Begging with a Golden Cup

Since the city's historic Old Town was granted UNESCO heritage status in 1997, Lijiang has undergone changes that illustrate China's immense capacity for progress and growth. The population has swelled from 50,000 to 1.2 million, and the number of annual tourists has risen from 1.7 million to 5 million.

In his 1955 memoir The Forgotten Kingdom, Russian writer and explorer Peter Goullard recounts the eight years he spent living in this sleepy town in southwest China. Integrated among the delicate cultural balance of Naxi, Tibetan, Yi, Lissu and Bai, he found his "paradise" here in the cobbled streets and drifting waterways, before being forced to leave when the Communists arrived in 1949.