Lijiang: A Summer Retreat in the Naxi Kingdom

While the rest of China swelters, Lijiang locals are wearing light jackets and drinking hot tea.

At 2,400 meters, this ancient city averages 20°C in summer. Snowmelt from Jade Dragon Snow Mountain flows through three ancient canals that have turned the city's waterwheels for 800 years.

I stayed five days at a tea-horse inn in Shuhe Ancient Town. The owner, He Yue, is a young Naxi woman who runs the inn by day and takes guests to Black Dragon Pool at dusk. "The Naxi believe mountains have spirit and water has soul," she says. "We are merely passing through."

The most memorable stop was the Dongba paper workshop. Dongba script is the only pictographic writing system still in use today. I learned to write one Dongba character: "安" (peace) — a person inside a house, living in harmony with nature.

A Lijiang summer is not an air-conditioned one. It is a summer of mountain wind, ancient springs, and the smile of a Naxi girl.