Walking In LiJiang

Published on March 3, 2004 By Gangadhara In Scenery

Well hey, this is a bit old, you know. I went to LiJiang in October 2003. Nice place actually. Sadly, the enlargements of my photos have turned out grainy. Anyway, so be it.
LiJiang, in Yunnan province of China. About 2,000 mts above sea level. Home to the Naxi community, a minority in China. In the shadow of the Snow Mountain, as they call it. And the Tiger Leaping Gorge on the Yangtze River.
The new town is like any lousy old new town. There's nothingspectacular abou this.
The charm of the city lies in the old town. With it's narrow lanes, along little canals, where you can sit in the shade if the trees and, have lunch or, a beer in the evening and, feel great about life. Peace with a glass of beer and, the gentle sound of the water rippling in the background. That's life.

We went to a Naxi concert one night. The band claims a 400 year heritage. Apparantly, the members of the group have played as families for over 400 years. They also claim to have instruments that are over 100 years old. Half the musicians are over 80. At times,it seems as if they were going to fall asleep. But no. I think that most of them have reserved their sleep for the Great Sleep of Death that will overcome us all at some point anyway.

They play court music that is over 1,000 years old. I am probably an ignoramus but, the sublety of the music sometimes escped me. I think that we've all become too used to commercial pop and rock nowadays to really enjoy sublety.

The city is always shadowed by the snow mountain.

The real charm lies in the old town. That's the place where you can sit for hours. They are even building new places in the design of the old. So, the new replaces the old. Or, is it the commercial instinct of the Chinese folks. But then, the new becomes old anyway. Young becomes old and, dies and, is reborn. That's the cycle of life...
There was this very cute young girl sitting by the side of a small canal. I could only get a couple of pictures of her profile but, she's preserved now, in time. I think that the combination of light, dress, mood made this a magical moment for the child.

The other great thing is the community dancing in the evenings at the village square. A piece of history preserved for the modern day generation. Locals, tourists join in pretty freely and, leave freely. The circle accommodates itself to every joining and leaving person. The tunes are simple but, have a gentle rhythms that carry you along.

Well, that's the place. Maybe more musings next time..

Comments

Sherye Hanson

on Mar 03, 2004

Great pictures--too bad they are grainy.

Rajiv Chopra

on Mar 19, 2004

Yes, it is sad that they are grainy. I'm not too sure if this is due to the development of the pictures. The contact sheets were pretty clear and, when I got the grainy enlargements, I fely a little disappointed. The grainy effect took away the image that I was trying to create, sadly.

KarmaGirl

on Mar 19, 2004

They all seem to missing right now (site can't be found that they are on)

Rajiv Chopra

on Mar 19, 2004

Yes, they do seem to have disappeared. Anyway, I've put them on another blog called http://travels.motime.com

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