What this picture album tries to display is just such a scroll of the history and the real life in the Old Town . It will evoke the wonderful images of the world of Shangri-La. Covering an area of 2.5 square kilometers, Old Town is inhabited by 40,000 residents with Naxi in the majority. It is built at the base of a hill and naturally extends with streams. The houses are well arranged and the residents enjoy a harmonious life.
People jostle each other in the busy and prosperous markets.
All these resemble a painting of an ancient town where commerce and trade thrive. Clear water from the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain gracefully runs through the Old Town. Streets and lanes stretch together with streams and bridges. With ready access to water, the town is forever filled with fresh flowers and the songs of birds. The rich Dongba culture, an encyclopedia of the ancient Naxi society recorded and passed down with Dongba pictographic characters and Naxi language, has been integrated with the cultures and religions of both Han and Tibet.