Shaxi Cultural Center and Guesthouse
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| Sideng Square |
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Location
Located in the small Bai town of Shaxi in Jianchuan County, Yunnan, the Shaxi Cultural Center and Guesthouse is a comfortably appointed and relaxing place to stay in a small meticulously restored traditional Bai courtyard complex in what we hope will remain one of Yunnan's off-the-beaten-track destinations.
We encourage a peaceful and traditional atmosphere in which our guests will take the time to linger for a few days, unwind from their travels, and get to know the charming people of this small agrarian community.
The Shaxi Cultural Center is situated just a few steps from Sideng Square, once a major trading stop on the ancient "tea and horse caravan route" and the "southern silk road" by which Buddhism was transmitted from India, as exemplified in the uniquely Indian influenced Buddhist and Nanzhao kingdom grottoes, statuary and temples of adjacent Shibaoshan.
Cultural Centre and Guest House
The Shaxi Cultural Center and Guesthouse is a virtual museum of carved wooden windows, for which the area is famous, and is intended as both a guesthouse and cultural resource for the local ethnic Bai community, featuring traditional courtyards, a lobby and information center, and a large lounge area with a small library and Internet accessible computers ( all rooms are wireless enabled), and the only television and DVD player in the compound.
Accomodation
The guesthouse has only six rooms, doubles and triples, with expandable sofa beds in the lounge and other spaces in order to accommodate groups of up to 20 when needed.
Normal capacity is only 14. Families are welcome and dorm space is available in the triple rooms. There is an attached reception area, kitchen and dining room.
It has a small well, beautiful flowers in the courtyards and rooms with attached baths and 24-hour hot water, comfortable furniture and beds built in Shaxi, and views out over the surrounding tiled rooftops and countryside.
Cultural activities
But it is far more than a typical guesthouse. The Shaxi Cultural Center is so named because we and our associated Center for Cultural Learning and Development host community awareness workshops each year, including free medical evaluations.
We also assist the local schools with English language instruction, in order to encourage sustainable development that benefits the local community. We train local guides and provide English instruction for locals involved in the emerging tourist destination of Shaxi, as yet only beginning to be visited.
The Center hopes that we can create a new model of tourism development in Shaxi that benefits the local community while enabling it to remain a peaceful retreat from the "red dust" of society, as Daoists so eloquently phrase it.
Places to visit
Visits to Shibaoshan are encouraged, with possible overnight stays at the temples. The Shaxi Cultural Center facilitates overnight tours with local drivers to even more remote, historic, ecologically pristine and simply beautiful spots within driving distance. We also arrange day or overnight hikes or horse excursions with local guides to surrounding Bai and Yi villages, inaccessible by road. Bicycles may also be rented to explore the local countryside and smaller villages.The reasonably priced Shaxi Cultural Center and Guesthouse represents a comfortable, socially conscious middle ground whose aim is not to make a profit, but to finance our development projects, whose goal is to promote the welfare of Yunnan's ethnic minority peoples. If you are interested in China's minorities you can visit a growing associated site at www.ethnic-china.com
How to find us
Once in Shaxi, just before you reach Sideng Square, look for a sign posted lane to the left and, after a couple minutes' stroll, another signposted alleyway, again to the left, that leads to the Shaxi Cultural Center and Guesthouse. Welcome!
Address: #85 Sideng Jie,
Shaxi Town, Jianchuan County,
Yunnan Province 671302, China
Telephone: 0872-4722188
Contact: Xiao Yang 13577851576
www.shaxiculturalcenter.com