Before The Cabin of Dabing, he had two bars in Lhasa in the Tibet autonomous region. He closed the bars in Tibet after he opened the Lijiang bar.

He describes his fellow musicians as his "tribesmen", who lead nomadic lives.

"My singer-songwriter friends and I share a similar philosophy about life," he says of the joy that they feel while traveling around the country with their music.

Liu Yin is one of the folk musicians at The Cabin of Dabing. The 30-year-old has been a volunteer teacher at a primary school in Ninglang, a remote town of Lijiang, since 2012. He has donated all the money he made from singing and selling his CDs to support his 76 students.

"My students don't have good living conditions. They just have potato soup every day. I want to make more money to improve their lives," Liu says. "For me, singing is more than expressing myself. It means responsibility."

Yan says: "With no manager, no agent and no record company to serve and limit them, they pursue their musical dreams with a free spirit. Their healthy attitude enables them to write songs about love, memory and nature, which fits in the atmosphere of the ancient and slow-paced Lijiang city."

Yan hopes that someday many residents of Beijing will also visit The Cabin of Dabing for some good old folk music.