What's it like? When Swiss preservationist Jacques Feiner first visited at Shaxi
in 1999, he discovered a jewel-like mountain town that time forgot. Tucked into
the remote Himalayan foothills, Shaxi once thrived as a trading post on China's
Horse Tea Route, a caravan trail connecting Yunnan and Tibet from the 6th century
to the 1950s. After the Chinese Revolution in 1949, caravan trade halted in its
tracks, leaving once wealth towns like Shaxi to languish in poverty - and leaving
exquisite traditional architecture to fall into disrepair.
The Shaxi Market is the town's cultural and spiritual center with its open air theater and Ming Dynasty temple.
If you know of some great markets or festivals we're missing,
review it for us!!
