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The tourists that glutted Lijiang were in a party mood. In the evening they danced around a fire in the town square, lilting to the wailing lute and the folk singers’ desirous voices. The waterways were romantically lit by candles floating in paper boats. The restaurants were full, the air laden with beer and cigarette smoke, and groups of Chinese were guffawing over table games. I had inkling that it was Naxi, an ethnic group descended from nomadic Tibetan tribes that infected the tourists with out-pouring of merriment. Naxi traditional songs accompanied us throughout our journey, and in small villages we sometimes encountered groups of men drinking and singing in the evenings. Lijiang, capital of the Naxi people, is set in the fold of the mountains of northwest Yunnan. It’s one of the best preserved traditional cities in China, an evocative town girdled by walls and elaborate town gates, and meandering alleyways and waterways that are lined with weeping willows and follow the alleys to provide supply of running water to all households. The stone houses are designed around central courtyards, and their saggy slanted roofs are tiled in the Chinese vernacular of bamboo reliefs. The Naxi now make a living from the deluge of tourists that visit their town.