by Jim Goodman
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| Qujing's reconstructed ancient gate |
Throughout the 90s I made
repeated excursions to Yunnan province, fascinated everywhere I went. By the end of the decade the only area
I hadn’t visited was the northeast-- Qujing and Zhaotong prefectures. Little information was available, for
neither place drew tourists in significant numbers. Those looking for something different from the ordinary
Yunnan itinerary might venture to the Colored Sand Forest or the Duoyi River
area, home to the Buyi minority, both in Qujing. Zhaotong was only a stopover for those coming to Yunnan from
Sichuan or Guizhou.
A new highway has opened in
1999, so the journey from Kunming only took two hours. Qujing lies on one of the broadest
plains in Yunnan and is the province’s second largest city, after Kunming. The prefecture was one of the earliest
settlement zones for Han immigrants, even long before the Ming Dynasty
officially sponsored migration.
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| Ashima and Ahei statue |
The city was clean and well
laid out, but nearly every building was new and in modern style. No traditional neighborhood of wooden
shop-houses flanked the business district, as in Yuxi and Kunming. The residents seemed to be all Han and
I spotted several old-fashioned elderly women wearing turbans, embroidered
bibs, plain aprons and embroidered shoes. Some attempt had been made to give the city a Chinese
look, with traditional pavilions and bridges in the parks and the impressive
recreation of the South Gate, erected in the mid-90s.
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| the park at historic Liaokuoshan |
The gate, with its massive,
two-tiered tower, stood at what was then the southern city limit, in a park
decorated with flower gardens and fountain and flanked by a stream. The wall extends about 40 meters each
side of the entrance, with watchtowers at each end. At night, lights illuminated the fountain and gate.
The main east-west street—Qilinlu—is
named after the city’s mythical mascot the unicorn (qilin). In fact, the
city is more commonly referred to by residents as Qilin. At the eastern roundabout stands a
statue of the Unicorn Fairy, holding a pitcher of pouring water. Further up, at the western roundabout,
was a statue of the Sani Yi heroine Ashima, riding a horse with her brother
Ahei behind, using his bow and arrow against the enemy.
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| Meng Huo and Zhuge Liang toasting their agreement |
For me this was an odd statue
to see, being familiar with the Sani story already. Both figures wore the faces of grim and resolute determination,
very much in the old socialist-realist style. According to the myth, the two
were actually fleeing in terror from a demon chief who had tried to abduct
Ashima. He subsequently used his
magic power to thrust up the stone pillars of the Stone Forest and then sent a
flood through it to drown her and her brother. And anyway, that all happened in an area far from Qujing and
no Sani Yi lived in the prefecture.
While its connections to the
famous Sani myth are suspect, Qujing historically was the site of two important
events in Chinese history, both taking place in Baishijiang, just north of the city. In the 3rd century Three
Kingdoms wars, upon the death of the western state of Shu Han’s leader Liu Bei
in 223, revolts broke out in Nanzhong, corresponding to today’s southern
Sichuan and most of Yunnan. Shu
Han’s chancellor Zhuge Liang, led his Southern Expedition to quell the revolt,
but in a manner that would win the hearts and minds of the people.
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| Duoyihe RIver and village |
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| Buyi girl near Duoyihe |
His final opponent was the
popular tribal leader Meng Huo.
According to legend, and the 14th century Three Kingdoms novel, six times Zhuge Liang
captured Meng Huo, but when the latter refused to admit defeat, he let him go
and try again. On the seventh
capture Meng Huo submitted. The
victor offered him palatable terms.
Meng Huo acknowledged Shu Han’s sovereignty and agreed to send regular
tribute. In return, he remained in
charge of internal affairs. This
was the forerunner to the modern policy of autonomous areas in areas dominated
by non-Han peoples.
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| Jinji Peaks in Luoping County |
A broad stone relief sculpture
of the event stands at Baishijiang today.
The central panel depicts Zhuge Liang and Menghuo toasting their
agreement. Other panels render
scenes of Shu Han troops, bull fights and other Yi customs.
Over a
millennium later, the Ming Dynasty launched a campaign in 1381 to expel the
remnant Yuan Dynasty forces from Yunnan, their last refuge in China. Dispatching 300,000 Han and Hui troops
against the Mongol and local Hui forces, the final battle in January 1382 took
place on the same field at Baishijiang. The Ming side annihilated its opponents. The last Yuan survivors held out briefly
at Liaokuoshan, a wooded hill that is now the city’s largest and finest park, outside the southwest
corner of the city, for just a few days longer. That was the end of Yuan
resistance and the hill’s name translates as Peak of Victory.
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| Jiulong Waterfalls, Luoping Coiunty |
No memorial of any kind exists
around Baishijiang commemorating this event, which marked the final triumph of
the Ming Dynasty over all of China.
Two relics of earlier periods, however, in the form of inscribed stone
steles, stand in pavilions in the courtyard of the No. 1 Middle School. The earlier, dated 404, is famed for
its calligraphy, supposedly a transition from the ancient style to the
contemporary. The other, erected
by the King of Dali in 937, records details of the state’s eastern expedition
and lists its tribal allies.
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| Qianfota, Luliang |
Among its natural features,
Qujing Prefecture is the site of the origin of the Pearl River, 47 km north of
the capital in Luyi County. The
source is a spring, the waters directed into the Huashan reservoir. It wasn’t very impressive, but other
places in the prefecture, particularly Luoping County in the southeast,
certainly are. The most extensive
scenic area is near the junction of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces,
marked by steep limestone mountains, with one range named the Sea of Ten
Thousand Forested Peaks. The
lovely Duoyi River valley lies near here, with its numerous water-wheels and
friendly Buyi ethnic minority and the Lubu artificial lake, created by filling
in a gorge.
About 12 km east of Luoping is
the county’s most famous natural attraction—the Jinji Peaks, a broad cluster of
small hills dotting the plain south of the highway. They are not very tall, averaging 200 meters, nor irregular
in shape. But spaced close to each
other over a wide and utterly flat plain they make an appealing sight,
especially in February and March when the canola flowers (also called rapeseed
flowers) carpet the plain in bright yellow. Hordes of tourists show up to photograph the landscape.
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| central Zhaotong, 1999 |
After another 20 km or so the
highway comes to a junction turning north. After a route through pleasant rural scenery several km this
branch road terminates at Jiulong Waterfalls, the widest and most visited falls
in the province. The cataracts
spill over two broad ledges about 8-10 meters high and perhaps 20 meters
apart. Forested hills provide the
backdrop.
A different kind of mountain
attraction exists west of Luoping, in Shizong County. Lying 30 km from the county seat, it’s called Mushroom
Mountain after the abundance of edible mushrooms growing there, especially in
rainy season. In the center of
Shizong itself stands the White Pagoda, with nine tiers and a column of dark,
arched windows on each of its eight sides. In the western suburbs lies the Xihua Temple, a large
complex of buildings originally constructed in 1610.
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| traditional-style Han in Zhaotong |
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| Miao herbal doctor in Zhaotong |
The next city west, Luliang,
had some quiet, old-style neighborhoods with tree-lined streets and wooden
shop-houses back then. In the southern suburbs is the Dajiao Temple, a Ming
Dynasty compound erected four years after Shizong's Xihuasi. The temple itself is a modestly
decorated building. But the
compound contains one of Yunnan's most interesting pagodas--the Thousand Buddha
Pagoda (Qianfota). Seven
stories tall on a hexagonal base and pale yellow-white in color, the pagoda
gets its name because of the thousand square niches on its exterior walls, each
of them containing a small Buddha image.
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| Zhaotong old town, 1999 |
To get to Zhaotong from Qujing
I traveled via Weining in Guizhou, with a stop at Xuanwei en route. Lishan, at 2678 meters the highest
mountain in Qujing Prefecture, towers just north of the city. Xuanwei was famous for its ham, but not
interesting otherwise. Neither was
Weining and its cement buildings and much of it under construction. Weining is a Yi, Hui and Miao
Autonomous County, but I didn’t see anyone dressed in clothing associated with
any of the three, neither in the city nor on the road out to Zhaotong next day.
After the boring streets of
Xuanwei and Weining, I found Zhaotong a pleasant city. At that time the southern and western
quarters were all modernized, but traditional architecture, markets and
lifestyle still dominated the northern and eastern quarters. The city had a strong Hui presence,
indicated by the mosque standing above the neighborhood houses at the southeast
entrance to the city. A tall
sculpture of a black-necked crane, the city mascot, stood on a pedestal near
the man bus station.
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| basket shop in the old town |
The former old town, little of
which remains, comprised wooden shop-houses down narrow lanes, brick and tile
private dwellings, shops selling the whole range of split bamboo handicrafts,
from furniture to winnowing trays, or ceramic vessels. Though the buildings lacked the carved
embellishments once replete in Kunming's old town, they did create a setting of
Old China. Traffic was largely
pedestrian, plus some three-wheeled pedicabs with bright yellow frames and
fenders. The traditional feel of
the area was augmented by the old-fashioned clothing style favored by the older
generations of the Han--women in big turbans, side-fastened jackets and long
aprons; men in ankle-length, side-fastened coats, slit on the sides, with long
wispy beards on their chins. They were
the only ones in town dressed in traditional style, save for a few Miao women
marketing herbal medicines and Hui women in white headscarves.
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| old houses in Zhaotong,1999 |
The old town and new city meet
in the north at the Qingguanting Park.
Just inside the entrance is the modest but attractive Qingguan Pavilion,
of gray brick and red wood, beside a big tree next to a small pond. It was built in 1809 and is the one major historical structure extant in
the city. A stream from this pond
passes into an adjacent park under an arched bridge to a larger pond, with a
long pavilion and rest-house beside it.
Most of the prefecture’s
population is Han, both in the towns and the countryside. Besides the Hui in the towns and in
some plains villages, the more mountainous districts are home to Yi and
Miao. They are not as colorful as
their counterparts elsewhere in the province and have assimilated much to
modern Han culture. Most Miao and
some Yi became Christian after vigorous American missionary efforts in the
Nationalist period.
Coincidentally, at that time the province was under the control of Long
Yun, a Yi warlord born in Zhaotong.
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| Qingguan Pavilion, Shaotong |
North of the city the
mountains rise quite steeply.
Having time for but one excursion I opted for Daguan, 63 km north. But that was the year new roads were
under construction all over Yunnan and the normal route to Daguan was
closed. My ride instead was a long
bumpy, 170 km detour via Yilong Country, then east and north again and finally,
12 hours later, I arrived in Daguan.
The city is on a spur beside a river, but 300 steep meters above
it. No parks or old quarter
existed, but the location was superb, backed by high mountains, the slopes
studded with Miao villages.
The reason to be in Daguan was
to see the Huanglian Falls, several km south of the town and a wonderful
morning walk with views of steep, majestic, jagged mountains all around. Paths in the park led in several
directions among the different cataracts.
A few of these tumble from high precipices. Others seem to have been artificially directed, like the one
that passes over a ledge where one can walk and see the waterfall from the
inside. Another path leads to a
cave with three elephant statues at the entrance and illuminated stalactites
within. One path leads to a
viewpoint high above the cataracts, while another branches off to the Miao
villages. The area is thickly
forested and full of flowers in the spring.
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| terrcaed cataract of Huanlian falls |
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| Huanglian Falls and its forest |
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| red soil landscape in northwest Qujing |
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