Exploring Jade Water Village

My next stop on the list was Jade Water Village. This had been recommended to me by several people, among them the anthropologist from the previous night. I figured it must be special, because it was rated 4A on the Chinese scale of touristic and cultural relevance. The scale starts with 1A and ends with 5A 😉

I had spent so much time in Baisha that I only got here an hour or so before they closed the park. A lot of the internal sights, such as the folk craft village, were already closed, but they let me in anyways to explore all the other outdoor areas. My first stop was a plaza where the relationship between humans and nature was explained according to Naxi beliefs. It resonated strongly with me, and I felt it was an extra relevant point of view in this day and age where we are nearing environmental collapse more and more every day. Please take some time to read the texts in the photos as well to understand better.

At this place of worship was also a sacred spring, where I topped up my water bottle with sacred water. I then continued my exploration of the place, discovering a palace replica and a monument honoring all the saved, and lost, knowledge about the local Naxi people. The entire place was quite pretty, though clearly designed for mass tourism, and I was very glad that I only had to share the place with maybe 30 other people, as all the tour buses had already left for the day.

I found a little resting cabin nestled alongside a small waterfall, and decided to rest here for a few moments and close my eyes to listen to the rushing water. Unfortunately I fell asleep doing so, causing me to rush to the last remaining parts of the village, seeing how I had spent 20min out of my 80min visit sleeping 😅Read more