Yisa Old Town in Honghe County, Honghe
Chinese Name:红河县迤萨古镇
English Name: Yisa Old Town in Honghe County, Honghe
Location:
Yisa Town sitting at a mountain top in Honghe County in South Yunnan is a famous town of overseas Chinese and has a set of quaint traditional architectures.
The becoming of Yisa as an overseas Chinese town can be attributed to the prosperous industry and commerce in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) and the period of the Republic of China (1912-1949).
It is said that “as copper mines are exploited, people from Yisa begin to go out undertake business by organizing horse caravans to trade tobacco; and finally Yisa was developed into a town of overseas Chinese.” The caravans of Yisa used to trade in gold, silver, specialties, herbals, salt, household uses and even opium.
The well-off Yisa businessmen then spent money building large-scale private houses. Exploring in Nanmenjie Street, Dazhaijie Street and Dongmenjie Street in the town of Yisa, one can find the well-preserved folk residences, most of which are compounds comprising two-storied and tile-roofed buildings with stony foundations, brick walls, and hip and gable walls.
