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FATE endowed China’s diminutive, landlocked province ofGuizhou in its southern interior with an outsized significanceto modern China. Several factors haveconspired to largely shield the regionfrom foreign eyes, and being one of China’s poorest provinces, it has been slowto modernize and shape its future. Thatis precisely what transfixes certain kindsof travelers. The sense is that muchof the region is "untouched," and thathas made its 48 communities of ethnicminorities a secret pleasure for antiquecollectors and culture hounds. Historybuffs and nature lovers certainly won’tbe disappointed either. But the clock isticking and the time is coming for Guizhou to build its traditional strengthsinto a thriving regional economy.
Guizhou Looking Outward
Ouizhou was isolated until 1992when China’s reform and opening-uppolicy was finally enacted there. Still, itsdaunting mountainous geography hasnever made the transport of people andgoods easy, and yet at one time Chinaconducted military manufacturing here.Further back still, the near inaccessibility of the place made it a great hideoutfor the Comnmnists making a strategicretreat from the Kuomintang to thenorthwest in late 1934. They paused onroute in Zunyi and a crucial strategymeeting ensued, later dubbed the ZunyiConference, during which the Commu-nist Party of China adopted what wouldbe its world famous winning strategy:the Long March. Two and a half hoursfrom Guizhou’s capital Guiyang, theZunyi Conference site houses a museumand the preserved meeting rooms andliving quarters of the Communist leaders. Here, in the three days of January15-17, 1935, the groundwork was alsolaid for Mao Zedong’s eventual leadership of the Party. The site of the ZunyiConference has unusual brickwork andis instantly recognizable as foreign-designed. The streets near the museum aredominated by a mock-Tudor style andhave a vaguely Swiss feel. About a 20minute drive from here is the Cemeteryof the Revolutionary Martyrs. The ZunyiRed Army Mountain Memorial at the topof the hill is a steep climb but rewardsthe hardy with a view of Zunyi’s prettycanal-side walkways and the "sea of tea"territory in which the city of 800,000sits. Downtown streets are lined withlocal minority craft stalls and snackstands. Apart from being a Communistheartland, Zunyi is also famous for itssmooth Moutai, one of China’s mostwell-known brands of baijiu. Dongjiu isthe local version of the potent rice-basedspirit.
Xifeng Concentration Camp is in thesame direction as Zunyi from Guiyang,but closer to the capital. With its spacious and stately gardens it looks morelike a Chinese country estate than aprison. Gruesome shackles and solitaryconfinement cells are grim remindersthat here over 600 CPC officers andsoldiers were tortured and killed by theKuomingtang between 1938 and 1949.
If you like your history less packaged though, the place to see is YunshantunVillage. About an hour southwest ofGuiyang, this walled former garrisontown is a medieval enclave of peace andhas ahnost always been so. Not muchhas changed physically; the clever tourist can spot the "peep-holes" carved inthe ancient doors to scrutinize callers.At one time it was a marketing centerfor agricultural goods, with stone stepsbig enough to allow horses to scale itshigh interior alleyways. Some 6oo yearsold, it was restored in 2000 and hasbeen preserved as a retirement village;with school and working age generationsleaving in droves, it is largely populatedby elderly people and small children,presumably their grandchildren. Localsare warm and hospitable, happy to seeand even entertain travelers. Free ofcommercial restaurants or hotels, mealsand home stays can be arranged by justasking anyone you encounter in the village. The tour guides are children offamilies who have inhabited this regionthroughout its history.
Another 30 minutes drive furthersouthwest from Yunshantun is Huangguoshu Falls. The approaches to thenatural wonder offer many opportunities for the amateur photographer toexcel, and the hike is just long enough,at a leisurely 90 to 120 minutes, to beexhilarating while giving you braggingrights for sore calf muscles the next day.It is possible to walk under the falls ina stretch of linked caves. In summer,when the force of the water spilling overthis 81 meter wide ledge is most powerful, it must be ahnost impossible to seethrough the liquid veil, but in springthe hiker can see the nearby houses oflocals and gaze down into the XiniuPool below. A short drive away in thelower reaches of the fall is a series ofpools at Tianxing Bridge Scenic Zone.Visitors can cross stepping stones andduck through open caves carpeted bytree roots and roofed with vines that thewaterways have carved in the conicalkarst mountains, geographic featuresfor which this part of China is famousall over the world.
Nearby is the Yunfeng Tunpu CultureMuseum on the site where soldiers resting up from another moment of politicalglory were settled into a garrison townwhen peace time returned; EmperorZhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) orderedskilled workers from the central plainsto join them, and over the followingcenturies this community fostered richcultural traditions and arts not found inother parts of the nation. Dancers anddrummers entertain visitors with a localopera or musical ritual of a decidedlymilitary flavor, in the museum courtyard. The museum also houses someexamples of the embroidery for whichthe region is famed. Wang Fan is a collector of China’s cultural artifacts; shetakes trips into Guizhou’s countrysideand villages to talk to local members ofthe Yi minority and hunt up their embroidered pointy-toed shoes, weddingjackets, baby blankets, aprons, belts andcollars. Fifty of the best examples are in her Tianxinge Gallery in Beijing; theyare over 100 years old and she preservesthem for posterity, reasoning, "Rightnow, these beautiful traditions are notvalued much. People prefer to sell themfor other things they want. But one daytheir value will be realized again." Wangalso collects the antique silver craftsof the Miao minority in Guizhou andbrand new versions of the ornate andelaborate headdresses can be purchasedas curios and conversation pieces.
One hour’s drive south from Guiyangis another Ming Dynasty ancient town-Qingyan is the place to go if you likeyour hit of historic architecture mixedwith modern souvenirs, hip and tastefulclothing, and exotic local snacks. Jars ofrose jam, with the red blossoms tingeingthe golden honey pink, is inexpensiveand you are unlikely to find this in China’s big cities. The tour map at the gateshows a labyrinth of streets to stroll,and it is easy to kill a couple of hoursroaming the town. Many people are stillable to make a living here from tour-ism, so while the town attracts hordes oftourists it has a vitality and bustle thatappeals. Its face-lift is on-going; some ofthe old Ming wooden-walled structuresdistinguish it from the ancient town ofYunshantun.
The hidden lands of Guizhou won’tremain hidden long, and while that maymake relic-hunters sad, locals stand togain enormously.
Guizhou Looking Inward
Guizhou’s four dozen ethnic minoritygroups and its natural and cultural tourism sites are the heritage of its relativeisolation that visitors usually come tosee, but for the province’s inhabitantsthe national, provincial and municipalgovernments have an ambitious socialagenda, and this too is deeply connectedto Guizhou’s relative isolation, and howthat is changing. Different levels of government are shouldering the responsibility for raising the standard of living inboth its rural and urban environments.Transportation upgrading and affordable housing projects are underway.
The infrastructure needed to raise living standards is slowly being put in place,despite difficulties posed by Guizhou’smountainous terrain. Li Guangrong, Director-General of the Bureau of Housingand Urban-Rural Development for theprovince, took charge of new affordablehousing construction and home rebuilding for rural areas in 2003. Li has focusedon what he can achieve during his timein office, but even after retiring nextyear he plans to continue to contributeto the project.
Solving water, sewage and garbageissues to improve the lives of farmersgives him more than job satisfaction; hefeels a great sense of personal achievement. He felt the same way in 1990when he was responsible for buildinghighways in Guiyang, noting, "Ten yearsago few people owned cars here, andthere was a feeling of general hopelessness." While things are looking up inthat respect, the quality, distribution and demand for water remains a big issue.
Li is working with three main guidelines: the traffic issue, water supplies,and living conditions; all three take priority over environmental issues but thelatter is not being ignored by any means.Recycling is an important aspect of thenew communities; bricks for housesare made from garbage, using a specialprocess developed by the Fine ChemicalIndustrial Park of Phosphorus-coal inXifeng, Guiyang. Last year, 96 garbagerecycling factories opened in Guizhou,with RMB 300 million invested in operating costs each year. In the five years tocome, RMB 5.9 billion will be investedin recycling factories. This industrialprocess is also expected to become partof the model for improving conditionsin other Chinese cities.
Rural communities will see the greatest benefits in the province’s drive toupgrade local living conditions. Guizhouis working on a housing program forfarmers living in substandard conditions, but it’s not just about improvingpeople’s standard of living. Guiyang hasnearly four million people and little arable land so denser communities thatfree up acreage are a good solution. Onethird of the slated construction has beencompleted in just two years and a total of1.99 million rural households are slatedfor improvements. The approved projects will be completed in 2014, two yearsahead of schedule. Poor farmers beingmoved into modern living facilities areentitled to scalable housing subsidiesthat range from 10 to 100 percent of themonthly rent. Government funds initiallyamounted to RMB 9 billion, but actually,they need RMB 8 billion in total.
Equal attention is paid to urbanpoor. In 2010 alone Guizhou completed556,000 low-rent apartments for lowincome urban families, and launchedconstruction for 81,000 more. MaChangqing, deputy mayor of Guiyang,explained that residents’ "rent" is subsidized according to their ability to pay.For retired former company employeesliving in 5o-square-rneter units in thecity’s Qiye Low-rent Housing Community, the monthly fee itself can be as lowas one yuan per square meter. Projectsof this kind is expected to be a modelfor all cities seeking to provide a betterstandard of living for the rural peopleon their borders, and at the same timeconvert surplus labor to fill needs inemerging sectors of their local economy.
Raising Guizhou’s score on the happiness index goes well beyond increasingthe comfort of living conditions. Improving income levels is critical; thosefarmers who want work are given theopportunity to take up positions in 10cal industries. Skilled labor and variouskinds of workers are needed elsewhere soretraining people to fit those needs willbe provided at no cost to the relocated.A special project in Xuyan, the NationalEducation Base for Women, in Baozi Village, Xifeng County, accepts 5,000 women-farmer students every year, teachingthem cooking and sewing, and even whatit takes to make a good official.
The modernization of Guiyang is notjust a life-changing process for its farmers. The interconnectedness of parts ofGuizhou, as well as its lines to other,more developed provinces promises tobe a major stimulation for the privatesector. By 2016, all counties will be connected to highways. Guizhou’s first highspeed railway slated to be built fromGuiyang to the megalopolis of Chengduin Sichuan Province, and RMB 23.8billion has been raised for the capital’ssubway system. Guiyang’s airport is alsobeing modernized and expanded. AsGuizhou’s communities face outward,job opportunities roll in.
Guizhou Looking Outward
Ouizhou was isolated until 1992when China’s reform and opening-uppolicy was finally enacted there. Still, itsdaunting mountainous geography hasnever made the transport of people andgoods easy, and yet at one time Chinaconducted military manufacturing here.Further back still, the near inaccessibility of the place made it a great hideoutfor the Comnmnists making a strategicretreat from the Kuomintang to thenorthwest in late 1934. They paused onroute in Zunyi and a crucial strategymeeting ensued, later dubbed the ZunyiConference, during which the Commu-nist Party of China adopted what wouldbe its world famous winning strategy:the Long March. Two and a half hoursfrom Guizhou’s capital Guiyang, theZunyi Conference site houses a museumand the preserved meeting rooms andliving quarters of the Communist leaders. Here, in the three days of January15-17, 1935, the groundwork was alsolaid for Mao Zedong’s eventual leadership of the Party. The site of the ZunyiConference has unusual brickwork andis instantly recognizable as foreign-designed. The streets near the museum aredominated by a mock-Tudor style andhave a vaguely Swiss feel. About a 20minute drive from here is the Cemeteryof the Revolutionary Martyrs. The ZunyiRed Army Mountain Memorial at the topof the hill is a steep climb but rewardsthe hardy with a view of Zunyi’s prettycanal-side walkways and the "sea of tea"territory in which the city of 800,000sits. Downtown streets are lined withlocal minority craft stalls and snackstands. Apart from being a Communistheartland, Zunyi is also famous for itssmooth Moutai, one of China’s mostwell-known brands of baijiu. Dongjiu isthe local version of the potent rice-basedspirit.
Xifeng Concentration Camp is in thesame direction as Zunyi from Guiyang,but closer to the capital. With its spacious and stately gardens it looks morelike a Chinese country estate than aprison. Gruesome shackles and solitaryconfinement cells are grim remindersthat here over 600 CPC officers andsoldiers were tortured and killed by theKuomingtang between 1938 and 1949.
If you like your history less packaged though, the place to see is YunshantunVillage. About an hour southwest ofGuiyang, this walled former garrisontown is a medieval enclave of peace andhas ahnost always been so. Not muchhas changed physically; the clever tourist can spot the "peep-holes" carved inthe ancient doors to scrutinize callers.At one time it was a marketing centerfor agricultural goods, with stone stepsbig enough to allow horses to scale itshigh interior alleyways. Some 6oo yearsold, it was restored in 2000 and hasbeen preserved as a retirement village;with school and working age generationsleaving in droves, it is largely populatedby elderly people and small children,presumably their grandchildren. Localsare warm and hospitable, happy to seeand even entertain travelers. Free ofcommercial restaurants or hotels, mealsand home stays can be arranged by justasking anyone you encounter in the village. The tour guides are children offamilies who have inhabited this regionthroughout its history.
Another 30 minutes drive furthersouthwest from Yunshantun is Huangguoshu Falls. The approaches to thenatural wonder offer many opportunities for the amateur photographer toexcel, and the hike is just long enough,at a leisurely 90 to 120 minutes, to beexhilarating while giving you braggingrights for sore calf muscles the next day.It is possible to walk under the falls ina stretch of linked caves. In summer,when the force of the water spilling overthis 81 meter wide ledge is most powerful, it must be ahnost impossible to seethrough the liquid veil, but in springthe hiker can see the nearby houses oflocals and gaze down into the XiniuPool below. A short drive away in thelower reaches of the fall is a series ofpools at Tianxing Bridge Scenic Zone.Visitors can cross stepping stones andduck through open caves carpeted bytree roots and roofed with vines that thewaterways have carved in the conicalkarst mountains, geographic featuresfor which this part of China is famousall over the world.
Nearby is the Yunfeng Tunpu CultureMuseum on the site where soldiers resting up from another moment of politicalglory were settled into a garrison townwhen peace time returned; EmperorZhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) orderedskilled workers from the central plainsto join them, and over the followingcenturies this community fostered richcultural traditions and arts not found inother parts of the nation. Dancers anddrummers entertain visitors with a localopera or musical ritual of a decidedlymilitary flavor, in the museum courtyard. The museum also houses someexamples of the embroidery for whichthe region is famed. Wang Fan is a collector of China’s cultural artifacts; shetakes trips into Guizhou’s countrysideand villages to talk to local members ofthe Yi minority and hunt up their embroidered pointy-toed shoes, weddingjackets, baby blankets, aprons, belts andcollars. Fifty of the best examples are in her Tianxinge Gallery in Beijing; theyare over 100 years old and she preservesthem for posterity, reasoning, "Rightnow, these beautiful traditions are notvalued much. People prefer to sell themfor other things they want. But one daytheir value will be realized again." Wangalso collects the antique silver craftsof the Miao minority in Guizhou andbrand new versions of the ornate andelaborate headdresses can be purchasedas curios and conversation pieces.
One hour’s drive south from Guiyangis another Ming Dynasty ancient town-Qingyan is the place to go if you likeyour hit of historic architecture mixedwith modern souvenirs, hip and tastefulclothing, and exotic local snacks. Jars ofrose jam, with the red blossoms tingeingthe golden honey pink, is inexpensiveand you are unlikely to find this in China’s big cities. The tour map at the gateshows a labyrinth of streets to stroll,and it is easy to kill a couple of hoursroaming the town. Many people are stillable to make a living here from tour-ism, so while the town attracts hordes oftourists it has a vitality and bustle thatappeals. Its face-lift is on-going; some ofthe old Ming wooden-walled structuresdistinguish it from the ancient town ofYunshantun.
The hidden lands of Guizhou won’tremain hidden long, and while that maymake relic-hunters sad, locals stand togain enormously.
Guizhou Looking Inward
Guizhou’s four dozen ethnic minoritygroups and its natural and cultural tourism sites are the heritage of its relativeisolation that visitors usually come tosee, but for the province’s inhabitantsthe national, provincial and municipalgovernments have an ambitious socialagenda, and this too is deeply connectedto Guizhou’s relative isolation, and howthat is changing. Different levels of government are shouldering the responsibility for raising the standard of living inboth its rural and urban environments.Transportation upgrading and affordable housing projects are underway.
The infrastructure needed to raise living standards is slowly being put in place,despite difficulties posed by Guizhou’smountainous terrain. Li Guangrong, Director-General of the Bureau of Housingand Urban-Rural Development for theprovince, took charge of new affordablehousing construction and home rebuilding for rural areas in 2003. Li has focusedon what he can achieve during his timein office, but even after retiring nextyear he plans to continue to contributeto the project.
Solving water, sewage and garbageissues to improve the lives of farmersgives him more than job satisfaction; hefeels a great sense of personal achievement. He felt the same way in 1990when he was responsible for buildinghighways in Guiyang, noting, "Ten yearsago few people owned cars here, andthere was a feeling of general hopelessness." While things are looking up inthat respect, the quality, distribution and demand for water remains a big issue.
Li is working with three main guidelines: the traffic issue, water supplies,and living conditions; all three take priority over environmental issues but thelatter is not being ignored by any means.Recycling is an important aspect of thenew communities; bricks for housesare made from garbage, using a specialprocess developed by the Fine ChemicalIndustrial Park of Phosphorus-coal inXifeng, Guiyang. Last year, 96 garbagerecycling factories opened in Guizhou,with RMB 300 million invested in operating costs each year. In the five years tocome, RMB 5.9 billion will be investedin recycling factories. This industrialprocess is also expected to become partof the model for improving conditionsin other Chinese cities.
Rural communities will see the greatest benefits in the province’s drive toupgrade local living conditions. Guizhouis working on a housing program forfarmers living in substandard conditions, but it’s not just about improvingpeople’s standard of living. Guiyang hasnearly four million people and little arable land so denser communities thatfree up acreage are a good solution. Onethird of the slated construction has beencompleted in just two years and a total of1.99 million rural households are slatedfor improvements. The approved projects will be completed in 2014, two yearsahead of schedule. Poor farmers beingmoved into modern living facilities areentitled to scalable housing subsidiesthat range from 10 to 100 percent of themonthly rent. Government funds initiallyamounted to RMB 9 billion, but actually,they need RMB 8 billion in total.
Equal attention is paid to urbanpoor. In 2010 alone Guizhou completed556,000 low-rent apartments for lowincome urban families, and launchedconstruction for 81,000 more. MaChangqing, deputy mayor of Guiyang,explained that residents’ "rent" is subsidized according to their ability to pay.For retired former company employeesliving in 5o-square-rneter units in thecity’s Qiye Low-rent Housing Community, the monthly fee itself can be as lowas one yuan per square meter. Projectsof this kind is expected to be a modelfor all cities seeking to provide a betterstandard of living for the rural peopleon their borders, and at the same timeconvert surplus labor to fill needs inemerging sectors of their local economy.
Raising Guizhou’s score on the happiness index goes well beyond increasingthe comfort of living conditions. Improving income levels is critical; thosefarmers who want work are given theopportunity to take up positions in 10cal industries. Skilled labor and variouskinds of workers are needed elsewhere soretraining people to fit those needs willbe provided at no cost to the relocated.A special project in Xuyan, the NationalEducation Base for Women, in Baozi Village, Xifeng County, accepts 5,000 women-farmer students every year, teachingthem cooking and sewing, and even whatit takes to make a good official.
The modernization of Guiyang is notjust a life-changing process for its farmers. The interconnectedness of parts ofGuizhou, as well as its lines to other,more developed provinces promises tobe a major stimulation for the privatesector. By 2016, all counties will be connected to highways. Guizhou’s first highspeed railway slated to be built fromGuiyang to the megalopolis of Chengduin Sichuan Province, and RMB 23.8billion has been raised for the capital’ssubway system. Guiyang’s airport is alsobeing modernized and expanded. AsGuizhou’s communities face outward,job opportunities roll in.