Old Town of Lijiang memoir: 20 years as a World Cultural Heritage site

The Old Town of Lijiang was still an unknown small town in the northwestern part of Yunnan province on Dec 4, 1997, when it was listed as a World Cultural Heritage site.

Today Lijiang is one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. Set on a plateau with an average altitude of 2,400 meters, it saw a total of 35.2 million tourists in 2016.

The number of tourists visiting in 1995 was 845,000, with total tourism revenue of 326 million yuan ($49.4 million). Those numbers had risen by a factor of 3.8 to 4.04 million with tourism revenue of 3.86 billion yuan by 2005. Last year, the total tourism revenue of the city jumped to 60.9 billion yuan.

Kishore Rao, director of UNESCO's World Heritage Center, visited the Old Town of Lijiang in 2012 and determined that it provided an effective protection method for famous historical cities and towns facing great threats from the rapid development of tourism and urban modernization.

He said, "I'm glad to see Lijiang people's enthusiasm for the protection of their heritage. The city explored a historical focus for tourism development and world heritage conservation and strengthened authentic renovations of traditional local residences."

The Old Town of Lijiang in 1995 [Photo by Bruce Connolly]

The Old Town of Lijiang in 2016 [Photo by Du Jianhui provided to chinadaily.com.cn]