“Women in charge” is one of the major characteristics of the Lijiang family life.

In the Lijang Old Town, women are usually the busiest.  They load and unload shipments, take care of their shops. If you pay attention, you will find that women do everything that men do in other culture. They work at meat shops, pull heavy loads of shipments, shop for vegetables and food, drive cars, and weave cloth.  Lijang women are confident, decisive, brave and responsible for her family.  There is an old saying that a Laxi wife (Laxi is the minority group in Lijiang), is better than 10 of horses to have.  If you want a comfortable life and not doing anything, you might want to think about this option.

Men in the Old Town, on the other hand, have lots of free time.  They walk around having nothing to do. You can see they walking along side of the river carrying a birdcage. Since a woman taking care of everything, men  spend time on more artistic stuff such as music and paintings.