 

This Great River Great Journey / The Ode to the Yangtze is organized by Xinhuanet, co-organized by CBCGDF, and SAIC Volkswagen’s SUV family brand cooperates throughout the whole process. It builds a communication camp dominated by a number of mainstream media, unites multiple social media platforms, and gathers celebrities from all walks of life, passing through eleven provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions including Qinghai, Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, and Anhui. This activity mainly focuses on the ecological environment protection, humanities and nature, poverty alleviation, major power projects, cultural inheritance and other contents of the cities along the Yangtze River, forming a series of outcomes. In addition, with the theme of ecological protection of the Yangtze River, a series of open lectures on "How much do you know about the splendid Yangtze River” was taught to the young people along the way to scientifically popularize the importance of ecological diversity and allow more people to participate in environmental protection.


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(Photo credit: Zhao Wei)


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A group photo of the anchor of Xinhuanet with Naxi women in the Old Town of Lijiang. (Photo credit: Ren Wanli)


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4936/14569.html


By / Maggie