Lijiang & Kunming 

cctv.com 04-05-2005 17:18

In the south of China, there is a fabled paradise with many beautiful stories. Many claim it’s in northwest Yunnan close to the border of Sichuan. Much of the West's knowledge of it came originally from the Austrian-American botanist and explorer Joseph Rock, who lived in northwest Yunnan for 27 years. But my desire for Lijiang and Shangri-La comes from James Hilton’s novel, Lost Horizon.

There is always a beautiful natural picture behind any legend. During my 81 days traveling in China, I finally reach here. Lugu lake, ancient town and Dongba, all of them are the signs of Lijiang, and the ancient mill wheel witnesses the thousand year history of Lijiang’s culture.

Xu Zhengqiang: It’s the production of my wife and I. Most of our pictures are drawn from the local people-Naxi people. One is the culture that reflects the Dongba religion, another is the folk-custom. My mother is a Tibetan and my father is a Naxi person. So I am half Tibetan and half Naxi. Naxi people are a multi-religious people; they don’t all believe in Tibetan religion. They are multi-cultural.

This old house, that looks like a manor, belongs to Mr. Xu. He tells me that the house is Naxi architecture, and a Tibetan Living Buddha once lived in it. Now he has bought it and all his family live in it. The old woman that sits beside the door is his grandmother. Though I can’t grasp the value and character of Mr. Xu’s works, I’m interested in the culture behind his works. He tells me there are a special group of people within the Naxi people. They are called Dongba. They retain many of the beliefs and customs of the original Naxi, and look like Wizards.

Mr. Xu tells me that the Dongba are among the last in the world to retain a pictograph writing system. To preserve Dongba culture the local government built a Dongba theater. The theatre is decorated with strange hieroglyphic animal symbols, representing the deities revered by the Dongba. Most fascinating is the ancient pictograph writing system in an old book that I’m shown. The book has been handed down from father to son for six generations and the old man proceeds to sing me some of its contents.

Xu Zhengqiang: The book instructs on how to invite the diety. First, you should clean the bad things out. The book teaches you how to clean.

Only a few people understand the Dongba’s culture and can read the hieroglyphic writing. Even fewer can sing it, like the old man can. He worries that there is not enough interest in continuing the old traditions. Ethereal Buddhist-style music wafts on the street, creating a soothing and calming atmosphere. It is created by a type of flute made from gourds called a hulu si. Lijiang is a multi-cultural place. Two thirds of the people are wearing Naxi traditional costume, and one third are wearing Tibetan traditional costume. There is a long affinity between Lijiang and Tibet. Part of the museum is devoted to the legends. There are two kinds of theaters in this town and they retain their own features. One is for the Dongba culture, which is lively and colourful. The other is for the Naxi music, which is traditional and inexplicable. The director of the Naxi band is Xuanke, and I find that the audience like him more than the band itself.

Peter: Naxi music is actually Han music that has been adapted?

Xuan Ke: It was. Yeah.

Peter：Do you have your own music, which is different to Han music?

Xuan Ke: of course, a great deal. For example, tonight, the ‘Swine Herdess’, Naxi music.

Peter: The young people also are not following the Naxi traditions?

Xuan Ke: I think 90% of the young people don’t follow the traditions.

Peter: It’s a shame.

Xuan Ke: It’s a shame and that’s a big problem.

Peter: but you are preserving it here with your orchestra.

Xuan Ke: Here, only the battleground here, the last orchestra of Lijiang, or of china.

Peter: It’s the last orchestra in China that plays the traditional music?

Xuan Ke: En…You can listen to the other traditional music they called. You will centainly find them using some western instruments

Peter: Well, I wish you success in maintaining the culture and the music, and I hope it doesn’t die out. I’m sure in your hands, it’s very safe.

Xuan Ke: thank you!

Peter: Thank you very much indeed.

Xuan Ke: We’ll do our best.

Peter: Ok. Thank you.

We leave Lijiang and fly the short hop to Kunming, Yuannan’s capital, to film at the World Horti-Expo Garden. This was the site of the 1999 World Horticultural Expo. You always come across brides and bridegrooms here. Some of the plants in my own garden are descended from wild flowers discovered in Yunnan, so I feel very happy to explore this plant kingdom.

Kunming is sheltered from the cold northerly winds by mountains and is bathed in warm air currents from the Indian subcontinent.

Its 18000-plus plant species represent over 60 per cent of all those found in China. It’s also one of the world’s foremost plant nurseries.

We stop at the British garden. It’s supposed to be a castle, inside is a traditional Scottish cottage. You can hear music across the Austrian garden. Three violinists and a cellist are dressed in home-made top hats and crumpled evening suits - complete with tails. The general manager takes us on an orientation tour of the Expo site. It’s vast! Botanists and plant collectors have brought samples of Yunnan’s horticultural riches to the West for more than a 100 years. Numerous varieties, now common in gardens throughout the world, are descended from wild flowers discovered in Yunnan.

After some of the foods I’ve eaten in other parts of China, the offerings in Kunming have been strangely normal. Until I’m served rose petals fried in batter.

This is more like a classical Chinese garden. An elderly couple is enjoying the surroundings and they’re oblivious to everything else. The woman knits while her husband sings traditional songs.

In a garden with a waterfall and high cliffs, a girl in a pretty long dress and a hat topped with flowers plays a guzheng. This is a traditional string instrument, like a zither. In the background, two men do tai chi on a bridge. One has a sword. They show the harmony between people and nature.

A futuristic observation tower stands sentry above the park. Ostensibly, an open lotus flower, but with its dish pointing to the heavens it looks more like a satellite dish or a giant ray-gun from an episode of Dr Who or a James Bond film.

Hua Zefei: The Expo 99’s site was well chosen. It’s a famous sight in Kunming. You may wonder if forests were destroyed to build the garden. In fact, they weren’t. The surrounding area is beautiful now, but once this was a quarry and land fill disposal site, with a brick-kiln and tea factory.

Four floats cruise past blaring out loud pop music. The peace is broken. One float has an over-sized monkey wearing blue-bibbed shorts as its centerpiece. This is the park’s mascot, Lingling.

The 13th and 15th Expos were held in developed countries. But the 99’Expo was successfully held in Kunming, the capital of a remote province of China. The Expos held in other countries were temporary events. But, after the Expo in Kunming, the site continues to be run and makes a profit. The leaders of the country and of Yunnan province decided to build the garden to international standards and the Expo Group are leaders of the Yunnan tourism industry. Their slogan is Expo’9, Expo Garden Forever.

The Expo Garden is managed as a theme garden. The Expo Group run the Garden as the main tourist attraction as well as the Expo Hotel, Expo International Travel Agency, Expo Taxi and Expo Jixin Garden. We explore the surrounding area. The Expo Eco-Community and the Eco-Villas which were used by the leaders of 13 East Alliance countries for an international convention.

A huge park mascot stands beside the doorway. Here many fine horticultural works are displayed. Pictures introduce the plants and discuss the conditions of gardening throughout the world. Many halls are souvenir shops. Here I meet Mr. Liu, a franchiser who deals with keepsakes.

A dinner show at the nearby Jinxin Banquet Restaurant features a Yunnan feast and a musical spectacular based on the province’s many ethnic minority groups.

The owner’s vision was to create an experience combining the Moulin Rouge with exotic Thai dance shows. He assures me that it appeals to Westerners who want an authentic experience. The Queen apparently enjoyed it when she attended the opening of Expo’9. I watch it in surprise! Rather than the traditional tribal dances that I expect this show owes more to the glitz of a Las Vegas hotel.

The dancers use vivid pink and red fans or batons. They’re so well choreographed it reminds me of the flashes of colour in shoals of tropical fish or flocks of birds. The principle dancer looks like a martial arts film star.

Ding Jianguo: Yunnan is a province with many different groups of people. Every group has their own special culture and dances. Society now faces the problems of an aging population and how to retain the traditional cultures. They want to promote the Yunnan cultures to the whole country and even to the world. This activity was planned by the leaders of the Expo Garden.

Peter: Mr Yan, you designed all the gardens, all the exhibit. What is this? Can you explain why it is here?

Yan Shuping: It’s a herb gourd. It was used as a herb container in olden day as it’s damp proof. It is also the herb signal.

We move to the herb garden. The Chinese have long known the medicinal properties of herbs.

We meet the park’s retired chief horticultural engineer, Mr. Yan. There are 500 species of herb in the garden, many are used to cure ailments and disease. Mr. Yen shows me how to make sure the tree is the right one by carefully tearing a leaf and pulling it apart to reveal its sinewy veins.

Yan Shuping: The Chinese herbs include arbor, shrub and herbage plants. There are 400 species of herbs in China. All parts can be used; the flowers, leaves, fruit and the roots.

Next stop, the bamboo garden. It’s raining once more and a two-story exhibition house provides a welcome escape. The house and everything in it are made from bamboo. I’ve no idea bamboo was so versatile or that there were so many varieties.

Peter: I’ve just bought one of this, the lovely pig creations. I bought it actually for my daughter, my youngest daughter. We have a nickname for her Piglet, and she loves pig. So I’m sure she’s going to love this.

Peter: I’m sitting in a room which is literally made of bamboo. It shows remarkable variety and wide use of bamboo in the everyday life of Chinese.

Bamboo is central to Chinese culture. The Chinese began writing on bamboo strips more than 2500 years ago before it was superseded by another Chinese invention, paper.

Peter:I don’t smoke. This is a pipe made of bamboo, so let me see if I can get someone who can demonstrate it for me.

Mr. Ma, perhaps you can demonstrate how to use this pipe for me, please.

The Grand Greenhouse is divided into three zones, to house tropical, temperate and mountain plants, many of them unique to Yunnan.

Yan Shuping: This tree is called Heaven Tree. It reaches the heavens. It’s from Xishuangbanna. It’s 80 meters tall now.

There are two different plants, the host plant and the parasitic plant. After the parasitism, the parasitic plant will kill the host, but it will live. It's known as the Garrotting Phenomena of tropical rainforests. There are three features common to tropical rainforest plants. The first is that the plants’ roots whip together; the second is the blossoming and fruiting on the old stems; the third is the orchid blossoming on the top.

Here there are over 300 varieties of magnolia trees. The highlight of this garden is an extremely rare tree - only seven examples exist in the wild.

Yan Shuping: This isManglietiastram Sinicum Law, the second rate protected tree of China, only 7 in China. The seed has a hard crust, and it’s difficult to break, so only a few trees exist.

Peter: Yes, I see someone is picking up some tea.

Yan Shuping: This tree is 800 years old. This is the south side. The directions were carefully checked before it was transplanted, as it must follow its original direction. It’s lucky that it’s alive. Four trees have been transplanted, and there was a larger one over there.

Peter：How long have you been studying plants, researching them? And how far have you traveled in your research?

Yan Shuping: I am over 60 years old, and have devoted my whole life to the park industry. In total there are 2511 species in the garden and I collected more than 90% of them from the forest. I love them very much and feel at home here. I look after them as my own children.

Peter: I’m in the Tea Garden at World Horticultural Expo center in Kunming. I’m being shown by this Bai lady from Yunnan how to pick tea. So perhaps you can show me, how to do it? What do I have to do?

Woman: The tea of this season is third grade tea. There are three grades of tea, from the first bud, the second bud and the third bud.

Peter: Three leaves, pretty leaves.

Woman: You should master the skill. The hands don’t leave the leaves, and the leaves don’t leave the pot. You won’t burn your hands; it’s only 45℃ on the surface of the leaves.

A girl expertly sifts and turns the leaves with her bare hands without touching the scalding iron sides. I am then invited to try myself, and gingerly put my hands in.

I call these trees bonsai but I’m swiftly corrected. They are wonderfully sculpted miniature potted trees.

Peter: We know this form of minimization of tree growing is Bonsai, which is Japanese. But I believe it’s actually originated in china. Can you tell me about that, please?

Yan Shuping: The miniaturization of plants has existed for more than 1000 years in China. Miniaturization consists of eight groups, for example, Zhejiang group and Hai Group. Each has its own features and cultural meaning.

The plants in the vegetable and fruit garden are a surprise for the plants today are very different with their ancestors. What will they look like in a thousand years? Some of the fruits are more like animals!

Our final afternoon in the Expo garden kicks off with a traditional Chinese wedding. Mine!! Before I know it I’ve been kitted out in a dazzling red gown with a dragon motif on the chest and ridiculously long red and white sleeves. This would outdo the designer Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen any day.

My bride turns out to be the assistant from the morning’s fitness dance. The sedan bearers do so much walk as run, urged on by the shrill wailing of traditional reed instruments. I start to feel butterflies in my stomach.

I got married and divorced all in the space of 10 minutes. And I didn’t even find out her name.

The garden complex is a great showcase for the botanic riches of Yuannan and China. Its theme is Man and Nature in Harmony. Given how mankind’s greed or thoughtlessness has had such a devastating impact on the world’s flora and fauna, I find it a noble sentiment. Yet, one sadly at odds with the reality in many areas of the world.

Anyway, I wish them luck. I also thoroughly recommend visitors to Kunming to spend time viewing the garden’s wonderful display - even hay fever sufferers.

Editor:Hu  Source:CCTV.com