Shuhe ancient town in Lijiang, Yunnan province suffered a great fire early morning on Sunday, Chinanews.com reported.

The fire started from Square Street to the direction of Wanxiao at 4:20am and was finally controlled at 6:00am. No casualties have been reported but about 10 stores were damaged. The cause of the fire is still under investigation and the value of the damage still being verified.

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Shuhe Ancient Town is one of the most beautiful old towns and has many scenic spots in Lijiang. Home to Naxi ethnic minority, Shuhe is one of the well preserved ancient towns along the Tea and Horse ancient road.

Yunnan province has many ancient towns but are often under threat from fires.

On March 11 last year, Lijiang ancient town suffered a great fire that gutted down 107 private houses within a 2,243.46 square meter area.

On January 11 this year, Dukezong ancient town also suffered a great fire that razed more than 200 houses, including Buddhist art works,   sustaining an estimated economic loss of 100 million RMB.

Vice director of Yunnan Social Science, Yang Fuquan, a local Lijiang resident, said the cause of the fire must be carefully investigated in order to understand better how to protect ancient towns from frequent fires.

Tian Sang, director of fire rescue nonprofit organization of Lijiang ancient town, said that more than 10 professional fire volunteers including Lijiang Blue Sky Rescue Team and Fire Fighting Service Team helped put out the fire in Shuhe.

The fire was contained within two hours, which reduced the damage. It is common tradition for local residents of ancient towns to participate in putting out a fire, Yang said.

"Most of houses in Shuhe ancient town is wood structure. It might cause fire with any carelessness. It would be horrible once fire accident happens," said Yang.