Lijiang - Other Attractions

These are some smaller attractions that I think can be skipped, especially some tend to be man made in the recent years. Well, when I visit a culturally rich place, I prefer to see its original look, rather than enriched or built by government for tourists. Unfortunately some of these smaller attractions listed in this post fall into that category. If I had known better, I would have skipped them. Nevertheless, they are not complete time waster as we could still learn a bit on their religions and their legends.

Legend of the Princess

Although there are a few versions about this Legend of the Princess, they all have some commonalities. First, the princess was imprisoned above the pond at the right side of this bridge. Second, all versions come with a sad ending, and the princess must die.

Story 1 – told by our guide
The king sent his favorite daughter to marry the prince of his enemy, pretending to be in peace with them. In fact, he wanted his daughter to feed him with information so that he could kill the prince and win the next battle. The princess fell in love with the prince and disobeyed her father. The king sent bad news on the queen, to lure the princess back home. Once she was back, she was imprisoned in a hut above the pond. She sent her dog to deliver message of her capture to the prince, but the dog was found and killed. When she found out that the prince was killed, she committed suicide in the hut by refusing to eat and drink.

Story 2 – told on the signboard

Similar to story 1, but in this version, it was the king who wanted to kill the princess by not giving her any water to drink. She tried to drink the water by dipping her long hair into the pond via the cracks of the hut floor. When found out, the father shaved her bald, and she was dead of thirst a few days after the shave.

DongBa Religion

Here is the DongBa symbol, practiced by most of the Naxi tribe (biggest minorities in Lijian). They worship 5 gods, with the most important/powerful one in the center.


This is the place they go up to worship their DongBa god. The long steps lead people walking away, from the hell to this world, and from this world to the heaven. On the left of the stair case is considered the death side – no photos could be taken there as it is believed full of evil spirits. On the right side is the good side – photos can be taken. A bit spooky, and I’m chicken hearted, so have to follow the rules! In fact, I even scared to take photo in the ‘good side’!


Here are some souvenirs they sell there. I’m particularly scared of the faced doll. It looks like voodoo thingy to me. :p

Meat Stones

They have an exhibition of meat stones in one of the attractions (can’t remember which one). Meat stones are natural stones that looks exactly like a piece of meat, without any modifications! There are 65 pieces of such meat stones in displayed in this museum. Apart from this set, there is one piece in Taiwan and another one in Singapore. Don’t you think they look like real meat??!!