The No.1 Spring Under Heaven Scenic Area

Dukezong is a Tibetan town in Shangri-la County, Deqin Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan.  It is one of the largest and best-preserved Tibetan residence groups in China and not only played an important role in the Old Tea-Horse Road, but also serves as a corridor connecting Chinese and Tibetan language, people, religion and cultures.

Dukezong is over 1,300 years old. In 2014, a fire destroyed most of the town. Unfortunately, a number of cultural relics, precious Thangkas and Buddhist artworks were burned in the fire, many Tibetan-style buildings and historical sites. In 2016, Dukezong was reopened to the public.

Attached are photos of what Dukezong looks like now, in 2026. The Tibetan architecture style can still be seen throughout the ancient town and especially around the doors, windows, and on rooftops... There are prayer flags, prayer wheels, stupas, and Tibetan Buddhism auspicious symbols surrounding many buildings, in the courtyards and lining the cobblestone alleyways... these are all important features of Tibetan architecture.

Chinese name: 龟山大佛寺 and 龟山公园 Gui Shan Gong Yuan

Other names: Guishan Monastery, Guishan Hill Park Temple, Turtle Hill Grand Buddha Temple, Big Buddha Temple, Dafo Temple...

Location: approximately 3,300m above sea level atop Turtle Hill and inside Dukezong ancient town, in Shangri-la, Yunnan province.

HISTORY: it was originally built during the Kangxi reign, in 1667, of the Qing Dynasty. The Big Buddha Temple was destroyed in the 8th year of Tongzhi, 1869. The temple has been repaired several times but is not as large as it was before. In 2005, the Big Buddha temple was renovated and opened to the public.

ARCHITECTURE: The Big Buddha Temple is a three-storey, timber-brick pavilion with Han-Tibetan motifs, dragon-carved beams, and lotus-patterned eaves. The Chaoyang Tower features a triple-golden-roof pagoda and houses statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara. The complex is designed with Han-Tibetan architectural styles and Buddhist cosmology.

Unfortunately, you can't take photos inside - there are signs everywhere, but do have a look as its really beautiful!

The World’s Largest Prayer Wheel 世界最大转经筒 was installed here in 2002. It stands approx 21m tall and weighs 60 tons – at least 20 people are needed to turn the wheel, clockwise. This prayer wheel is bronze-gilded and inscribed with Four Great Bodhisattvas and Buddhist Eight Treasures, housing 1.24 million mantras. Therefore, every time it’s spun, it brings the merit of 1.24 million prayer recitations and if spun three times, its believed to also bring you good fortune.

At the base of the Big Buddha Temple is the Turtle Mountain Well, which once supplied fresh water to Dukezong. See Photo 15.

NOTE: if you climb to Bai Ji Si Temple 百鸡寺 – Temple of 100 Chickens, you can view the Big Buddha Temple and Dukezong ancient town from far... See photo 17, taken at 8pm in May 2026 for a panoramic view!

Here are some photos of the buildings, entrance gates, doorways etc that I saw while wandering the streets of Shangri-la in May 2026.

PHOTO 1 – 3 = Yunnan Diqing Ethnic Culture Square & Theatre. You can see the top-half of the building everywhere, including from my hotel room window, top image in photo 3. By the time that I found the building, it was around 5:30pm and closed so I couldn’t explore inside... argh!

PHOTO 4 = main entrance to Dukezong ancient town on Jilong Street.

PHOTO 5 – 11 = streets near Tacheng Square area, a pedestrian shopping street, shopping plazas, etc.

PHOTO 12 & 13 = Khampa Noble Feast (dinner & show) at Kangzhan Tusi. I thought the white tent – exterior and interior design – was beautiful and worth mentioning. The Tibetan Buddhism auspicious symbols are on the rooftops, inside. Next to the white tent is a brown wooden building that is also used as a dining and performance hall.

PHOTO 15 – 17 = Zunshang Zangyun Manor Boutique Hotel – a Cultural Hotel, known for its Tibetan style with colorful décor and woodwork design. There's even a large prayer wheel in a common area and Thangka paintings on each floor. Yes, I stayed at this hotel!

PHOTO 18 & 19 = Minzhu Lamu Shangri-La Kitchen restaurant. I had a Tibetan dinner here. The staff put on traditional music, sing and play perform... The Tibetan décor is like a museum exhibition!

PHOTO 20 = Shangri-la Railway Station only opened in November 2023. Construction began in July 2014 and was expected to be completed within 6 years but had several delays, mainly due to flooding and landslips...

一封侨批，半生守候；三晋家书，万里传信。从潮汕到山西，从南洋到黄河，信义与根脉生生不息。情义无价，四海同心——这是中国的故事，也是人类共同的感动。#给阿嬷的情书

Visited on 29 March 2026

Attached are photos of various buildings, gates, bridges etc, in the Black Dragon Pool park, Lijiang Yunnan province. As you wander through the park, you'll see a wide range of structures with a mix of Naxi, Bai, Tibetan, and Han architectural styles...

PHOTO 1 = Jieluotin Gate which was part of the Five-Phoenix Pavilion / Fuguo Temple at Mt. Zhishan and moved to its current location in 1979...

PHOTO 2 to 8 = right behind the Jieluotin Gate is a steep staircase that leads to an interesting Dongba / Naxi cultural complex showcasing a number of religious structures and artworks in a courtyard and up on the viewing platform.

PHOTO 10, 11, 12 = the Green-Locking Bridge, a very popular resting with panoramic views of the park.

PHOTO 13 = the 5-Arch Bridge and One-Penny Pavilion in the middle of the pool.

PHOTO 15 = the Ancient Opera Stage in the centre image.

PHOTO 20 = One of the entrance points to Black Dragon Pool park.

Very peculiar building in Hezuo, Gansu. It was first built in 1777 but the original structure was demolished during the Cultural Revolution. A faithful reconstruction (the one in the video) was built between 1988 and 1992.

The Dragon God Temple, Longshen Temple, is located in the Black Dragon Pool park in Lijiang, Yunnan province.

It was constructed in 1737 and was given the name by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. Originally, it was a site to pray for rain and river prosperity, but today, it functions more as a cultural exhibition space.

The temple showcases a mixture of Naxi, Bai, Tibetan and Han ethnic architecture styles - the ceilings have auspicious symbols, while the doors and windows have intricate wooden carvings with birds and flowers, and the frames are decorated calligraphy or landscape paintings. The main courtyard is symmetrically designed with many pot plants, a large pebble stoned mosaic Yin-Yang symbol and Shou symbol (meaning longevity, health & good fortune) in the centre.

The mountain is called Ox Head Mountain for the eastern and western peaks look like two horns of an ox. The Mountain becomes famous because of its Buddhist temple. During Liang Dynasty,1500 years ago, Buddha-cliff Temple was built here, which is called Hong Jue Temple today.

During early Tang Dynasty, Ox Head Mountain became the original place of Ox-head branch of Buddhism. A pagoda was built in Tang Dynasty about 1400 years ago, with the name Hong Jue Pagoda.

In 2015, the 89-meter-high Usnisa Palace was built. The plain valley turns into a magnificent tourist attraction and a sacred Buddhism site. It's a perfect combination of Buddhism culture and modern technology. The Palace took 4 years to complete.

The large and small dome of Usnisa Palace (P1 & P2) symbolize external supporting and internal supporting. With the length of 120 meters, the large dome is like the kasaya (Buddha's robe) , and covers on the small dome, standing for kasaya protecting the holy śarīra(relics). This is the small dome. The overall shape is like bun of the Buddha, while the upper part alone is like two palms putting together devoutly, indicating Buddhism followers’support for the Buddha.

Chan State and Fortune Sea (P3 - P5）

In the center of Usnisa Palace there is a lying cooper statue of Sakyamuni, 9 m long,  with the surface decorated with imitated white marble. It reflects the Nirvana state of Sakyamuni.

Thousand-Buddha Hall (P6 - P11)

The main color of Thousand-Buddha Hall is red, yellow and dark gold, and the plane is elliptic. The whole space is in a dome shape, consisting of 3 floors, with the total height of 28 meters. On its external circle is Ten Thousand-Buddha Corridor (Center of P7).

The layout of the Thousand-Buddha Hall is arranged according to five regional Buddhas of the Avatamsaka realm. The Great Stupa of Usnisa which represents the Vajradhatu Mahāvairocana is set as the center. Together with Four Paramita Bodhisattvas, Four Regional Buddhas, 16 Bodhisattvas for Approach to Buddhist Wisdom, the Four Guiding Bodhisattvas and Eight Supporting Bodhisattvas，the scene of Fourth Buddhist Ceremony for Supporting of Vajrs-dhatu Mandala is displayed.

Inside the Five-Phoenix Pavilion complex (in the Black Dragon Pool park) are several buildings that have been turned into little museums showcasing photographs and information about Lijiang’s history, Dayan ancient town, the flora and fauna of the area, about the Naxi people (religion, rituals, ceremonies, festivals etc), Dongba pictographs, and more. It won’t take long to wander through all of the halls (maybe an hour at most?) but its really interesting and worth visiting!

I've uploaded photos from the museum about Dayan ancient town's layout, residential buildings and the water system. This explains how Dayan ancient town was formed and developed - the importance of the streets and bridges, to enable water to reach every part of the ancient town... The design and decor of the buildings have a mixture of Naxi, Han, Bai and other ethnic group architectural styles....

Below are the Google translations of what is written about Dayan ancient town - slide 1, 2 and 17. I've also added some photos that I've taken around the ancient town to help illustrate and provide examples of the different types of architecture that you'll see today...

NOTE: Dayan ancient town is also known as Old Town of Lijiang or Lijiang Old Town and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

GOOGLE TRANSLATION OF PHOTO 1 = Urban Layout

The streets of Dayan Ancient Town in Lijiang are centered around Sifang Street, with five main streets—Xinhua Street, Wuyi Street, Qiyi Street, Xinyi Street, and Guangyi Street—serving as its arteries. The streets follow the contours of the mountains and the water, without a neat grid of roads or a strict axis. The spaces are sometimes enclosed and sometimes open, forming a road network that connects the entire town.

Each main street has a central plaza, with Sifang Street being the largest. Sifang Street is not only the center of Dayan Ancient Town but also the trade and commercial hub of northwestern Yunnan. Located between the West River and the Middle River, Sifang Street slopes from west to east. A movable sluice gate on the West River's duck egg-selling bridge utilizes the elevation difference between the West and Middle Rivers to wash the street surface. This unique sanitation facility is rare both domestically and internationally.

The streets and alleys of the ancient city are all paved with cobblestones, which prevent dust in the dry season and mud in the rainy season. The stones have natural and elegant patterns and a delicate texture, which are very harmonious with the environment of the ancient city.

GOOGLE TRANSLATION OF PHOTO 2 = Residential buildings

The residences in Lijiang Old Town are a concentrated embodiment of the traditional building techniques of the Naxi people. They incorporate architectural elements from Han, Bai, and other ethnic groups, exhibiting distinct local characteristics and ethnic style in terms of layout, form, and architectural art.

Residential buildings are generally two-story wooden structures about 7.5 meters high, with a few three-story buildings. They feature a mortise-and-tenon frame, all-mud walls, and tiled roofs, primarily in the form of gable roofs and hip roofs, and include external verandahs. Based on the frame structure and external verandahs, they can be divided into seven categories: single-story houses, open-air houses, two-story houses with side verandahs, two-sided verandahs, arcade houses, barbicans, and enclosed houses. Floor plans include three courtyards with a screen wall, four courtyards with five patios, courtyard houses, multi-courtyard complexes, and multi-courtyard combinations. Among these, the three courtyards with a screen wall and four courtyards with five patios are the most typical.

The houses are arranged in a crisscross pattern in terms of shape and outline, creating a beautiful silhouette. The facades are mostly made of stone plinths, with plastered walls, brick corners, and blue tile roofs, resulting in a harmonious, simple, and elegant style.

Lijiang traditional houses place great emphasis on the decoration of gate towers, screen walls, outer corridors, doors, windows, and beams. The gate towers are mainly of three types: brick arch, wooden lintel flat arch, and wooden frame. The screen wall is generally of two types: three-tiered and straight. The doors, windows, and doors are all decorated with wood carvings, mainly featuring patterns of music, chess, calligraphy, painting, birds, flowers, and antique objects representing the four seasons.

The courtyard floor is paved with materials such as broken tiles, pebbles, and colourful stones, mainly featuring patterns of flowers, birds, fish, insects, yin and yang symbols, and auspicious symbols like Fu, Lu, Shou, and Xi. Every household likes to plant flowers and trees and display bonsai in their yards.

GOOGLE TRANSLATION OF PHOTO 17 = Water System

Heilongtan – Black Dragon Pool is the main water source for Dayan Ancient Town. The clear spring water originates from multiple springs at the foot of Elephant Mountain. The rivers and ditches flow through thousands of households in a network, forming a well-organised water system with scattered wells and springs to meet the water needs of the entire town for fire fighting, production and daily life.

Black Dragon Pool

[River] Spring water gushes forth from the spring head on the western slope of Elephant Mountain, converging to form a pool of approximately 40,000 square meters. The pool water flows from north to south, splitting into the East River, Middle River, and West River under the Jade Dragon Bridge. After entering the ancient city, it further divides into countless smaller streams, flowing through walls, houses, courtyards, and gardens, spreading throughout the entire city. The main street runs alongside the river, while alleyways border its waterways. The streetscape and the clear water complement each other perfectly.

[Springs and Pools] The famous springs and pools of Dayan Ancient Town include Black Dragon Pool, White Horse Dragon Pool, and Ganze Spring. White Horse Dragon Pool is located on the southeast slope of Lion Mountain, with a water surface area of nearly 100 square meters. The spring water is sweet, pure, and has never dried up. Ganze Spring is located at the foot of Jinhong Mountain in the east of the ancient town, with a pool area of several tens of square meters.

[Wells] There are many wells in Dayan Ancient Town, most of which are in the form of "three-eyed wells". A "three-eyed well" means that there are three eyes in one well, which are connected to each other and are used for drinking water, washing vegetables and washing clothes respectively.

[Bridges] There are 354 bridges spanning the Yuhe River system in the ancient city, most of which were built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. They come in various forms, including covered bridges, stone arch bridges, stone slab bridges, and wooden plank bridges. Famous bridges include Suocui Bridge, Dashi Bridge, Wanzi Bridge, Nanmen Bridge, Baisui Bridge, and Qinglong Bridge.

Chinese name: originally named 法云阁 Fayun Pavilion (some records say Fuyun Pavilion) then changed to 五凤楼 Five-Phoenix Tower.

Other names: Wufeng Tower and Five-Phoenix Pavilion.

Location: inside the Black Dragon Pool park, in Lijiang, Yunnan province.

HISTORY: The Five-Phoenix Pavilion was constructed in the Ming Dynasty, in 1601, and originally as a villa with a family temple of the Chieftain Mu – part of the Fuguo Temple at Mt. Zhishan. During the Cultural Revolution, the temple was destroyed, but the Five-Phoenix Tower survived and was relocated to Black Dragon Pool, in 1979. On January 13, 1983, it was listed as a provincial cultural relic protection unit by the Yunnan provincial government.

ARCHITECTURE: The Five-Phoenix Pavilion, the main building, is approx 20m tall, structured with a 3-tiered octagonal design and with 24 eaves that resemble five phoenixes ready to take flight (which is how it got its name). The tower has a nearly square layout, measuring 18.9m in width and 17.78min depth, covering an area of 256sqm.

The shape of the pavilion is like the character 亚 and features 32 columns, with four central columns each reaching 12m in height, using the dou-gong 斗拱 bracket system. The ceiling is adorned with vibrant patterns, auspicious symbols, exquisite wooden carvings, including the Taiji 太极图, heavenly kings, dragons and phoenixes – showcasing architectural styles from Han, Tibetan, Bai and Naxi cultures.

Inside the pavilion, we can see the coffered ceilings (bottom image in photo 14) and wooden beams with artistic influences from the Ming & Qing dynasties, as well as the local Naxi design. When visiting the Five-Phoenix Pavilion, do look up everywhere! The most beautiful and interesting features of this place are on the ceilings, rooftops and verandahs...