Joseph Rock chose to die among the high-altitude flowers of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, writing of his longing for this cold peak from his final sickbed in Hawaii. In 1922, the Austrian-American explorer arrived in Yuhu Village, historically known as Wuluken, under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He brought aluminum-riveted leather trunks, a hunting shotgun, dental tools, and carpentry instruments to this outpost at 2,400 meters. For 27 years, Rock lived in this timber-framed house with his Naxi assistant, Li Siyu. Together, they studied the local botany and translated hundreds of Dongba scriptures. Rock recorded the rituals of pre-revolutionary Lijiang, eventually publishing The Ancient Na-khi Kingdom of Southwest China.

The residence is a traditional Naxi layout of three houses surrounding a single central courtyard. Its thick walls are built from dark, rough volcanic glacial stones and heavy timber, designed to withstand the mountain winds. On the second floor, the timber floorboards creak beneath your feet. This room served as the field headquarters for the National Geographic Society's Yunnan Expedition. Here, Rock's wooden desk, twin bed, bookshelves, and an alarm clock remain in their original places.

Today, local Naxi residents preserve this Yunnan Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit. Visitors stand in the quiet rooms, looking at Rock's heavy woolen coat and the black-and-white photographs of Tusi chieftains. The smell of cold stone and the imagined scent of kerosene from his old lamps linger in the air. The mountain wind still rattles the wooden window frames, echoing the quiet determination of a scholar who found his home at the edge of the snows.