Baoshan Stone Town
Naxi village carved directly into a mushroom-shaped rock above a river gorge.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Baoshan Stone Town in Lijiang opens on the Jinsha River in 1253, where Kublai Khan's army, decades before he becomes emperor, finds itself stopped cold with a hundred thousand soldiers and no bridge across the water. It follows how local Naxi families living on this rock help the soldiers past that obstacle, an episode later carved into a tower in Kunming. Around a hundred families still live inside walls built directly into the stone, with beds, stoves, and water troughs chiseled from the rock itself. Stand at the single narrow path in front and you'll see why this place could never be stormed, only entered by invitation.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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