Lijiang Xuantian Pavilion

On the steep slopes of Jinhong Mountain, the Lijiang Xuantian Pavilion stands as a quiet survivor. Located at No. 468 Jiaoyu Road in the Beimen Community of Dayan Street, this traditional timber-frame structure clings to the terraced hillside. Today, it serves as an office and exhibition hall for Jinhong School, the successor to the Gucheng District No. 1 Middle School. School bells and children's voices now drift through the ancient wooden beams.

The pavilion represents a deep cultural synthesis. During the Ming dynasty, the hereditary Naxi chieftains of the Mu clan funded Han Chinese Confucian and Daoist projects. Following the Qing dynasty's administrative reforms, known as Gaitu Guiliu, builders established or reconstructed the pavilion. It originally honored the Daoist deity Xuantian Shangdi, the Zhenwu Emperor. On its south side, local Naxi worshippers introduced older traditions of fertility and reproductive worship.

For generations, the pavilion plaza served as the heart of regional spiritual life. Every sixty years, during the grand Naxi festival called the Jiazi Hui, devotees from various sects assembled here. They filled the air with the scent of incense, performed sacred dances, and held elaborate parades. Local scholars celebrated this connection between education and faith in a couplet: "One name on the stone, one name for the pavilion; ten thousand volumes on the mountain head, ten thousand volumes in the tower."

On October 26, 2012, the Lijiang Municipal Government designated the pavilion as a protected cultural heritage site. It remains a physical record of Naxi adaptability, where state-sponsored Daoism, local folk customs, and modern education occupy the same weathered wood.