The land south of the clouds

A long, long time ago, in china’s Yunnan province, a young woman named Immortality fell in love with a man from a rival tribe named Feather.

The elders in both tribes refused to give their blessings to the romance. Distraught, Immortality fled to the Himalayan slopes that tower over their tribal plain and killed herself. Stricken by grief, Feather followed his beloved to immortality. In the afterlife, they settled on the slopes of the mountain called Jade Dragon.

In Yunnan’s Naxi tribal lore, there are many such stories of doomed romance. The stories are so powerful that to this day, the Jade Dragon Snowy Mountain continues to be a favorite suicide spot for youths and doomed lovers.

The stories are depicted in Yunnan stage plays rendered in the spectacular combination of ancient tradition and modern design that China presented to the world during the Beijing Olympics, the Shanghai World Expo and its 60th National Day celebrations.

There’s no way for me to tell how much of the Naxi Romeo and Juliet stories are true. But the tragic love stories added spice to the unique play about Naxi culture, which I watched in an amphitheater in the outskirts of downtown Lijiang.

With the Jade Dragon mountain as natural backdrop, a parade of several of Yunnan’s 26 ethnic minority groups, wearing their distinctive costumes, came bounding onto the stage or riding on short-legged horses around the audience.

Peaceful co-existence among tribal cultures with different lifestyles and beliefs is a recurring theme in Yunnan’s tourism program. About 2,000 years ago, the Southern Silk Route and Tea and Horse Road stretched from Sichuan to Yunnan and then down to Southeast Asia and Central Asia. Yunnan has the second largest ethnic population among Chinese provinces.

Several tribal communities dot the road that connects the Yunnan capital of Kunming to the city of Dali and then Lijiang. Each community is identified through the tribal totems and artwork painted on house walls. Sometimes the paintings depict the village’s principal attraction or product: dinosaur bones in one, mushrooms in another.

The lowlands of Lijiang, in the Chinese southwest, sit 3,300 meters above sea level. Even at noon in summer, in the open air near the foot of the Jade Dragon mountain, the wind chill is high and the temperature too low for someone from the tropics. I shivered in my raincoat, provided by tour operators, as I watched the play in driving rain. The amphitheater was packed. In Lijiang, rain or shine, the show must go on. 

It was in fact colder at the foot of the mountain than on the slopes. Jade Dragon’s highest peak, I was told, is about the same elevation as Tibet from sea level.

Going up to the mountain, we drove through the vast Lijiang valley before going up a scenic, winding mountain road in an evergreen forest. I was dressed for summer in a subtropical region: denim jeans, cotton tees and flip-flops. In the gloomy mountain weather, the temperature was bone-chilling. Fortunately, there were bright yellow winter jackets for all visitors.

I took a cable car to the start of the snow-covered part of the slopes. The car trundled above the treetops, and then above low-lying clouds.

Those with heart or respiratory problems were advised to stay behind. Warned to prepare for thin air at high altitude, I was determined to move slowly and breathe evenly to protect my lungs. Medical personnel accompanied our tour group, ready with portable oxygen packs and various drugs.

And then the peaks loomed before me: Jade Dragon, its majestic slopes covered with heavy snow. Steps were built into the slopes, looking dizzyingly steep from the cable car station. I had no intention of climbing those steps, certainly not in my flip-flops. But the sight of many other people climbing up, and no one keeling over, emboldened me. Plus the weather above the clouds was actually better and warmer than below.

How do you climb steep, narrow steps up to 4,600 meters above sea level? With a brief pause at every step. Around me experienced climbers moved much faster.

Midway to the top there was a hotdog stand. People kept pointing to my flip-flops in amazement. I stopped at 4,591 meters, near the highest peak, only because our guide told me it was time to go down or we’d miss the next stop on the tour. I had time to savor the view from above the clouds, with the sun peeking out. Yunnan isn’t translated literally into “the land south of the clouds” for nothing.

I made my way down, slowly again. One of the medics handed me an oxygen pack, but I didn’t really need it. My toes survived the weather. A Chinese volunteer guide who assisted me throughout the Lijiang visit bounded down the steps from the peak, as nimbly as a mountain goat.

The Naxis are as familiar with mountain climbing as they are with riding horses across the Lijiang valley.

Their lifestyle is depicted in arts, crafts and other tourist souvenirs in Lijiang’s Old Town, a 600-year-old World Heritage site. The place, dotted with traditional teahouses, souvenir shops, and food stalls selling quaint items such as Tibetan yak jerky, is packed with tourists, most of them domestic visitors. Some of the old houses, featuring the distinctive tribal architecture, have been converted into restaurants, coffee shops and bars where clients can sing on stage and dance.

In one corner of the Old City is the garden mansion of Naxi chief Mu, whose family ruled the enclave for 470 years. The mansion, destroyed by wars and a major earthquake in 1996, was rebuilt through a World Bank grant. A tour of the stone mansion includes stories of brothers sharing one wife in the Naxi tribe.

The peaks of Jade Dragon mountain

After a long night at the Old City, you can rest in the posh Pullman Lijiang spa and resort hotel, a short drive from the downtown area. The hotel, with the Jade Dragon Snowy Mountain as backdrop, has been in operation for only a few months. Designed by Hong Kong’s Cheung Chong company and operated by the same group that runs the Sofitel chain, the hotel blends traditional Yunnan architecture with modern amenities including high-speed Internet and international cuisine.

Lijiang can be reached by plane from Yunnan’s capital Kunming. But a five-hour drive from Kunming and a stopover in Dali City is more interesting. Dali is home to the Bai ethnic minority and is an autonomous prefecture. The city, built around the picturesque Erhai Lake, features distinctive Bai architecture of white painted homes with gray accents and gray tiled roofs.

Dali’s lovely university, nestled against the snow-capped Cong Mountain slopes and facing the lake, is attracting thousands of exchange students from neighboring Southeast Asian and South Asian countries.

For a taste of traditional Yunnan life near Dali, you can stay at the Linden Centre in the village of Xizhou, a luxurious two-story courtyard home of stone and wood built by a Bai merchant before the Communist revolution. It was restored by Brian, Jeanee, Shane and Bryce Linden.

The village is a drive of about five hours from Lijiang, through scenic valleys and mountains that struck me because of the extensive terraced rice paddies built on the slopes.

At the end of the long day, as you laze in the comfort of a luxurious cottage at the Pullman Lijiang, the stillness stirs your imagination, bringing you back to those ancient times, when life was slower and forbidding mountains promised immortality to star-crossed lovers.