The Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County, another historically and culturally famous town in China, lies 199 kilometres away in the northwest of Dali.
Situated in the northwestern part of Yunnan Province and the upper reaches of the Jinshajiang (Golden Sand) River, Lijiang is a region were the Naxi people live in compact communities with an area of 7,425 square kilometres. The total population is 301 thousand people, consisting of the Naxi, Han, Bai, Tibetan, Pumi, Lisu, Yi and other nationalities. The Naxi people constitute 58% of the total population. The county seat (Dayanzhen), concurrently the administrative seat of Lijiang Prefecture, is the political, economic and cultural centre of the county and prefecture.
Lijiang is the centre of the splendid Naxi culture and at the same time the confluence of the cultural exchange for the Han, Tibetan, Bai and Naxi nationalities. From the Kaiyuan era (713-742) of the Tang Dynasty, the Naxi people began to assimilate the Han culture from the Central Plains and the Tibetan culture from the northwest and gradually developed a culture of their own. The Naxi culture is embodies in the naxi pictographic script, the Dongba Scriptures, and the Dongba music and dances. They are inseparable parts of the Chinese cultural treasure.
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