This morning we said goodbye to our hosts at the center. It was wonderful to stay and study Qigong and meditation in such a beautiful and peaceful setting.
Every Yin has its Yang, and that took the form of a crazy bus ride to Lijiang located in Yunnan, China. The bus driver was a very good, but the road was a narrow two lane path through the mountain. The only guard rail was a set of low stone posts placed periodically along the sides of the sheer cliff. He had some serious bus driving Kung Fu.
Lijiang is a scenic city nestled in the foothills of famous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and its range. It is considered one of the most beautiful places in China with its pristine mountain scenery and well preserved old city – a UNESCO world heritage site.
Lijiang is inhabited by the Naxi ethnic group. The Naxi are a matriarchal society which they call a men’s paradise! They symbol for women in this group is the tiger, meaning power. The symbol for men is the ox, meaning wealth. The women worry about how to run things and the men enjoy the wealth and prosperity which the women produce.
Marriage is interesting in this society. The man moves into the woman’s house. The children are considered the property of the woman’s family, along with the worldly possessions and land. The men can come and go as they please. Only the men may be priests.
Compared to conventional notions of marriage, this arrangement seems quite unusual. You might think it would lead to a libertine lifestyle, but the reality is that the marriages are very stable and domestic violence is very low. The people genuinely seemed to be some of the happiest we’ve met anywhere.
Our hotel was built on the model of the traditional Naxi courtyard home. It had a beautiful garden in the center and opened up next to an old part of town which had amazing shopping and dining. The goods were not the typical China tourist trinkets, but traditional Naxi and Dongba crafts. They were of very high quality and reasonably priced.
