Baisha village

CCTV.COM (07.07 2003 15:03)

    A number of inns and cafes in Lijiang have bicycles for hire. You pay 15 yuan a day for the bike. If something goes wrong with the bike on the road, it's free of charge.

    Riding a bicycle on a sunny afternoon, some 40 minutes later, you will find yourself in Baisha village.

    Baisha village is famous for its murals, called Baisha Murals. It's hard to really understand what they're all about when you don't have someone to explain them.

    Compared to the old town of Lijiang, this is a real, living old village, with adobe walls and some rickety houses. In Baisha, you've moved beyond the reach of the souvenir shops.

    Nevertheless, an old man along the road sells copperware he's made himself. The old man started to learn the trade when he was 13 but joined the army in his 30s and was sent to Korea. You wouldn't expect to meet someone by the road with so many connections to world history. Now the local authorities have asked him, a man in his 80s, to pick up his old trade and teach more apprentices to carry on the tradition.

Editor:Han Ling