Wender·Vista
Lijiang
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tilePeople's Republic of China
in the foothills of Yunnan, below the Jade Dragon

Lijiang

— — water that remembers the road down from the snow.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“The old town sits at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in northwest Yunnan, where the Naxi people built a town of cobbled lanes and small canals fed from Black Dragon Pool. Visitors say the stones hold the morning light a long time after the sun has climbed the wall.

from the studio
Lijiang
— bring it home

Lijiang, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Lijiang

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

The old town of Lijiang lies at about 2,400 metres in northwest Yunnan, at the base of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. The Naxi people settled here under the Mu chieftains beginning in the Song dynasty, and the lattice of cobbled lanes and small canals fed from Black Dragon Pool still follows that older plan. UNESCO inscribed the old town as a World Heritage Site in 1997. The town sits on the road from the Jinsha River valley up toward the Tibetan plateau.

— the water

The canals running through the old town are fed by springs at Black Dragon Pool, about a kilometre north of the central square. The pool sits in Jade Spring Park beneath the eastern face of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, and the water reaches the town through three branching channels that the Naxi divided so every household could draw from a clean source. The flow holds steady through the year; the colour turns greener after the summer monsoon and pales again in the dry winter.

— the stone

The lanes are paved with Wubua stone, a dark vein-shot bluestone quarried locally that polishes underfoot over centuries. The Mu Palace, restored in the 1990s on its Ming-era footprint, anchors the southern quarter; Sifang Street holds the centre. Most buildings are two-storey timber-and-tile, the rear courts opening onto the canals. The Naxi Dongba script — the last living pictographic writing system — still appears on shop signs and lintels through the older lanes.

— where
China · Lijiang, Yunnan
— elevation
2,400 m · 7,874 ft
— position
26.8760° N · 100.2330° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
15 km N
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
sacred peak
1 km N
Black Dragon Pool
spring-fed pool
4 km N
Shuhe Old Town
old town
60 km NW
Tiger Leaping Gorge
river gorge
180 km N
Shangri-La
highland town
N
Lijiang
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Black Dragon Pool
Shuhe Old Town
Tiger Leaping Gorge
Shangri-La
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Lijiang — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Lijiang's old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its Naxi culture, its cobbled lanes paved in dark Wubua stone, and a network of small canals fed by Black Dragon Pool at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

The old town sits at about 2,400 metres above sea level on the Yunnan plateau. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain rises directly to the north to 5,596 metres, one of the southernmost glaciated peaks in the northern hemisphere.

The settlement dates to the Song dynasty under the Mu chieftains of the Naxi people. The current street plan was largely fixed during the Ming and Qing dynasties and was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1997.

Dongba is the pictographic writing system of the Naxi people, used by their priests for ritual texts and considered the last living pictographic script. About 1,400 distinct characters survive, many of them still painted on signs in the old lanes.

The dry months from late September through April are clearest, with cold nights and bright days. The summer monsoon from June to August brings strong afternoon rain and lowers the views of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

Yes. Lijiang sits on the climb from the Jinsha River valley up toward the Tibetan plateau, with Shangri-La about 180 kilometres further north. Tiger Leaping Gorge is the usual stop on that route.

— about the piece in your home

Yes. The Naxi old town holds a quiet place for travellers who have stayed there or grown up nearby. A Coaster or Small with a handwritten note from the studio carries well; the Medium suits a desk or hallway.

The Lijiang piece reads warmly into Japandi, Minimalist Asian, and Jewel-tone interiors. The cobalt and tile-green hold against pale oak and rice paper, and they pick up richer reds in a more layered room.

Yes. The composition's slow palette and architectural patterning sit comfortably in Japandi and quiet-luxury rooms. It also reads well in interiors leaning toward modern Chinese or Silk Road palettes.

Above a standard sofa the Large reads cleanly. For wider walls the 4-tile Mural or the 9-tile Mural carries the scale; above a console the Medium is the usual choice.

Yes, in the Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and made for vertical wet installations such as backsplashes, shower walls, and powder rooms.

Microfibre cloth and water. No solvents or abrasive pads. The colour lives in the surface, so the piece will not fade or lift with normal household cleaning.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is original to our single studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. We do not license third-party imagery; the eye is Reid Wender's, and the surface is hand-finished in-house.

— if this one stayed with you

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