Lovely Streams Flowing Through the Lijiang Ancient Town 丽江古城
Lijiang Ancient Town is certainly deserving of its fame being the number one ancient town in China. While there are certainly numerous ancient town of varying quality here in China, Lijiang Ancient Town is the onw which all the other ancient towns aspire to be. Somehow, Lijiang seems to have a great combination of old Ming and Qing dynasty buildings but also culture and greenery. One thing which surprised me though was the presence of water – lots of it.
Stone Bridge Over the Waterway of Lijiang Ancient Town 丽江古城
Ljiang Ancient Town is by no means a water town in the mold of a Suzhou or Zhouzhuang which practically sits on top of the water but Lijiang rather incorporates the presence of water into the entire town itself. The town is permeated by numerous streams which flow throughout the town. The waters come from the faraway mountains whose meltwater comes during the summer. It was delightful to see how clean these streams are. And it seem that the people of Lijiang actively make sure to keep it that way despite the booming number of visitors in the town.
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