Travel in Chinese Lesson 74 Lijiang

雪梅：还有多长时间才到丽江？怎么从这儿还什么都看不到？

人豪：还有十来分钟吧！看把你急的，去过那么多地方，还是第一次见你这样。

雪梅：那当然了，这可是我向往已久的一个地方。

人豪：对了，你上次不是说你有一个同事现在就在丽江吗？

雪梅：对，他就是丽江人，这两天他正好回家探亲。

人豪：太好了，这下可以让他给我们当导游，好好儿介绍一下丽江。

雪梅：没问题，他说我们到宾馆后就马上和我们联系。

雪梅/人豪：丽江到了

同事：你们好！ 人豪、雪：你们好！

雪梅：介绍一下儿。这是我老公人豪人豪；这是我同事小孟。

同事：欢迎你们到我的家乡丽江来。

同事：怎么样？对这儿的气候还适应吗？

人豪：我还好，不过雪梅有些不舒服。

雪梅：有点头疼。

同事：那是有点轻微的高原反应，没关系，很快就会好了。

雪：我没事儿，哎，小孟，快带我们去古城逛逛吧。

人豪：你看，雪梅都等不及了。

同事：没问题，咱们走吧。

朋友：这就是丽江古城了。

雪梅：真是要多漂亮就有多漂亮，我从来没看过这么美的地方。

同事：这只是古城的入口，里边的景色更美。

人豪：这青石小路、流水，连同临水的建筑，真是人间仙境啊。

雪梅：假若能一直生活在这里就好了。

朋友：这里桥多，但是都不一样，以石板桥、木板桥居多。你看，那就是一座石板桥。

雪梅：你们快点儿来看，从这儿可以看见雪山的倒影，

朋友：所以这又叫映雪桥嘛！

雪梅：映雪桥，好别致的名字。

人豪：你们看这石板路，坑坑洼洼的，以前这里肯定是个热闹的地方。

朋友：据说这里自古就是进出西藏的茶马古道。

雪梅：茶马古道？什么意思？

朋友：以前交通不便，人们用马把茶叶、盐巴等生活日用品运进西藏，而这里就是马帮的必经之路。

雪梅：听起来好象有很多故事。

朋友：对，茶马古道的历史很长，就好象你们所知道的丝绸之路一样。

雪梅：哇，我回去一定要好好写一篇关于这方面的文章。

人豪：老李啊，这些民居的建筑也很有特色。都是什么时期的？

朋友：这基本上保留的是明清建筑的特色。

雪梅：我觉得有的地方和中原地区的民居也很接近。

人豪：唉，“小桥、流水、人家”。真是得天独厚啊。

雪梅：你都诗兴大发了。

人豪：没办法，谁让这儿的风景那么美丽呢？

雪梅：小孟，古城好是好，可是道路很窄，没有车，住在这儿的人会不会不太方便？

朋友：我家不住在古城里边。

雪梅：是吗？我还以为丽江人都住古城呢。

朋友：现在住在古城的人已经不多了，大部分的人都迁到外边的新城去了。这也是为了更好的保护古城。

人豪：这个主意挺不错的。就好象巴黎一样，也是分旧城和新城的。
 

Translation:

Xuemei： How much longer is it to Lijiang? How come we still can’t see anything?

Renhao：Another fifteen minutes or so！Calm down, you’ve traveled to so many places, it’s the first time I’ve seen you like this.

Xuemei：Of course, this is a place I’ve dreamed about for a long time.

Renhao：That’s right. Didn’t you say last time that you had a colleague from Lijiang?

Xuemei：Yes, he’s from Lijiang. The good thing is he’s on a home visit in the next few days.

Renhao：That’s great. He can be our tour guide and really show us around.

Xuemei：No problem. He said he’ll get in touch with us once we get to the hotel.

Colleague：Hello！Welcome to my hometown.

Huang、Xue：Hello！

Colleague：How’s it going? Are you used to the weather here?

Huang：I’m OK, but Xuemei’s not feeling well.

Colleague：It’s just a touch of altitude sickness. Don’t worry. You’ll get over it soon.

Xue：I’m OK. Come on, Xiao Meng, take us to the old town. I can’t wait.

Colleague：Sure. Just follow me. You can see how good I am as an amateur tour guide.

Friend：This is the old town of Lijiang.

Xuemei：It’s more beautiful than I ever imagined. I’ve never seen anywher like it.

Colleague：This is just the entrance to the old town. It’s even better inside.

Huang：All these cobble stone streets, flowing creeks and the waterside buildings. This is like heaven on earth!

Xuemei：If only I could live here all the time.

Friend：There are many bridges here, but they’re all different，mostly stone bridges and wooden bridges. Look, there ’s a stone bridge.

Xuemei：Come here quick. From here you can see the reflection of the snow mountain.

Friend：That’s why this is also called the Ying Xue Bridge！

Xuemei：Ying Xue Bridge. Such an interesting name!

Huang：Look at these streets made of stone blocks, the surface is all uneven. I’m sure this used to be a popular place.

Friend：Apparently this used to be the Chama Gudao or Ancient Tea route used to carry goods in and out of Tibet .

Xuemei：Ancient Tea route? What does that mean?

Friend：Transport wasn’t easy back then. People used to move daily necessities like tea and salt into Tibet on horseback. This was the route that the horse caravan had to pass along.

Xuemei：Sounds like there are many stories there.

Friend：That’s right. The tea route has a long history，just like the Silk Road which you know about.

Xuemei：Wow, I have to write an article about this when I get back.

Huang：Lao Li, these residences are quite special. What period are they from?

Friend：The buildings here are basically in the Ming and Qing dynasty styles.

Xuemei：I think they’re similar to the residences in the central regions.

Friend：You’re right. These residences have also adopted some characteristics of Han, Tibetan and Bai style buildings.

Huang：They really have it made, with their“small bridge and flowing creek” lifestyle.

Xuemei： Look, it’s bringing out the poet in him.

Renhao： What can I do, this place is so beautiful?

Xuemei： The Old Town is nice, but the streets are so narrow. You wouldn’t be able to drive here. Wouldn’t that make living here a bit inconvenient?

Friend：I don’t live in the old town.

Xuemei：Really? I thought people in Lijiang lived in the old town.

Friend：Not many people live in the old town now. Most people have moved to the new part of the city. This is also to better protect the old town.

Renhao：Good idea. Just like Paris is divided into the old city and the new.
 

Bookmarks

1、假若 if, supposing

（例）假若能一直待在中国就好了。

If I could just stay in China, that'll be good.

（例）假若能象他一样这么快拿到签证就好了。

If I could get a visa as quickly as he did, that'll be good.

2、基本 basically

（例）对于中国的历史，他缺乏基本的常识 。

As far as Chinese history goes, he' s lacking basic common knowledge.

（例）这个小镇基本上没来过几个外国人。

This small village has basically never been visited by foreigners.

Sign Posts

The Old Town of Lijiang

The Old Town of Lijiang is a well-preserved ancient city in Yunnan, populated mainly by the Naxi ethnic group. Lijiang is located on a plateau approximately 2,400 meters above the sea level and embraced by the tree-covered mountains to the west and north. Crystal clear water runs through the beautiful old town. Some say the smooth dark rocks make the city look a huge jade ink slab, which led to this town also being known as 大砚镇, or the Town of the Big Ink Slab.

The Old Town has a history of more than 800 years, being first built in the late Song Dynasty. In the early Yuan Dynasty, under the emperor Kublai Khan, Lijiang became the cultural, political and commercial centre of this region, so Lijiang played a very important role in the trade and interaction between Yunnan, the Chinese hinterland, Tibet, India and other South Asian countries.

One thing that makes Lijiang unique is that most cities of this era were built with a city wall, but Lijiang never had a defensive wall. There's an interesting story that explains why. Lijiang was ruled by the Mu family for more than 500 years. If the Chinese character 木 or wood is surrounded by a frame (represent a city wall), this becomes the character 困, which means "siege" or "predicament". According to superstition, this would mean that the governing Mu family and their descendants would always be trapped like a rat in a hole. To avoid this fate, the Mu family decided never to build a wall around their city.

The culture of this region is a distinct mix of Han, Bai and Tibetan cultures into a unique Naxi style. The layout of the town is free-flowing and flexible, the houses are close to each other and diverse in style, and the lanes are narrow and meandering.

Black Dragon Pool 黑龙潭 is the main water source for the town as it subdivides into many streams which can reach every family and every street in the town. Aqueducts flow through the city, willow trees grow everywher and there are almost 350 unique and varied in the little town. Some people call Lijiang the "a Highland Suzhou" because of the meandering canalways.

The center of the Old Town is the Square Street 四方街. Four main streets radiate from Square Street. Countless lanes extending in all directions from these streets form a network and connect every corner of the town. The streets in the Old Town are paved in the massive and fine-grained local bluestone. The stones add a sense of antiquity and mystery to the Old Town.

In 1997, the Old Town of Lijiang was included in the list of world heritage sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

The Ancient Tea and Horse Road

When talking of Lijiang, it's impossible not to mention an ancient road walked by both man and horse in the mountains of this region, bridging the Chinese hinterland and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 青藏高原. Along the unpaved and often rugged road, tea, salt and sugar flowed into Tibet, while horses, cows, furs and other local products came Eastward. The ancient commercial passage, dubbed the "Ancient Tea and Horse Road" 茶马古道, first appeared during the Tang Dynasty, over a thousand years ago.

Historically, this road played a role similar to the Silk Road, which passed to the north of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, by promoting facilitating trade between neighbouring countries and promoting cultural exchange and ethnic migration.

The road stretched across more than 4,000 kilometers, from Sichuan?and Yunnan provinces to Tibet and even further into India. Just as the Silk Road, the Ancient Tea and Horse Road disappeared with the dawn of modern civilization, but both routes have played very important roles in the development of China. Different Chinese ethnic cultures, such as the Dai, Yi, Han, Bai, Naxi and Tibetans, have met, fused and developed along the historic road.

The road ran across the Hengduan Mountains and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau -- an extremely difficult natural barrier to cross, and also passed through subtropical forests, beside picturesque lakes and across turbulent rivers.

The name “tea and horse road” comes from two of the main commodities traded along this route. Chinese tea was in high demand in Tibet. On the other hand, horses were also very important for the Han people. The result was the flourishing of the tea-horse trade.#

During the World War II, when Myanmar fell into the hands of the Japanese, the Ancient Tea Horse Road was revived and became a major trade route. With the opening of the modern highways into Tibet in the 1960s, however, use of the old road declined. Some sections, however, are still used for transportation. Other sections, like this area of Lijiang, are popular destinations for tourists.

Substitution and Extension

以......居多 to be comprised mainly of

（例）来这里旅游的人，以外国游客居多。

The travellers who come here are mainly foreign tourists.