Lijiang Beimenli Block

At the northern entrance of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Lijiang Old Town, Beimenli Block stands at No. 36 Xingren Upper Section of Wuyi Street, adjacent to Jinhong Road. This ancient gateway preserves the traditional layout of the Naxi people. Visitors walking through the stone-paved alleys feel the cool, uneven texture of local river rocks underfoot. Overhead, blue-grey tiled roofs and timber-framed structures block the high Yunnan sun, casting long shadows that have defined this passage for centuries.

The architecture connects different eras of governance. Nearby, the reconstructed Lijiang Liu Guan Fu Ya, an administrative complex arranged symmetrically along a north-south axis, recalls the year 1724 when the first imperial official, Yang Bi, established a new center of power. Today, modern conservationists maintain the physical integrity of these structures under a strict "repaired as old" philosophy.

Human life here centers on sensory gatherings. Inside the 5,200-square-meter indoor space of the Tianyi Market, the air carries the scent of roasted barley and cured meats. On July 1, 2024, the block introduced the Cloud Feast, a hundred-meter-long street banquet. Here, guests dress in traditional Naxi garments, choosing from two hundred colorful hand-stitched outfits. They sit together to share the "Three Stacks of Water" feast. The first course brings the taste of sweet honeyed pastries. The final course arrives in heavy, hand-hammered copper pots, each dimple in the metal bearing the mark of a local coppersmith's hammer. As night falls, the crackle of a central bonfire and the rhythm of the Naxi dance fill the stone plaza, uniting the ancient town's past with the laughter of the present.