(Source: China Daily)
The beginning of my Yunnan Dream
By Bruce Connolly | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-12-28 15:43
When I first visited Kunming in 1995, I quickly realized it was a city for both relaxing and people watching. At the time, Kunming was the railhead for Yunnan, with people coming from all over the province to travel onwards across China by train. Sitting at an outdoor cafe on Beijing Lu, near the railway station, I saw a wide variety of ethnic dress. I would wonder about who people were, which ethnic group they came from, and where their home in Yunnan was. It was fascinating and captivating.
To discover more about the province's ethnic groups, I headed by bus to Yunnan Nationalities Village (Yunnan Minzu Cun), close to the shores of Dianchi Lake. While such parks don't portray the harsher aspects of life in a Xishuangbanna forest or remote village high in Yunnan's northwestern mountains, they are educational. They allow visitors to appreciate the human diversity of the province along with the architectural styles, costumes, beliefs and folk customs of its 25 ethnic groups. Within China there are 56 nationalities. Some of Yunnan's groups are relatively small in number, and often live in areas difficult to access. The park provides possibly the only opportunity to meet their people.
Yunnan's ethnicity has long fascinated me and while in Kunming I would regularly visit the park. It is best to take time to simply sit in the many recreated villages while absorbing some of the local culture. Although folk dance performances are put on for visitors, often the villages are quiet places to mingle with people from the many diverse parts of Yunnan. With my initial plans to head north to Dali and Lijiang, it was an opportunity to discover something of the background of both the Bai and Naxi people. It gave me an insight into the lives of the Dai with their unique temples, pagodas, bamboo houses on stilts and their peacock dance performed to music played on cucurbit flutes.
The park occupies a beautiful setting with incredible lakes and canals forming foregrounds to the Three Pagodas of Dali or the magnificent White Stupas of Xishuangbanna's Manfeilong. Close by are the waters of the 300-squar-kilometre Dianchi Lake. Crescent shaped and roughly 39 kilometers long by 13 kilometers wide, it is the largest freshwater lake in Yunnan and sixth largest in China. Mountains rising, particularly to the west, enhance its scenic appeal. During my first visit, fishing and agricultural villages still spread along the shores close to Kunming but today such areas are absorbed by the city's urban growth. Indeed close to modern downtown, wetland parks have helped transform the scene. However in the 1990s traditional life was evident. Single deck metal boats ferried local people between shoreline villages or longer cross-lake journeys. Fishermen punted long wooden boats through plant-covered creeks. I could easily spend hours there watching traditions that were increasingly disappearing into the modern city.
Rising above the lake stands the Western Hills or Xishan. A popular local saying suggests, "If you do not visit the Western Hills, you have not visited Kunming. If you do not come to the Dragon Gate you have not been to the Western Hills." Today the area is a park easily reached from downtown by metro. In 1995 I had to transfer onto several buses followed by a shuttle carrier up to a small tourist village that had developed at the entrance to the Dragon Gate trail.
Steps led up between shrines constructed from the cliff face between 1781 and 1835 by a Taoist monk and teams of co-workers. With sheer drops straight down towards the lake, it was amazing that they managed to cut a path into such terrain. Some alcoves contained shrines and incense bowls. Ancient poems and calligraphy were etched into the rock. At times only a low wall protected walkers on the narrow and at times slippery path. Occasionally it became very narrow and difficult for descending visitors to pass. Eventually a steeply rising tunnel led up to the much gentler route before reaching a pavilion. This was a point for stopping, sitting and just taking in the views of surrounding hills and the expanses of Dianchi. Although there was a chairlift I walked down through an amazing limestone landscape, stopping regularly to appreciate everything around me. By late afternoon it was time to head back into the city, go to my local cafe on Beijing Lu and try to write up the day's notes. As usual I became distracted watching people passing and dreaming of my adventures in Kunming's Western Hills.
Yunnan being an early passion of mine, I led study groups from the UK to discover the province's many charms, including its geographical and ethnic attractions. Starting off at Kunming I would try and include time at the Western Hills, where ascending the narrow carved passage up the Dragon Gate cliff face would become be one of the city's highlights for them.
Much of the area around Kunming is characterized by limestone. Several times, either alone or again with groups I would head in the direction of the amazing Stone Forest (Shilin). A fascinating road journey led there from the city, skirting round a popular recreational area, the Yangzhonghai Lake. Today an expressway links Kunming with the Stone Forest but in my early journeys the highway passed through farming country before descending along a gorge crossed overhead by a bridge carrying the new railway connecting Kunming with Nanning, Guangxi's capital. High on one slope, along a narrow ledge, ran the historic French-initiated railway to and from Vietnam. It promised an exciting train journey that I would later experience.
On one occasion heading to the Stone Forest I visited a compact agricultural village of low-rise mostly adobe-walled buildings nestling around a small lake. Qixingcun or Seven Star Village when compared to Kunming felt like going back in time. It was particularly scenic and I enjoyed meeting the people from the Sani ethnic nationality who live around the Stone Forest area. The Sani are related to the Yi people. Mature corn cobs had just been harvested, some hanging from wooden drying frames. Below a pole holding strings of red peppers, more cobs were spread across flat rooftops. It was lunchtime and children were returning home from a local elementary school, however meeting me some gathered on stone steps, trying to have a conversation.
Today the Stone Forest (Shilin) is one of the most popular tourist destinations around Kunming. Indeed its uniqueness has been recognized since the Ming Dynasty. Composed of highly weathered limestone rock it formed over 270 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic Era. Within the shallow tropical seas that once covered that area, the skeletal remains of millions, indeed trillions, of sea creatures sank to the sea floor. Over time as more and more shells and bones gathered, the pressure compressed everything into carboniferous rock.
Yunnan is an area of considerable geological activity that has caused the land to gradually rise. This would lead to seawater slowly flowing away as the land eventually rose above sea level. The exposed rock, limestone, was very vulnerable to a process known as weathering, particularly by rain, which is slightly acidic. The bare surfaces also were exposed to strong sunlight and wind, all of which helped break down the limestone into the quite distinctive karst landscape seen today. Its pinnacles resemble stalagmites, at times resembling trees, giving the illusion of a forest formed from stone. It has created a quite dramatic landscape through which walkways and steps have been laid to allow visitors safe access. The area is vast, encompassing over 350 square kilometers, featuring several distinctive physical zones. Apart from the popular main Stone Forest area there are smaller examples along with lakes, waterfalls, and subterranean caves featuring many classic geological textbook features. Since 2007 two areas have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the South China karst landscape. As a geographer bringing British people interested in the subject, it was a place we could have easily spent considerable more time studying and learning of its complex geology.
Many Sani people live around the area, not only running souvenir stalls but retaining long-held traditional legends of Shilin, while celebrating their unique Torch Festival there every lunar year on June 24.
Kunming proved to be a very interesting city both to visit and explore, indeed every visit would reveal more to me such as the Provincial Museum. However, more lifelong memories awaited as the next day I would be setting off on exciting travels such as in 1995, north to Dali and Lijiang – all part of my Yunnan Dream.
