1、1A Little City with a Bia HeartIF you are planning a visit to Zhangji- ajie,the natural reserve in Hunan Province,you could do yourself an,extra favor with a stopover in Yi-yang,a small city on the route from pro-vincial capital Changsha.People swoonover Zhangjiajies spectacular mountainscenery,its
2、waterfalls,pools and brooks,its foliage of myriad hues,its untamedflamboyance.Yiyangs charm is of anotherorder,understated and cultured. Flanked by the Xuefeng Mountains tothe southwest and the South DongtingPlain to the northeast,Yiyang is traversedby the restless flow of the Zijiang River,nurturer
3、 of long lost civilizations.Itsdocumented history began in the War-ring States Period (475-221 BC),when itwas part of the State of Chu.After the na-tion was united by Emperor Qinshihuang(259-21o BC),Yiyang County was estab-lished in the region.The size of its terri-tory changed over the following ce
4、nturies,but the name has survived these millen-nia.In the 199os Yiyang was promoted toa prefecture-level city. People Who Made Their Marks inHistory 2A popular song about Yiyangs PeachBlossom River was a smash hit in the1930s Shanghai,the vanguard of Westerncultural influence at the time.DuringWorld
5、 War II,Shanghai was refuge toa large Jewish refugee community,inflight from extermination at the hands ofthe Nazis back in their home countries.Some of their number would never havemade it to a safe haven in China withoutthe help of rio Fengshan,a Yiyang native. As Chinese consul general in Viennaf
6、rom 1938 to 1940,Dr.Hos epitaphtells us he risked his life and career forthousands of Jews who applied for Chi-nese visas in a desperate effort to escapeNazi concentration camps.In 2ooo YadVashem,Israels Holocaust memorialauthority granted one of Israels highesthonors “Righteous Among the Nations“to
7、 Dr.Ho,the “Chinese Schindler,“ at aceremony attended by families of thosehe saved. Son of a poor peasant,Dr.H0 (1901-1997) was an exceptionally diligent andintelligent student; in 1932,studyingin Germany he obtained a doctorate inpolitical economics.A few years laterhe started his diplomatic career
8、 in thegovernment of the Republic of Chinaand was sent to Vienna.In 1938 Austria.was annexed by Nazi Germany,and soonafter the 3Anschluss most of the capitals18o,ooo Jews were rounded up andtransported to concentration camps.Theremnant shuttled frantically between for-eign embassies to get a ticket
9、out of thecountry.Many embassies turned awayapplicants en masse for fear of Nazi retali-ation,but Ho Fengshan managed to issuevisas to all who came to him. Soon the Nazi authority comman-deered the consulate office on the pretextthat the building was a Jewish property,and Hos appeals to the Kuominta
10、nggovernment for relocation funds were re-jected.Dr.Ho dug into his own pocketsto rent a small apartment where he con-tinued to hand out visas to Jews.He was quoted as saying: “It was natural to feelsympathy to the Jews when seeing theirplight,and I felt a humanitarian obliga-tion to help them.“ Dr.
11、Ho never boasted about hisheroic deeds; indeed the story only be-came public knowledge three years afterhis death.At the 10th anniversary of hisdeath the famous writer Yu Qiuyu wrotehim an effusive epitaph,which containsthese words: “It is not a trifle to extend ahelping hand to those close at hand,
12、andit is even more unusual to do good tensof thousands of miles away.The worldnever overlooks any spark of kindnessamid the commotion of wars.“ 4A benign heart is a defining element ofYiyangs ethos,one shaped by Confucianteaching and the esteem for educationand other cultures that have prevailedhere
13、 since ancient times.Local academiesachieved national reputations as early asin the Northern Song Dynasty (96o-1127)that endured into Ming and Qing times.In the early 20th century the college andprograms funded by the Norwegian Mis-sionary Society seeded a cosmopolitanvision among local youth,includ
14、ing HoFengshan,a beneficiary of the societyseducational subsidies. Yiyang was the birthplace of or was sig-nificant in the lives of many luminaries ofChinese history,including the four seniorofficials who swayed the course of the lateQing Dynasty: namely,Zeng Guofan,HuLinyi,Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongz
15、hang.Zhou Libo (1908-1979),a writer fromYiyang,is known for his novel Bao FengZhou Yu (Hurricane),on the 1950s landreform,which is lauded as a literary mon-ument to an epoch-making event.Eventoday people from all over China tricklein to pay tribute at his former residence,athatched cottage amid an o
16、cean of whitecamellia,with bamboo forests stretchingas far as the eye can see. Tea Horse Trail 5Yiyang lies on the Ancient Tea HorseTrail.Its Anbei County,tucked deep inthe Xuefeng Mountain,produces primedark tea,which became nationally re-nowned back in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).Interestingly,the
17、beverage is mostloved by nomad herders in northwesternprovinces such as Qinghai,Shaanxiand Xinjiang,far away from where it isgrown.Their taste for it apparently datesback to Genghis Khans military expedi-tions. In .the mid-13th century the forces ofthe ambitious leader of the Mongol tribesentered Yi
18、yang,as part of his campaignto conquer Eurasia.Worn out by the longdistances and debilitated by gastric prob-lems triggered by the alien climate anddiet,the contingent could make it no fur-ther than this hostile mountainous region.Hospitable local farmers offered them adrink made from dark dry leave
19、s,whichtranspired to be most effective in curingdiarrhea.Mongolians took to dark tea ina big way and it was later introduced intowestern China. The Yiyang section of the Tea HorseTrail is dotted with historic sites,includ-ing 38 venerable bridges,one of which isYongxi Bridge.A roofed wooden struc- t
20、ure atop white stone piers,the bridgehas gate towers with multiple tiers ofupswept eaves,so it looks more like aframe house than a bridge.The 6weedspeeping out from between its gray tilesand the green moss that fills the cracksin its stone steps produce a patina ofage,completely at one with the peac
21、efulcountry views that form the backdrop.The bridge was built in the Qing Dy-nasty with money raised by residents ofnine towns,and its construction took sixyears. The meandering route of the caravantrail crosses several rivers in Yiyangbefore starting to climb the GuanshanValley,its entrance guarded
22、 by a tower-ing monolith - the “General.“ A ruggedfootpath winds through narrow defiles,dense bush and forest,treacherouscaverns and babbling creeks.At somepoints one has to crawl prostrate orgrope ones way through.Walking raft-ing and horse-riding alternate withinthe course of one kilometer,but thi
23、sseems like one extremely long kilometerfor those experiencing it.People withstrong nerves and legs would definitelylove the thrill of this adventure.Thoseof softer tastes can also enjoy it if theydivert their thoughts from their soremuscles and pounding heartbeat to thesweet chorus of birdsong and
24、visualwonders of a lost world. Once through the valley,the trailleads to Gaoeheng (High City).This isa total misnomer: it is actually a littlevillage on the northern slope of BigBear Mountain.Caravans 7reprovisionedand took a break here in the days whenhorses were the only means of landtransport.Its
25、 inaccessibility has proveda good preservative for this ancientcommunity,one that seems to haveturned back time. Southern Dongting Southern Dongfing is part of the wa-ter body of Dongting,the second largestfreshwater lake in China.Lauded in themost creative and luscious language bythe most revered s
26、tars in Chinas liter-ary firmament,this formerly pristineexpanse has become the victim of siltaccumulation and land reclamation; itis no longer a single,vast,water bodybut three smaller lakes.Its beauty is ofcourse compromised,but not to the na-ked eye,since each sub-lake still extendswell beyond th
27、e range of human sight. Southern Dongting is speckled withislands large and small.Some are over-grown with a lavish covering of wildflowers; some are treasuries of edibleplants,lOO percent organic; some are thehaunts of local herders. Chishan Island,3o km long by 4 kmacross,distinguishes itself from
28、 theothers by reason of having a lake of itsown with 8minor islets.It supports a vil-lage - Lishiehong - that was said to bethe hideout of Fan Li and his love Xishi.Fan,an advisor to the King of Yue duringthe Spring and Autumn Period (77o-476B.C.),hatched a scheme to overthrow therival state of Wu.I
29、t involved infiltrating afemmefatale-namely Xishi-to seduceand distract the King of Wu,a missionshe fulfilled to perfection.Yue overthrewWu and the pair slipped into seclusion,feeding a myriad of rumors about theirrelationship and their whereabouts. An extension of the nearby XuefengMountain,Chishan is a spread of hillyterrain of reddish soil set amid blue rip-pling waters.The reddish tinge,however,is barely visible through the dense forestcover.
