In the winter days of Lijiang, stay in an old wooden house that breathes

It is said that the north is already frozen over for thousands of miles, but the winter in Lijiang has been tuned by the gods to the most pleasant warm hues. The moment you step into Boxinyunshe · Wenyuan, you understand. There is a crisp sweetness in the air, the dry fragrance emitted from the Naxi old wood warmed by the sun. The architecture here seems to grow out of the earth. The rough original wooden beams and columns expose the most authentic textures, like the wrinkles on an elder’s palm, steady and warm; the adobe walls retain a rustic texture, yet they wonderfully coexist with the modern terrazzo floors. The winter sunlight is the most generous gift here. It pours down from the courtyard’s skylight, lavishly covering the entire yard. You can choose a rattan chair padded with a thick soft wool blanket and curl up like a cat. The sunlight warmly wraps around you, penetrating the fibers of your sweater, gently soothing down to your slightly chilled fingertips. Beside you is a cup of freshly brewed Dianhong tea, the tea soup shimmering amber in a white porcelain cup, steam rising intertwined with sunlight. Occasionally, a breeze passes through the corridor, but it doesn’t feel cold at all, only bringing the faint cold fragrance of wintersweet from afar. In the yard, camellias bloom brilliantly, their red contrasting vividly against the deep blue sky. You watch the light and shadow slowly move across the old wood, and time seems to take on a tangible shape and weight—it is no longer a number, but a complete and pleasant afternoon needed for sunlight to crawl over a beam. Here, winter is not a harsh cold to be resisted, but a long embrace wrapped in sunlight, wood fragrance, and floral scent. The warm winter in Lijiang, in the old wooden house of Boxinyunshe, is interpreted as a tangible, solid happiness.