Contest #434: Lijiang Old Town, Yunnan, China

Inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1997, Lijiang Old Town is a millennial aged town of incredibly diverse influences. Because the city sits on the “Old Tea Horse Caravan Trail”, it was a meeting place for a vast array of traders from a wide variety of cultures, many of whom contributed to the unique lifestyle and ambiance of the town.

Lijiang is known for its unique water system. Quoting from the brief to the nominating committee at UNESCO: “Lijiang’s remarkable water system stems Tom the 40,000 m* Heilongtan (Black Dragon Pool), which is fed by dozen of springs on the mountainside. Water flows Tom here to the Shuangshi Bridge, where it branches into three tributaries, known as the Eastern, Central, and Western Rivers. These subdivide into a network of channels and culverts to supply every house in the town. This water supply is supplemented by many springs and wells within the town itself.”

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Old city Channels in Lijiang

Those who avoided searching on the UNESCO site to find it (before the hint) included:

  • Eloy Cano
  • hhgygy
  • Phil Ower
  • Jason Hatterman
  • steve willis
  • mehmet DURMUS
  • Garfield
  • Lelie
  • Lighthouse
  • Ann K.
  • Joe9000
  • RicardPG
  • Traxsyder

And those who must really be getting tired of whc.unesco.org by now:

  • Junebug