Shuhe Tea and Horse Old Town


Shuhe Tea and Horse Old Town is located 4 kilometers to the northwest of the Ancient City of Lijiang. Its central part
covers an area of about 5 square kilometers. There live almost one thousand families and the population is about
3,000. In 1997, Shuhe Tea and Horse Old Town was ranked as an important part of the Ancient City of Lijiang which
was already the World Cultural Heritage then by the Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization of the United
Nations.

Shuhe has a long history. It had become the distributing center of Naxi foremen in as early as the Tang and Song
Dynasty; and it is also an important market town still remained complete on the Ancient Road of Tea and Horses.
Prosperous tea and horse trade, colorful multi-cultures make Naxi people develop harmoniously. The Ancient Road
of Tea and Horse went from the south Yunnan to Lasa of Tibet via Lijiang. In the history of transportation
development during the thousands of years of Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, Shuhe had been an important posthouse
along the ancient trade route. It had been one of the four big bazaars in Lijiang, and also been called "the
Hometown to the Cobblers". Shuhe has witnessed the history of development of Naxi foremen from the farming
civilization to the commercial civilization.

Shuhe Tea and Horse Old Town is also one of the first settlements of Naxi ancestors. It is not only a very important town in the Tea-horse Road
that leads to Tibet, but also a famous cobbler town. The cobblers here are as skillful as those in Italy. The leather products that they make are the
best seller in Tea-horse Road. Because of trading activities along this road, the Naxi people gradually gave up the nomadic life and settled for
farming and later started to do business.

Shuhe was built along the mountainside and faces the river. There are two rivers on each side of it that go
through the whole, village. Channels were dug so that the water would pass by each house. People use
stones in the nearby mountains to make the walls of their houses. Compared to those in the ancient old
town, the houses here are even more natural. Right in the middle of Shuhe, there is a square market,
which is called Shuhe Square Market. Observing closely, you will find that the one in the old town was built
totally according to this one. Walking in Shuhe, you will have the feeling that this ancient town of Shuhe is
the model of the Old Town while the Old Town is tension and development of Shuhe.