The Other Side of the Azure Mountains—Shaxi to Xiaguan

                                   by Jim Goodman

outskirts of Shaxi, on the Heihui RIver 

       Before highways began linking up various parts of Yunnan in the 20^th century, and trucks started delivering goods everywhere, caravans were the means to carry out long-distance trade.  While they plied over trails on traditional routes connecting all parts of the province, one of the most important was the famous Tea and Horses Road, running from Xishuangbanna in the south, through western and northwestern Yunnan and into Tibet.  Its name derived from its principal trade items—Pu’er tea from southern Yunnan and horses from Tibet.

       Many towns along the route became popular stopovers for the caravans, providing lodging and places to tether their animals.  Among these was Shaxi, in Jianchuan County, northern Dali Prefecture.  The usual way to get there was proceeding north of Xiaguan, at the south end of Erhai Lake, with the Azure Mountains (Cangshan in Chinese) on the west side, then passing out of the valley, through Eryuan County and to Sword Lake, just south of Jianchuan city. 

Yi woman crossing the old stone bridge

typical Shaxi old town lane

the old theater on the market square

      At the junction here a road turns ssw along the Heihui River, which empties into Sword Lake, and soon enters a broad plain dominated by the town of Shaxi.  Never very big, it was nevertheless fairly prosperous until the virtual end of the caravan trade after 1949.  Yet in its slow modernization over the next several decades, Shaxi still retained its old quarter of cobbled lanes and traditional Bai houses, former lodges for the caravan operators and dilapidated, but not destroyed, temples and other public buildings.  It was the last of the caravan stopovers that still looked like one.

       Shaxi is basically a farmers’ town, but from the beginning of the 21^st century it took on a new identity as a popular tourist attraction.  The provincial government launched restoration programs, renovating the old temples and the theater on the market square and promoting its historic connection to the Tea and Horses Road.  The town has a new section of boring concrete buildings, but it is a minor part of Shaxi and such architecture doesn’t appear in the traditional quarters.  New houses have gone up, but in classic traditional Bai style.

Shaxi Friday market

Bai women run stalls on market day

      The town sits on the west bank of the river and a little above the water.  Two bridges cross the Heihui.  One is for pedestrians, centuries old, a classic arched stone bridge with sculpted lion heads at each end and on the side over the highest point of the arch.  The other, for vehicles, is an ordinary level bridge in the 1950s style, with elliptical arches and plain columns at each end.  It looks out of synch with all the old-fashioned buildings within sight in every direction.  But at least it is outside the town proper, where the traditional look has not only survived, but has been enhanced.

Bai woman in Shaxi

Yi woman in Shaxi

       The population is mixed Han, Hui and Bai.  Most of the houses are mud brick with tiled roofs.  Others, like the former boarding houses, are manly wooden.  Some of the richer Bai live in houses with carved gates, more use of stone, and painted decorations under the apex of the roofs like those in Dali or Jianchuan.  Shade trees line the main streets in the old town and trimmed shrubs sit in pots in front of the houses.  Passageways through the lanes pass under the arches of neighborhood gates or of houses that straddle both sides of the lane.

ancient sculptures in a Shibaoshan grotto

       A quiet, almost sedate atmosphere prevails in the old town, where vehicular traffic is basically absent, except for bicycles and the occasional tractor-trailer.  That all changes on Friday, Shaxi’s market day.  Residents of the town, joined by villagers from the vicinity, set up stalls in the old market square and along practically all the lanes in the old town.  The local dentist has an outdoor stall that day, too. 

       Products on sale vary considerably.   One section will feature carved doors and windows, chairs and stools, another all kinds of carrying baskets, yet another tools and horse trappings.  One lane will fill with grains, spices, vegetables and fruits and the next one will offer shoes and clothing.  There will be noodle stalls for those who want lunch and steamed buns and other snacks available at small stands.

stone vagina, Shibaoshan

camel head rock, Shibaoshan

       Market day draws the valley’s Han and Bai, but also many Yi from the mountains, as well as a few Lisu, Naxi and perhaps itinerant Tibetans selling medicinal herbs.  The Yi are the same Nuosu branch that dominates Ninglang County.  Yi women are the most colorful people in the market, with long, bright, tri-colored skirts, decorative jackets and wearing either a large black rectangular hat or a flat, embroidered cloth held in place by hair braids.  And if it’s cool weather, the outfit includes a dark felted woolen cape.

Shaxi countryside

       In late afternoon, when villagers start returning home, leading ponies packed with their goods, the scene evokes the time of the Tea and Horses Road.  The caravan trade expanded from the 10^th century during the Song Dynasty, for the latter needed the horses to deal with enemies on its northern frontiers.   Shaxi may have been a caravan stopover by then, though no relics exist from that long ago.

       Nearby Shibaoshan, however, is the site of religious monuments from the Nanzhao Kingdom, with stone carvings from around 800.  Shibaoshan is a tall, steep hill in a wooded rural area, remarkable for the pagodas built into its cliffs and the grottos with stone sculptures.  These date from the Nanzhao and Dali periods before the 13^th century.  They include a seated Buddha flanked by his two favorite disciples, a standing Guan Yin, various multi-armed guardian deities and small Buddha images.

       The most unusual is a stone vagina.  Local women come here, especially when they get pregnant, to pray and to rub the stone.  They believe this act will ease the pangs of childbirth.  Shibaoshan is also host to the three-day Bai Singing Festival at the end of the 7^th lunar month.

Bai woman in Changyi

Yi woman in Changyi

       In the caravan heyday Shaxi was a stopover for groups on the way to and from Tibet.  Merchants might also pick up salt here from nearby mines.  Going south, they needn’t detour to Eryuan and Dali to reach Xiaguan, but could simply continue down the valley of the Heihui River over what used to be called the Bonan Road.  The road is never very high above the river, nor does it cross any hills.  Villages are visible in the flanking hills and all along the riverbanks.

the old mosque in Yangbi

       The road passes through western Eryuan County and the last village before entering Yangbi County is Changyi, which holds its market day Saturday.  Bai and Yi, as in Shaxi, are the main participants.  Except for furniture, most items on sale are the same as in Shaxi, with the exception of walnuts, a specialty of Yangbi County.

      Yangbi is a Yi Autonomous County, with at least four Yi sub-groups living in the hills, which make up most of its territory.  Until a generation ago the Yi lived at a level of basic subsistence.  Then the government introduced the planting of walnut trees.  Yangbi is not the only place in Yunnan cultivating walnuts.  Dayao and Gongshan Counties also have them, for example.  But the soil in Yangbi seemed to be particularly good for walnuts, producing a thin-shelled, tasty, slightly sweet nut, and soon Yangbi became dubbed the “hometown of walnuts.”

Yunlong Bridge, Yangbi

       Nowadays walnut plantations cover 71,000 hectares in the county.  The annual output has reached 50,000 tons, valued at one billion yuan.  Government statistics claim that as a result 70% of the county’s population has been lifted out of poverty.  Harvesting begins in September and to coincide with it the county government stages a month-long Walnut Festival in Yangbi city.  Events include rites to the Walnut God, food-tasting events (and not just walnuts), cooking competition, markets and rounds of singing and dancing performances.

       As the road crosses into Yangbi County the towering peaks of the Azure Mountains rise to the east.  In the caravan era Yangbi city, originally called Shangjie, was an important junction on the Bonan Road.  Instead of going on to Xiaguan or north to Shaxi, caravans could turn west here to Yongping and Baoshan.  The city has a modern section of nondescript concrete and steel buildings around the city stadium, the main venue for festivals.  But it also has an extensive old quarter, largely Hui-inhabited, full of traditional tile-roofed wooden houses.  A fine old Chinese-style mosque sits on a mound above the old neighborhood.

Yangbi old town

Stone Gate Pass behind Jinniu

       Homes are not as elegant as some of the Shaxi dwellings and the cobbled lanes have not been renovated in recent years.  But a walk through it is evocative of an earlier era.  Continuing past the mosque, the lane terminates at the old Yunlong Bridge, the main river crossing for caravans going west.  A suspension bridge with wooden planks laid across iron cables, dating from the early Qing Dynasty, it doesn’t have caravan traffic anymore, but is still in use by villagers living across the river.  On the other side, earlier this century Yangbi Han Buddhists erected a small Buddhist shrine and a pagoda above it.

Xi'er River in Xiaguan

       From Yangbi city the road swings southeast along the river, in this county renamed the Yangbi River, until its confluence at Pingpo with the Xi’er River that flows east to Xiaguan and into Erhai Lake.  The road swerves much closer to the Azure Mountains on this stretch and at Jinniu is a steep cleft in the hills called Stone Gate Pass, now being built up as a scenic attraction with the construction of a walkway along the base of one of the cliffs.  At Pingpo the road turns east along the Xi’er River, passes the southern end of the Cangshan range and glides into Xiaguan.

       Now the capital of Dali Prefecture and the biggest city in western Yunnan, Xiaguan began as an 8^th century fortified settlement, founded by King Piluoge of the new state of Nanzhao, to guard the southern entrance to the Dali plain.  Taihe, further north, established in 737, served as the Nanzhao capital until it was moved to Dali in 779.  Xiaguan lies at the southwest corner of Erhai Lake, backed by high mountains with its suburbs sprawling into the foothills.

Nanzhao warriors on a fresco at the General's Temple

       Over time it outgrew Dali and was a major stop for caravans heading north on the Tea and Horses Road to Tibet, as well as the Southwest Silk Route to Dehong Prefecture and on to Burma and India.  By the turn of the 20^th century it was also a major tea-processing center.  Its commercial importance increased with the construction of the Burma Road during the Sino-Japanese War to enable the transport of supplies of all kinds from British-held Burma to Yunnan.

       After the war and the foundation of the People’s Republic, Xiaguan’s growth and development expanded.  New industries appeared such as power generation, food processing, papermaking, cigarettes, cement and marble processing and polishing.  The factories are scattered, though, and not concentrated in one polluted area.  The Xi’er River runs through the city center and residents sometimes come to fish with poles from the walkways on the banks or with nets cast from rafts or boats they take out on the water.  A few parks lie along the river and a very large and well-developed one occupies a long offshore island on the lake.

the General's Temple, Xiaguan

       Xiaguan does not feature the old buildings, monuments and relics that characterize Dali or Weishan.  It does, however, have a pair of sites associated with Nanzhao’s history.  On a hill in the western suburbs stands the General’s Temple, dedicated to General Li Mi, who is not a local hero but instead was a Tang Dynasty commander of a huge Chinese invasion force in the mid-8^th century.  This was the third attempt by Tang China to subdue Nanzhao and, like the previous two, it ended in total disaster.  Li Mi lost his entire army and in the end drowned himself.

       The victors gave the dead a proper funeral and interred the corpses, or maybe the ashes, inside a tomb in Tianbao Park, in what is now the western quarter of the city.  It’s just a stone mound with some exterior inscriptions and probably never contained as many remains as the records claimed.  But it’s Xiaguan’s only true Nanzhao relic.

       Many generations after Li Mi’s demise, his descendants established a shrine to his memory and to invoke his protection of the area.  In the Ming Dynasty a three-part temple replaced the original shrine.  Nowadays many local Bai devotees come here to make offerings, especially at the mid-autumn festival, Li Mi’s birthday.  Considering that the Bai were, along with the Yi, the victors over Li Mi’s army, it seems odd that they would be making offerings to him.  But Bai country folk are devout by nature and upbringing and may not even be aware of the historical particulars regarding the object of their worship.  To them, he’s a protective deity and that’s enough.

Yangbi old town and valley

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 Delta Tours Vietnam arranges a journey through western Yunnan that includes a stop in Shaxi.  For the itinerary see https://www.deltatoursvietnam.com/western-yunnan       

      

       

Bridging Gaps, Gorges, Streams and Rivers in Yunnan

                          by Jim Goodman

crossing a river at Pula, Gongshan County

        With much of its topography characterized by steep mountains, deep valleys and swift flowing rivers, Yunnan has always been a difficult place to get around.  That’s not so obvious today, for paved roads have penetrated the most remote areas, tunneling through the mountains when necessary, and modern bridges span many points on the rivers.  Such things didn’t exist in ancient times, though, when fissures in the rocky landscapes and streams that were too dangerous to cross on foot or swim through and migrants or even hunters had to devise a way to get to the other side or be restricted to a limited environment.

       If it were a very narrow defile, and climbing down the cliff to cross the stream, even if one could wade through it, was just too much trouble, one could solve the problem by felling a tree on one side to reach the other side.  If it were to be on a permanent route, then folks would anchor it more securely on each side.  Or they might substitute a few sturdy bamboo poles lashed together, wide enough to walk upon, with a cable of some kind on each side to hang on to and not fall.

bamboo plank bridge above Gongshan

riding a rope-bridge in Nujiang

       Another primitive kind of bridge was a rope made of vine, tied to tree trunks on each side, over which people crossed by hand.  These couldn’t have been very long, but the concept evolved into a more sophisticated kind of rope-bridge, especially employed in the canyons of the Three Rivers region (Nujiang, Lancangjiang and Jinshajiang) of northwest Yunnan.

Lisu women crossing the Nu River near Lumadeng

       These usually came in pairs, with the starting point higher on each side than the landing point on the opposite bank.  Hence, they were called ‘tilting ropeways.’  The ropes were made of plaited split bamboo, the same kind used to haul boats at the ports on the Yangzi.  To make them people stripped off the outer layer of the bamboo, 3 mm wide, planed the strips to make them smooth and then plaited them. 

       Bamboo is a very special and strong plant.  These split bamboo ropes had a tensile strength nearly equal to that of steel.  They never broke.  To ride one across the canyon, one sat in a rope harness attached by hooks to the cable rope and hold one hand on a slider on the rope, to keep the hand from getting singed holding onto the cable.  The passage proceeded at a moderate speed, but sometimes the momentum would give out before reaching the other side.  Then riders had to haul themselves by hand the remaining distance.

suspension bridge at Dulongjiang

early 20th c. Nujiang trail (from the Morse family archives)

     Another quality of the bamboo ropes, valued by the boat-haulers on the Yangzi river, was that, instead of deteriorating under water for prolonged periods, the immersion actually strengthened them.  While the rope-bridges in Yunnan were never under water, they were certainly subjected to monsoon rains.  Though they never broke, under long heavy stress, like the passage of a caravan, they began to sag and had to be replaced.  (The government replaced split bamboo ropes with wound steel cables in the 1950s.)

Duoyi RIver bridge, Luoping County

       Nujiang Canyon, in western Yunnan’s borderlands with Myanmar, experienced many of these caravans in the old days.  With no suspension bridges in place, they had to cross the river by rope-bridge, with all their cargo and animals.   This could be very time-consuming, especially for a large caravan, and might require two or three days.  Also, the rope-bridges would probably begin to sag partway through the crossing, when animals would be stuck on them before they reached the end.  Then men had to slide down and pull the frantic animal the remaining distance.  Inevitably, a major caravan crossing required replacing the ropes at least once.

bamboo bridge, Menglian County

       According to the Nu minority nationality in the northern part of the canyon, their goddess Areng created the rope-bridge.  She was pining for a lover on the other side of the river and to get to him she fired a rope from a giant crossbow to land on the opposite bank and then scampered across the rope.  That’s the mythological explanation, but it’s still a mystery how people installed the rope-bridges in the first place.  Most of them crossed rapids, so people couldn’t block off the flow of the river to cross on foot, take the rope with them and then secure it on the other side.

       For smaller, less turbulent streams, folks could temporarily dam up the water flow and transport the building materials.  Bamboo served the purpose in most cases.  Some would consist of bamboo poles lashed together for the part to walk across, with long bamboo poles on either side to hold on to.  Long bamboo poles on each side could intersect in an arc over the center, to contribute to the stability of the bridge.

bamboo bridge, Luchun County

       Bridge-builders could also cut the bamboo into planks or plaited strips and lay them horizontally over the walking part, or deck, supported by long cables that were anchored firmly to each side.  Such bridges would sway a little bit when people crossed them, especially carrying heavy loads or leading animals, but they always had poles or, later, iron cables on each side to grasp and keep one’s balance.  Quite sturdy and durable, they are still in use in various parts of Yunnan.

       With the introduction of iron as a construction element, suspension bridges grew more sophisticated.  Iron chains lay under the wooden or bamboo planks of the bridge and were fastened to iron anchors at each end that were encased in stone.  In some cases there were no planks at all and people crossed by walking carefully on one of the chain links, hanging onto the guardrails on the side.  This called for some balancing skills, and animals never used such chain link bridges, but apparently people preferred this to negotiating on foot through the boulders and torrents below.

Yunlong Bridge,Yangbi

modern suspension bridge in Jinghong

       Iron-reinforced suspension bridges could bear a heavier load, so these were built along the main trade routes—the Southern Silk Road and the Tea and Horses Road.  These could support the passage of a hundred baggage-laden animals and their handlers and the crossing could be done in several minutes, rather than the two or three days required in Nujiang, which didn’t have any suspension bridges over the Nu River until after the mid-20^th century.  Moreover, the iron cables didn’t sag from continual use, so didn’t have to be replaced.

Belt Bridge, Black Dragon Pool Park, Lijiang

      Highways have replaced the ancient trails and trucks have taken over from caravans.  But a few of the old bridges remain.  The most accessible is the Yunlong Bridge in Yangbi, on the other side of the Cangshan Mountains, west of Dali.  Yangbi was a stop on the old Bonan Road north to Shaxi and Jianchuan and west to Yongping and Baoshan. 

       Built in the Ming Dynasty, 53 meters long, 2.3 meters wide and 12.9 meters above the Yangbi River, it consists of nine iron cables, with wooden planks over them, cables on the sides and blockhouses at each end.  The bridge is still in regular use by local villagers, who bring their animals when coming to Yangbi for market day.  Caravans ceased using it decades ago.  The new commercial highway passes south of Yangbi and does not run over the old Bonan Road.  This probably spared the Yunlong Bridge from being replaced by a more modern suspension bridge, like the kind constructed al over the province in recent decades, both for vehicles and for pedestrians only, supported by iron cables sling between towers over pillars below the deck. 

the Old Stone Bridge in Dayan, Lijiang

       Such suspension bridges are common throughout the world and in some cases are tourist attractions (Golden Gate in San Francisco, for example).  But another kind of bridge, made of stone, with arches and a rounded walkway, was also associated with China.  When the French Mekong Expedition in the 1860s crossed into China in Xishuangbanna, they didn’t really feel they were in China proper until they left Xishuangbanna, went north to Simao (now renamed Pu’er) and saw an arched stone bridge.  Ah, that was an image of China they were familiar with, expected to see, and confirmed that they were now in the China of their imagination.

       The Expedition’s chroniclers didn’t comment on any other arched bridges, but the phenomenon existed throughout the province.  Besides spanning rivers, they were also used to connect to pavilions or shrines in temple ponds.  In the latter case, with the round arches reflected in the water, the viewer sees an aesthetically pleasing row of circular images.  The pathway on the bridge could be straight or slightly higher in the center, with the biggest arch in the center and arches of diminishing size on either side.  A good example is the Belt Bridge in Lijiang’s Black Dragon Pool Park.

arched stone bridge in Shaxi

       Lijiang’s other famous bridge, also arched, spans one of the streams running through the Dayan old town.  Called the Old Stone Bridge, and one of the very few original structures left in the old town, it dates to the early Ming Dynasty.  Kubilai Khan is supposed to have pitched his camp here when he arrived after his army crossed the Jinshajiang on Naxi-supplied goatskin rafts.  Naxi communities then lived further north in the plain and Dayan grew up beside the Old Stone Bridge only after the Khan’s departure.

       Folks in the towns and countryside also built arched stone bridges over their streams.  Usually they had but a single large arch that made the center of the bridge two or three meters higher than the entrances on each side.  Supposedly, this was to allow small boats with sails, or more likely rafts with people standing up in them, to pass under the bridge.  Some of the highly arched bridges had a kind of staircase to use.  The stone bridges were generally wider than suspension bridges, often with stone guardrails on the sides and animal sculptures at the ends.

Double Dragon Bridge, Jiamshui County

       Such bridges are still in use throughout the province.  Where they exist in or near towns they are especially active on market days.  People carry their goods and lead their animals across them and because of the high arched middle, vehicles like cars, motorbikes and even tractor-trailers usually avoid them.

       Multiple-arch bridges also used odd numbers, like three, five or seven.  This was especially necessary, aesthetically speaking, if the middle of the bridge rose higher than the ends.  Then the largest arch was directly in the center and an even number of arches had to flank on each side to give it overall visual balance.  The bridges were, after all, a kind of art form, and had to be guided by principles of harmony.

covered bridge over the Yongchun River, Weixi County

       Of all of Yunnan’s classic stone bridges, Shuanglongqiao (Double Dragon Bridge) in Jianshui County, has the most arches.  Originally constructed in the late 18^th century with just three arches and a three-story central tower, because the river started getting wider and the bridge couldn’t cross all of it, the local governor had it expanded to seventeen arches, with an additional, smaller tower at one end.

       Today it’s difficult to imagine why the extension was necessary.  Except after the heaviest monsoon rains, the river is so narrow and shallow it only passes under a few of the arches.  Under most arches the land is dry and local people walk under the bridge more often than over it.  While the location is not far from Jianshui, it is not near a heavily populated rural area and seems to have been of limited commercial value.  Nevertheless, it is one of the most beautiful bridges in the province.

covered bridge near Chongxin, Yunlong County

       Other arched stone bridges featured a tower over the center, a place to shelter in a sudden storm, a feature that may have inspired another type of Chinese bridge:  the Wind and Rain Bridge (fengyuqiao).  This had a roof over the entire span of the bridge and wooden walls along the sides.  They were so named because they provided protection against wind and rain, not just for people who happened to be traveling that way, but undoubtedly for farmers who were in nearby fields.  They even had benches installed inside and racks to put loads or baggage.

       Centuries after their construction, many of these are still in use, especially in the west.  Weixi, Yunlong and Tengchong Counties have several along some of the main routes.  Sometimes the covered bridge spans such a small stream, where there are alternative routes to get to the main paths, that one wonders why they even built it.  Maybe they just wanted something beautiful in their environment, a landmark that reflected their pride and aesthetic taste.

       Covered bridges service communities that are remote, off the beaten track, not part of important commercial networks and not in areas targeted for development.  Therefore, they won’t need to be replaced by something bigger, sturdier and more modern looking.  They will remain standing in the countryside as a testimony to the ingenuity of Chinese engineers, with their special aesthetic touch.

coming out of the covered bridge at Baoluo,Yunlong County

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