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Lijiang,
Naxi Autonomous District
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| Xishuangbanna
--- peacock's home, Water - splashing festival of Dai, and tropical
rain forest |
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Xishuangbanna is
the southernmost prefecture of Yunnan
Province with the city of Jinghong and the counties of
Menghai and
Mengla under its jurisdiction. Of Xishuangbanna's 19,184.45
square
kilometers of territory, tourist and scenic resorts make up
1,202.13
square kilometers, and nature reserves occupy a total
of 2,064.6
square kilometers.
The prefecture is nicknamed. " Aerial Garden " for its luxuriant
and multi - layered primitive woods and tropical rain
forests, which
are teeming with animals and plants.
Within thick and boundless forests wild elephants and wild
oxen ramble about , with peacocks in their pride
, gibbons at play,
and hornbills whispering .
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Renowned as a huge natural zoo , Xishuangbanna's rain forest and monsoon
jungles provide a habitat for more
than 500 species of terrestrial
vertebrates . over 300 species of birds , over 40 species of amphibious animals
and more
than 60 species of reptiles,
including the boa constrictor. |
Among animals for world protection are elephants , white-breasted black
woodpeckers , leopards and Bengalese
tigers . |
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Thirteen species of wild life enjoy state protection , including loris , the
gibbons , the red-necked cranes , the brown-
neck horn-bills , and the green
peacocks , which to the Dai people are a symbol of peace , happiness and good
fortune
and whose graceful postures can put
professional dancers to shame. The region has 5,000 kinds of plants or about
one-sixth of the total in China .
This has earned it the renown and sobriquet " The moonstone on the Crown of the
Kingdom
of Plants ." |
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Among these are such fascinating ones as the " color-changing flower " whose
colors change three times daily
and the "dancing herb " whose
leaves rotate gently . Then there is " mysterious fruit " which reverse tastes
, turning sour
to sweet . |
Species of trees that go back a million years are still propagating
themselves . The " King of Tea Trees ," which
authorities say is at least 800
years old , continues to sprout , adding extraordinary splendor to the homeland
of the famous
Pu'er tea . In Xishuangbanna ,there
is a saying : " even a single tree can make a forest and an old stalk can
blossom and
beat fruit ." |
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It takes twenty or so hours to drive from Kunming to Xishuangbanna, which are
700 kilometers apart. Banna Airport is
large enough to accommodate
Boeing-737s, and a flight between Kunming and Xishuangbanna takes about 50
minutes.
Apart from daily flights to and from
Kunming, the airport also operates chartered flights between the prefecture and
Chengdu,
Chongqing, Bangkok and some other
cities. |
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The Water Splashing Festival (The Dai New Year) |
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The
Water Splashing Festival is held by the Dai Nationality in the sixth
month of the Dai calendar(in the
middle of April) is the grandest ceremonial occasion
for the Dai, the De'ang and the Achang
nationalities
who believe in Theravada Buddhism. It is also known
as the Festival for bathing Lord Buddha.The festival is related
to the Buddhist legend of dragon sprinkling
fragrant showers on Lord Buddha at his birth. The
Buddhist legend has gradually been mingled with the customs
of the Dai people since their conversion to
Buddhism.
Currently, the Dai
festival is a combination of the
Flower Collecting Festival and the Water
Splashing
Fair. Other Dai legendary elements have been added
to it, including the seven beautiful women getting-grid
of the fire fiend and so on.
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At
present, the Water Splashing Festival is a traditional festival for the Dai
people in Xishuangbanna and other places
to send off the old and the greet the
new, and to give best wishes to each other. The festive activities include
bathing Lord
Buddha, sprinkling water onto each other
for good fortune, dragon boat racing, launching rockets and the Kongming
Lantern,
going to the fair, etc. Young poodle would
like to dance the Peacock Dance accompanied by the elephant - leg drums.
They also play the game of throwing purses
to each other .
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