Green Lake Park (CuiHu Park)
Located in Kunming proper, the park was a beautiful bay on
the DianChi Lake before Ming Dynasty and became a tourist resort at the
beginning of the Qing Dynasty. With an
area of 21 Hectare, the park is nowadays well-known for its richly ornamented
traditional pavilions and palaces, blue waves and ripples, green willows, beautiful
flowers, fair landscape and quiet elegance of its numerous scenes:”early spring
at the green lake” and “seagulls playing at the green lake” are known as the
most enjoyable ones.
Lijiang Old Town (Lijiang Ancient Town)
The Old Town of Li Jiang was built at the turn of Song
Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty. It has been the trade and commercial center, as well
as the key section of the famous Old Route for Horse Carrying Tea since Ming
and Qing Dynasties, serving as the linkage of Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet. The
town has a history of 800 years and covers an area of 3.8 square kilometers.
The site of the Old Town enjoys a favourable weather with the Gold-rainbow
Mountain in the north, the Sleeping Lion Mountain in the west, wild and open
crops in the southeast. The Jade Water River is divided into three tribunals
under the Jade Dragon Bridge, and furthers more into the depth of the town and
created the picturesque scene of bridge, spring and households. Streets and
architecture are irregularly made along with the water system, which differs
greatly from cities in central China with neat and regular layout. Streets are
paved with five-color granites and Naxi buildings are blended with the flavor
of Han, Bai and Tibetan, which is great value for appreciation and research.
World Cultural Heritage – Shuhe Old Town in Lijiang (Shuhe Ancient Town)
Shuhe, located at about 4km from the Lijiang Old Town, is
one of the earliest places inhabited by the ancestors of the Naxi nationality
in Lijiang Flatland and an important and best reserved old town along the
Ancient Merchant Track for tea and horse exchange. Also, it is regarded as a
living specimen in the history of Naxi nationality transmitting from the period
of farming cultivation to the industrial and trading civilization period. It is
a model set up in the town construction mingling the activities of
open-to-the-outside and that of caravan. In 1997, Shuhe was enlisted as an
important part of Lijiang old Town, a world cultural heritage by UNESCO.
The ancient path, the drifting spring, the local household
is Shuhe Ancient Town’s traditional style.
The tea and horse culture, the ecology culture, the Naxi
culture and the farming culture, all these jointly demonstrate a distinctive
landscape of Shuhe Ancient Town.
Black Dragon Pool (HeiLongTan)
Black Dragon Pool was established in the second year of
Qianlong Emperor of Qing Dynasty. Because the emperor, Qianlong ever bestowed
it Jade-spring Dragon God, it used to be called The Temple of Jade-spring
Dragon God. Afterwards, Jiaqing and Guangxu, the two emperors conferred the
title Dragon God and it was renamed Black Dragon Pool.
Black Dragon Pool is the source water of the water system of
Lijiang Ancient town, a world culture heritage.
Spring water here are squirt out with the crystal water and like the
pearl of water dropping. The famous Yulong 13 peaks reflected in the water form
not only an exquisite scenic painting but also a symbol of Lijiang tourism. On
December 4, 1997, it was listed in the World Culture Heritage as an important
component of Lijiang Ancient Town.
In recent 10 years, several prominent leaders of our nation
and Party, such as Jiang ZeMin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji and so on investigated
Black Dragon pool. Meanwhile, Chinese and foreigner tourists visited it in an
endless stream as well.
Dali
Ancient Town
Located to 15km to the north of Xiaguan Town in Dali, Dali
Ancient Town faces Erhai Sea and relieson Cangshan Mountain at its back. It has
an area of 4,000m2 and Perimeter of 6km. Initially built in A.D. 779 (in Tang
Dynasty), it used to be the capital of Nanzhao State in Tang Dynasty and Dali
State in Song Dynasty. There are walls, gates and streets built around it,
forming the typical chessboard pattern.
Bai people are the main residents whose
houses are built according to the pattern of three-courtyard and
four-courtyard. There are 9 streets 18 lanes in the town, which are paved with
green slates running through south to north and east to west in typical
chessboard pattern. Given an imposing sense, it has been politically, military
and cultural center of Yunnan in Tang and Song Dynasties for over 500 years.
There are plenty of cultural relics and sites in Ancient Town, such as Wuhua
Building, Wenxian Building, Marshall Du’s Mansion, Chengxinjing, Honglongjing,
Zhongxi School and so on laying profound historical and cultural significance
to the ancient town.
Dali Foreigner Street
The Foreigner Street also known as Huguo Road, and it takes
its name from the uprising of local people opposed YUAN SHI KAI to be the
emperor of China. Huguo Road starts west from Dianzhang highway to the east. It
is 1000 meters length and 7 meters width, with blue marble pavement.
At 1980s,
with the rise of tourism, Dali Old Town was recommended to be main scenic spot
of Dali. And the Hongshan Hotel was remodeled to be Foreign Hotel. Since then,
Huguo Road became a commercial center of all foreign friends. Forest of bars
forms exotic scenery in this area, and becomes one of the earliest and most
famous Foreigner Streets in China. People enjoy themselves without any thoughts
of leaving here. That’s why many foreign friends reside here and call it is
“Sweet Home”.
