Driving from Dali to Lijiang

Wind farm

Power sub-station

Drop-off (shown at curve) along the entire road in the mountains

Chinese Army tank on maneuvers

Dried kiwi at our rest stop

Smoking a cigarette with a water pipe

Erosion abatement

Truck with single cycle motor and belt-drive

Truck with single cycle motor and belt-drive

Street signs

       We ate lunch at the Impressions Baisha Cafe in the small village of Baisha just outside the city.  The houses in this village survived the earthquake because the foundations are granite, the walls are adobe mud and straw and the wooden supports use pegs not nails.  The roofs are tile.  This allows movement when the earth shakes.

Baisha tie-dyeing

Street food

Wine jars

Walls and construction which withstood the 1996 and other powerful earthquakes

Hybrid between Hundai and a Chinese car

        After lunch we visited the Baisha Naxi Embroidery Institute School.  Girls learn embroidery skills from teachers and masters. It is very fine, taxing work and not many can do it seven days a week from 7:30 AM to 6 PM.  Their work is beautiful.

Silk Roads map

Baisha Naxi Embroidery Institute

Baisha Naxi Embroidery Institute

Guide in Naxi dress

        On our way to look at the Baisha Frescoes, we got glimpses of the 18,360-foot Jade Dragon Snow Mountain that is at the eastern end of the Himalayas.  The jagged peak is supposed to be in the shape of a dragon.
        At the Baisha Frescoes we first looked at a wall with Naxi Dongba pictographs, about which we would later learn more.  The Naxi written language, called Dongba pictographs, is not unlike Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

Naxi Dongba pictographs

Naxi Dongba pictographs

        The Baisha frescoes are from the Ming dynasty. We were able to see three of the 600-year old wall frescoes (no pictures allowed).  They all depict the three religions to indicate peace among those living and trading in Lijiang: Tibetan Buddhism, Han Buddhism and Taoism.  The original paint has survived being plastered over during the Cultural Revolution.  They are painted on wood held together with pegs and painted with vermillion (red), gold (yellow), soot (black), and turquoise (blue).  One has Buddha in the middle, one has the god of Mercy, and the third, a peacock.

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is in the clouds

Woman in Baisha Village

        We walked to the house of Joseph Rock, an Austrian-American explorer, geographer, linguist, and botanist . He studied herbal medicines here from 1922 to 1946.  His house, like others in the village, is built with rough stones so well placed that they only used mud and straw as mortar.  Dr. Rock's house is a sort of museum.  It is not restored or used for any new purpose.  Dr. Rock is also remembered for drawing maps through the Himalaya Mountains used by the Flying Tigers and for his many contributions to National Geographic magazine.

Courtyard at Rock's house