书中较翔实地描述了20世纪40年代或更早期的丽江风情。举凡民族、宗教、节日以及文化艺术等方面无所不包，是一本不可多得亦可算为最早的丽江风情录。作者本人宣称他写这本书是坚定地作为丽江纳西人中的一员来陈述的，可以使读者与他一起步入这块有着“天堂的景色”乐土，并与各民族兄弟姐妹一道共同赞美曾哺育了一代又一代勤劳、善良和进取向上的人民的这块土地。

Thus, due to political upheavals, ended my stay, of almost nine years, in the little-known and all but forgotten ancient Nakhi Kingdom of south-west China. Even during my youth spent in Moscow and Paris ! had been unaccountably attracted to Asia, her vast, little-explored mountains and her strange peoples and, especially, to mysterious Tibet. The Fates, stern to me in many other ways, have been kind in vouchsafing me long travels in Asia which even now, I have a feeling, are not at an end. I had always dreamed of finding, and living in that beautiful place, shut off from the world by its great mountains, which years later James Hilton conceived in his novel Lost Horizon. His hero found his 'Shangri-La' by accident. I found mine, by design and perseverance, in Likiang.

Introduction

1 The Caravan Journey To Liklang

2 Liking

3 The Market AndWine-Shops Of Likiang

4 FurtherAfield

5 The Start Of The Co-operatives

6 MedicalWork

7 The Nakhis

8 The Tibetans

9 The Boa, The LolosAnd The Minkia

10 The Lamaseries

11 PoltergeiSts

12 SuicidesAndDtomba Ceremonies

13 Marriages

14 Some Likiang Festivals

15 Music, Art AndLeisureAmong The Nakhi

16 Progress

17 Hoking Brigand

18 The Last Of Likiang