Yulong County Travel Guide

Yulong Naxi Autonomous County (玉龙纳西族自治县) is located in Lijiang City Prefecture, Yunnan, China.

Lijiang nestles at the foot of Yulong Snow Mountain in the northwestern part of Yunnan Province. For the past thousand years, it has been one of the most famous towns in all of China. In ancient times, it was settled by Nomadic tribes-people. In 1253, the great Mongol leader Kublai Khan established a garrison in Lijiang, from where he headed further south to conquer the State of Dali.

Today, some 188,000 Naxi people are living in the county of Lijiang. They account for almost 60 per cent of the county's total population of 325,000. Of the rest, the majority are ethnic Han, Bai, Lisu, Pumi and Tibetan. All in all, twelve ethnic groups call Lijiang home. Minority – that is non-Han – people constitute eighty-three percent of the total population.

Baoshan Stone Village is located in the north of Lijiang – some 110 kilometers from the ancient town itself. The stone village actually stands on a huge rock beside a river called the Jinsha, at an altitude ranging from 1,600 to 4,600 meters. The village is home to around a hundred Naxi families, who live, surrounded by mountains and cliffs. There is only one way into the village from the mountain path; and at the far side, a stone gate shows the way to the Jinsha River.

From a distance, the stone village looks like a well-cultivated Bonsai tree resting in a ceramic pot; as I get closer, I find the residents are friendly, but there's no disguising the strong sense they feel of being independent from the rest of the world.