Lijiang, China

I'm really starting to get into postcards showing people and scenes of ordinary life, they can be so much more interesting than cards showing famous sights and landmarks. It's a shame they are not more common.. and also pretty much impossible to find where I live, although then I'm not sure what kind of images you would get in the West Midlands... :P



This very nice card came from China from a tag. It shows a scene from an ancient town called Lijiang in the YunGui plateau, located in southwestern China. Less than 1.5 square kms in area, the ancient town district was first built in the period of Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the remaining houses of the aborigines were mostly built in the Period of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Lijiang was once a confluence for trade along the old tea horse road. The Lijiang old town is famous for its orderly system of waterways and bridges. The old town of Lijiang differs from other ancient Chinese cities in architecture, history and the culture of its traditional residents the Nakhi people. The town is also a Unesco World Heritage Site.



Unless I'm very much mistaken, the stamp on the right comes from a set of 3 stamps issued in 2003, depicting Double Ninth Festival (The Double Ninth Festival, falling on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, is one of China's traditional festivals.). The theme here is "Playing Chess and Drinking Wine". The other stamp is from a set of 3 definitives issued in 2002, depicting Chinese birds.