This story on the Chinese village of Lijiang ran in Budget Travel and is archived below.
October 2006
Forgotten Kingdom
In China, preservation often comes as an afterthought, if at all. For a glimpse of what life was like long before Shanghai built the world’s most futuristic skyline, Stephan Faris heads to where the Chinese go to see old China, a city called Lijiang.By Stephan Faris
When the Communists took power in China, Beijing’s once-famous city walls were knocked down for construction material. In their place now runs a traffic-clogged road. In the center of the magnificent Forbidden City, just beyond the last colossal door before the emperor’s private quarters, a Starbucks has opened. At a Buddhist temple outside of town, a roller coaster runs in between mountaintop pagodas.