China 2/12/2018 - 2/21/2018

Sunday, February 18, 2018 - Exploring Jianshui Ancient Town: Zhu Family Garden, Confucius Temple; Yuanyang Laohuzui Terraced Fields

We ate a real breakfast for the first time today, taking advantage of the buffet at the hotel. Craig finally got his chance to have a spicy bowl of noodles, and I had steamed bread which I dipped in spicy sauce.

This morning we explored Jianshui. First we went to the Zhu Family Garden. This is the residential complex of brothers Zhu Chengzao and Zhu Chaoying (wealthy merchants) constructed between 1890 and 1910. It consists of 218 pavilions and towers and 42 tianjing (courtyards), and covers 20,000 square meters.

We wandered through the complex, a seemingly endless series of labyrinthine rooms and courtyards decorated with potted plants including orchids, daisies, daffodils, and bonsai trees. Some of the bonsais had a local flair; they were growing attached to pieces of karst.

The various doorways featured elaborate wood carvings, and the ceilings and roofbeams were brightly painted. We saw period carved wooden furniture and porcelain vases.

There was a museum area which explained the history of the garden in signs and photographs, but it was so crowded that I started to get a bit claustrophobic and went back outside.

I heard Ziting calling "Gan Ma!" Xiao Yi had bought her a fan, and they also presented one to me as a gift. It was so sweet! Ziting and I posed together with our fans for a photo. The fans would later provide endless hours of entertainment for Ziting in the car.

We walked toward the reflecting pool and waterfall. Dry ice was being used to create picturesque mist which gave the whole place a serene, dreamlike quality.

We said Nihao to an older couple and the man started to talk to us in Chinese. When they realized the limited extent of our vocabulary, the wife talked to us in English. They asked where we were from, and how we came to be traveling in Yunnan during the Spring Festival. We explained our relationship with Wang Jun, and they were delighted to tell us that they were also from Guiuyang, and had driven here in a similar caravan.

Next we walked through the narrow streets of Old Town to the Confucius Temple. The streets were crowded with pedestrians and vehicles, so it was slow going. Dou Zai had obtained a large Year of the Dog mylar balloon which was tied to his stroller, so it acted as a beacon to be able to locate the group if anyone got separated.

The de facto religion for most Han Chinese is Confucianism, and the Jianshui Confucius temple dates back over 700 years, having been constructed in 1285. At the time it was the largest temple dedicated to Confucius in existence, and even today it is the second largest. It covers over 18 acres and includes 31 buildings.

We wandered the grounds, admiring the various gates facing the cardinal directions. We walked down to the Green Lotus Pool. This water feature is known in Chinese as the Pan Chi Pool or "Xue Hai." This means "Sea of Learning," which refers to the Diao'ao Pavilion in which scholars would study. A graceful stone bridge with three archways leads to the pavilion. The bridge and pavilion were reflected beautifully in the water.

After exploring the grounds, we waited in a queue to enter the main temple area. When we got inside, there was a courtyard with very large bright pink incense logs smoldering. There was an altar and many red ornaments on which people write prayers. Xiaohong, Liu Jun, Liu Lin, and Liu Xinyan purchased incense logs and prostrated themselves in prayer before lighting the incense and placing it into a receptacle.

Next, we entered the temple itself, which contained a statue of Confucius. We bowed before the statue and said a prayer. People were making offerings of food, fruit, and water.

Jianshui is known for its "purple pottery", one of the four renowned types of Chinese pottery.

Excavation results show that the history of pottery-making in Jianshui dates back 3,500 years, during the Song (AD 420-479) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, Jianshui was the center of pottery-making in Yunnan. Originated during the mid-late stages of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the purple pottery in Jianshui began to take an honorable position and became one the four most famous potteries in China. Interestingly, the first purple pottery that has been found is a pipe for untreated opium, which was imported into China after 1840.

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The clay used for pottery-making in Jianshui is a blend of five kinds of local soil.
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The decoration seen on the surface of a pot is actually created through carving, instead of painted like other kinds of pottery. The artisans will carve the decorated area on the surface and fill the notch again with clay of another color.

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The ingredients of Jianshui Pottery are very similar to porcelain, and the high [firing] temperature makes it as hard as iron.

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Except "carving and filling", another advantage that makes Jianshui Pottery stand out is the polishing. Most pottery is polished with enamel, a substance like glass containing quartz, feldspars and kaolin. Jianshui Pottery is polished only with tools such as pebbles.

- InKunming

Jianshui purple pottery

As we exited the grounds of the Confucius Temple, we saw people taking pottery lessons. An artisan would sit with them at a potter's wheel and help them to shape a vessel.

We walked through a square which was dominated by a large statue of Confucius. A woman was singing over a loudspeaker and people were ballroom dancing.

We reunited with the members of the group who had decided to sit out the temple visit (including those with little kids). Xiao Yi offered us a snack. She handed us a paper bowl which contained potato wedges in chili powder. We had a bite and they were delicious. She insisted that we finish them because they were too spicy for her or Wang Jun. American Chili King (and Queen) to the rescue!

The women wanted to buy some purple pottery. Though there were some shops in the ancient part of town, they had heard that there was a street which specialized in pottery in the new section of town. We headed toward the west gate of the city, exited Old Town, and crossed the intersection. Nobody knew how far away our destination was, and by now it was midday and the sun was brutally strong. We walked and walked and walked. Xiaohong asked people for directions and they kept pointing further down the street, across additional intersections.

Eventually, the grandmothers, the people with small kids, and Craig and I decided to turn around. It was just too much walking in the heat, with an unknown destination. Wang Jun suggested taking a taxi to the appointed lunch restaurant; otherwise we would need to retrace our steps all the way back to the Confucius Temple area.

It took over half an hour to hail the requisite cabs, but we eventually got to the restaurant, Yangjia Huayuan.

It was in a "hutong" section of town with narrow picturesque streets. Everything was decorated for the Spring Festival, with red flags, lanterns, and posters.

This restaurant is apparently known as the best in town, and has been featured on CCTV. Liang Bo had made the reservation. The restaurant had a lovely courtyard featuring a large koi pond. It was exquisitely decorated for the Spring Festival, and had a nice New Year altar.

Several people from our group who had opted out of the pottery mission entirely were already there, and waved us over to two prime tables with a view of the koi pond.

It was at this point that we saw Ziting cry for the first and only time during the entire trip. As she got onto her chair, she lost her balance and face-planted into the cushion. She started to cry very quietly. Since we were still waiting for the pottery shoppers to return in order to eat, Xiao Yi set Ziting up with her iPhone watching a princess cartoon. She quickly quieted down, folded her hands in her lap, and watched attentively.

The shoppers returned (with Yuan Huizong carrying many of his wife's purchases), and we had a nice lunch. Two year old Dou Zai was so cute; he was drinking water from a bottle cap and kept saying "Ganbei," toasting Bao Hong.

We finished eating and walked back to the hotel where our cars were parked. The hutong streets were narrow and we heard the constant beeping horns of people on motorbikes. It was too crowded for holiday pedestrians to share the narrow alleyways with motos, and made what could have been a very pleasant walk much more stressful than it needed to be.

At 2:00, our caravan left Jianshui bound for Yuanyang. The winding mountain roads were quite precarious; a white-knuckle drive for Wang Jun. At one point, they noticed that a car was missing. We pulled over at a rest area where some young men on motorbikes were gathered, playing cards for money. Their game was quickly broken up as two Americans emerged from Car #6 to stretch their legs.

The missing car appeared, and although we only counted 6 cars now, we were assured that everyone was accounted for, and we started to drive again.

We passed into a valley where the outside temperature hit 91 degrees. It was quite hot in the car and it made us all sweaty and sleepy. We passed the Nansha dam and hydroelectric power plant on the Red River, and then climbed back up into the mountains into an area populated by the Hani ethnic minority.

After around 3.5 hours, we arrived at the Yunti Hotel. Once again, the parking lot was tiny and tight. Wang Jun pulled into a spot, and the parking attendant yelled at him. Apparently the luxury car next to him needed two spots, and he wouldn't let us park there. Some hospitality!

Wang Jun checked us in, but we had to rush to get to the Laohuzui Terraced Fields in time for sunset. We left our luggage in the lobby (the staff placed a net over the pile of suitcases) and hopped back into our cars. It seemed a shame to leave immediately after we had just gone through the pain and conflict to park all of our cars in this crowded lot.

This town does not have the infrastructure to support the amount of tourists who were in town for the holiday, and we wound up stuck in a traffic jam on its small roads.

As we approached the terraced fields, the local security stopped us and told us that we couldn't proceed further down the road without tickets. They got into an argument with Wang Jun, and even dropped an F-bomb at Craig, who was just innocently sitting quietly in the front passenger seat. This town sure isn't very welcoming!

We parked temporarily and Wang Jun got tickets for all of the vehicles. It was a race to make it to the viewpoint before the sun set, and we just made it. It was nearly impossible to find a place to park there as well, and Wang Jun dropped us at the viewpoint while he found a spot.

These rice terraces were constructed by the Hani people over the course of thousands of years and cover 130 square km. The Hani call the terraces "Ladders toward Heaven". They are constructed on 15-75 degree slopes, and sometimes there can be over 300 terraces on a single slope. The terraces extend to 2000 meters in elevation (the highest elevation at which rice can grow) in the Ailao Mountains. The terrain allows for the water from the river in the valley to evaporate and rise into the high forests, where it condenses and irrigates the rice paddies.

The sun turned orange and reflected in the water of the rice terraces, looking quite beautiful. However, everyone was a bit frazzled after the mad dash to get here, and nobody was relishing the prospect of the traffic we would encounter on the way back to the hotel. Once the sunset had peaked, there was no sense in sticking around. We got back into the cars and retraced our way to the hotel. Everyone was quiet and introspective on the ride after an exhausting and somewhat frustrating afternoon. Xiaohong and Yuan Huizong were so flustered that they made a wrong turn and drove 20 km in the wrong direction before realizing their mistake and turning around!

When we arrived back at the hotel, the parking lot was so packed that we could barely walk in between cars. Craig and I seriously considered skipping dinner; we were both exhausted and not very hungry.

But since the restaurant was just across the parking lot, we decided to join the family. Food started to arrive, but we were still waiting for Xiaohong and Yuan Huizong to make their way back to the hotel. In the meanwhile, everyone was looking at the day's photos on their cell phones and sharing with one another on WeChat.

Wang Jun told us that the hotel had almost given our rooms away while we were at the rice terraces, even though we had pre-paid in full and had already checked in! So far Yuanyang was the least hospitable place that we had visited on any of our trips to China!

I was unable to get onto our hotel wi-fi (par for the course, it seemed), so I enabled my cell data. My plan allows access for $10 per day in a variety of countries, including China. It turned out that Facebook was now not blocked! Wang Jun thinks this is because the country's censors were all on holiday for the festival. So I was able to post my own updates (special shout-out to son Sonam Tshering in Bhutan who posted my previous updates after I sent them to him via WeChat).

Xiaohong and Yuan Huizong finally arrived, and we had a lovely dinner together. Everyone was very sociable and we all connected with one another on WeChat to share photos. For once, the dinner table configuration was not divided into drinking vs. non-drinking, so we had the pleasure of sitting with Wang Jun, Xiao Yi, and Ziting.

This was the perfect opportunity to reveal the English name that we had chosen for Ziting. Most parents get 9 months to decide on a name for a baby, and even then they sometimes change it once they meet the baby for the first time. Though we decided in a matter of hours, we had the benefit of meeting a lovely precocious 3 year old child.

The name that we decided on is Joy, which truly embodies her spirit. She is a lovely child...so well behaved and always happy. She is a delight in all ways, so the name truly fits her. We explained that the very idea of being in a car with a toddler for so many hours at a stretch, multiple days in a row, is usually enough to scare us to death. But Ziting truly was a Joy, handling the car rides better than we adults did, always happy, excited, and smiling.

Wang Jun and Xiao Yi were very happy with our choice, and they explained the name and its meaning to the rest of the family.

We were so glad that we had not skipped dinner, because it turned out to be one of the most sociable dinners that we had, and we got to bond with everyone. And the way that they eat, family style with many dishes, means that even if you aren't incredibly hungry, you can just pick at what you want.

Laohuzui Rice Terraces