Reading Xiangxi (Phoenix Town V)
Duocui Tower. Beside Huilong Pavilion stands the villa Huang Yongyu built in Fenghuang, backed by Guanjing Mountain and Tianma Mountain, facing the Rainbow Bridge, Tuo River, Marquis Wu Shrine, Qifeng Temple, Wanshou Palace, Ten-Thousand-Name Pagoda, and many other scenic spots, making it especially eye-catching. Duocui Tower bears a couplet written by Huang Yongyu: "Five poles leave lingering ink; one pole reaches Dongting." Huang Yongyu excels in both writing and painting; if he happens to be home, one may visit...
This article has been compiled from historical materials on 'Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network' (33519.com · Specialty Foods / Cuisine / Customs section). Prices, business hours, administrative divisions, and statistical data mentioned in the text may already be outdated. Before traveling, please refer to the latest announcements from merchants, scenic areas, and local competent authorities; the parts involving folk legends and folk customs are local historical and cultural anecdotes, provided for cultural reference.
Duocui Tower
Beside Huilongge, the villa Huang Yongyu built in Fenghuang stands with its back to Guanjing Mountain and Tianma Mountain, facing the Rainbow Bridge, the Tuo River, the Marquis Wu Shrine, Qifeng Temple, Wanshou Palace, the Ten-Thousand-Pagoda, and many other scenic spots—particularly eye-catching. The Duocui Tower has a couplet written by Huang Yongyu: "Five fishing rods leave ink for the night; one bamboo pole descends to Dongting." Huang Yongyu is a master of both prose and painting. If you happen to find him at home, you may visit and listen to him talk about the art world.
The Ancient Street of the Tuo River
The ancient street is the main thoroughfare of the old city, three meters wide, running lengthwise along the terrain and paved in a crisscross pattern, fully surfaced in gray stone. From Daomenkou westward, it passes through Cross Street, Zhongzheng Street, Xizheng Street, Huilongge, Yingshaochong, Doushanla, Jieguan Pavilion, and Shen Congwen's grave, all the way to the Number One Spring Under Heaven—over 3,000 meters in total. The street took shape during the Yuan and Ming dynasties; what remains today follows the Qing dynasty layout. The ancient city of Fenghuang takes this street as its central axis, connecting countless alleys and linking the whole city. In recent years, the Dongzheng Street section has been designated a "Handicraft Street," and many shops selling ethnic and folk handicrafts with rich local flavor have reopened. Among the most famous are Xiong Chengzao's Batik Shop and Zhang Guiying's Silver Workshop.
The Charming Southern Great Wall
Compared to the towering Northern Great Wall, the Southern Great Wall is far more delicate and charming. A local villager said, "The Northern Great Wall and the Southern Great Wall are like two sisters—the Northern one is the elegant lady of a great house, and ours is the pretty girl of a modest family." It's a fitting metaphor for their appearance, but the charm implied in this comparison dissolves the cruelty of history. The Great Wall seems to have become merely a scenic sight, no longer bearing the mission of blocking the flames of war.
Southern Great Wall
The Southern Great Wall was originally the Miao Frontier Wall. It was built because the rulers of the time could no longer tolerate the harassment of the "raw Miao." It served as a barrier dividing the raw Miao from the cooked Miao. (According to the Kangxi edition of the Mayang County Gazetteer, "General Account of Zhen'gan": Those who have submitted to royal rule are called cooked Miao, and they are largely similar to the Han Chinese of the interior; the raw Miao live secluded in mountain caves, fortifying their villages by natural defenses, speaking a different language and observing entirely different customs.)
According to historians' research, the Ming dynasty built the frontier wall four times. The earliest, a rammed-earth wall of over 35 kilometers built in the 33rd year of Jiajing (1554), was abandoned shortly after. In the 42nd year of Wanli, Cai Fuyi, the Huguang Vice Commissioner, "personally traversed the frontier, assessed its dangers and flat terrain, and strenuously argued for the establishment of garrisons and patrol posts. The Miao paths were rugged, making it difficult to check their incursions. He requested over forty thousand taels of silver to build an earthen wall along the frontier, from Tongren in the north to Baojing in the south, winding through mountains and across rivers for over three hundred li." Because of the complex terrain and rough construction, this wall drew the court's dissatisfaction. So the following year (the 43rd year of Wanli, 1615), Cai Fuyi petitioned the court for approval, and under the supervision of Zhou Fu, the Baojing Military Commissioner, garrison soldiers from each post were ordered to recruit civilian laborers and rebuild the wall, completing a frontier wall over 320 li long from Tingzi Pass on the border of Hunan and Tongren, Guizhou, to the Zhenxi (Jishou) Thousand-Household Office. In the 2nd year of Tianqi (1622), the Chen-Yuan Military Defense Vice Commissioner again assigned Deng Zuyu, the Zhen'gan guerrilla, to extend the wall from Zhenxi (Jishou) all the way to Xique Camp, adding 30 kilometers. Thus was completed the Southern Frontier Wall, totaling 190 kilometers.
The Miao Frontier Great Wall discovered at Fenghuang was first built during the Wanli era of the Ming dynasty (1573–1620), with a total length of 190 kilometers. It ran from Xique Camp in Guzhang County, western Hunan, in the north to Huanghui Camp in Tongren, Guizhou, in the south. Most of it passed through Fenghuang County, roughly through New Fenghuang Camp, Ala Camp, Gushuang Camp, Desheng Camp, Zhenxi Camp, and Zhenwu Camp. Compared to the Northern Great Wall, the Southern Great Wall is much more elegant and charming, and since most of it has been rebuilt, it carries little sense of vicissitude. But if you climb it at dusk, with cooking smoke curling up on both sides and boundless pastoral scenery, it is truly enchanting. In June 2002, archaeologists discovered a complete earthen Great Wall section stretching 500 meters on a peak in Linfeng Township, Fenghuang County, western Hunan. This is considered the most intact of the more than 600 sections of the Southern Great Wall discovered so far.
The Discovery of the Southern Great Wall
The flames of war from centuries ago are now distant, and the frontier wall's role in defending against the Miao has gradually faded from memory with the passage of time. The wall has long been submerged in weeds and vegetable plots. The stone walls that rulers once thought impregnable have weathered and collapsed in countless places, and the stones from the wall have been used by nearby villagers to fence vegetable plots, build rice paddies, or even just for amusement in their lonely rural lives. When Phoenix TV interviewed the villagers of Lahao, an old local said, "When we were kids herding cattle, we'd roll stones down the slope for fun—when we had nothing to do, we'd roll them here and there, and they rolled away."
The frontier wall, forgotten by time, touched the sensitive nerves of historians and was rediscovered, brought up again, and finally became a new scenic attraction standing before the world. In April 2000, an expert inspection team sent by the Ministry of Construction and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage was examining Fenghuang's application to become a national historical and cultural city. Among the team was Great Wall research expert Mr. Luo Zhewen. On his way back to Fenghuang from Huangshi Bridge, he passed through Yongxingping at Liaojiaqiao and saw from afar a ruined watchtower standing alone on the mountains. When told it was part of the frontier wall, he suddenly recalled his fifty-plus years of research on Great Wall culture. Through verification, he discovered that this was the very remnant of the Southern Great Wall he had been searching for. We can no longer fathom the tremendous shock produced when history and the historian's gaze met, but the news of the Southern Great Wall's discovery spread like wild grass. In December 2001, Fenghuang County invested 4 million yuan to rebuild and repair a 1.7-kilometer section of the new Great Wall on a relatively intact stretch of the frontier wall at Yongxingping, Liaojiaqiao, complete with 8 watchtowers and one east gate tower.
Thus, the Southern Great Wall entered the view of modern people.
Fine Scenery Inside and Outside the Great Wall
By the time we reached the Southern Great Wall, it was already dusk. The sky was overcast, and since it sits atop mountains, the cold wind was piercing. There were few tourists—only a few people ahead of us, climbing like black dots. The section at the east gate tower is the original wall's ruins, slanted and gray, with countless weeds and creeping plants wrapped around it, completely stripping away its majesty and ferocity as a military defense project. This section has a sentry post, extraordinarily lonely. Standing on it, the cold wind hits your face, and only at this moment do the vicissitudes of history surge into your heart.
The newly built Great Wall winds across several hilltops. Climbing to the highest point and looking around, the hillsides are covered with young fir trees and wild grass not yet fully grown. Inside and outside the walls, lush green stretches far and wide. At the foot of the mountains, fields crisscross and rice paddies interlace—a scene of pastoral beauty. Distant homes are nestled among bamboo groves, white cooking smoke curling upward, with the sounds of chickens and dogs.
Descending along the Great Wall, occasionally you can see a peach tree blooming brightly in a crack between stones, petals scattered about. A few children in red floral padded jackets, carrying bamboo baskets, search for wild scallions on the field ridges. In the rice paddies, an old man returning from herding ducks calls out, driving a flock of ducks flapping their wings chaotically back to their pen. This most ordinary pastoral scene becomes profoundly meaningful because it is beside the Great Wall. The cries of slaughter and plunder from centuries ago have gradually faded. The Southern Great Wall stands merely as an outdoor display of history, stripped of its lethal power.
Huangsiqiao Ancient Town
25 kilometers from Fenghuang County town. Leaving Alaying, the important border trade town at the junction of Hunan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, and heading west for one kilometer brings you to the famous Huangsiqiao Ancient City. This is the best-preserved ancient castle in China, first built in the 3rd year of Chuigong of the Tang dynasty (687 AD). It was renovated and repaired through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and after the founding of the People's Republic, the provincial and county governments allocated funds for restoration, forming a magnificent stone city. It was anciently a garrison town and an outpost for successive rulers to prevent unrest among the western Miao people.
China's best-preserved ancient castle to date—Huangsiqiao Ancient City
In Fenghuang's Ala Town, there still stands the most completely preserved ancient city in China to date—the Ancient City of Huangsqiao. This ancient city was the former seat of Weiyang County in the Tang Dynasty, and tracing its history, it dates back over 1,300 years. It is a solitary city, and today the city is filled with villagers; the bluestone walls surrounding the mud-walled dwellings carry a sense of interwoven history, much like the Southern Great Wall—once a place of beacon fires, now crisscrossed by fields and paths. History displays the solidity of the bluestone, while the dwellings represent a flowing picture of life. As we walk on the city wall, we can clearly hear the mooing of yellow cattle in the cowsheds, and even smell the scent of dry hay emanating from them.
Beyond the solitary city lie the fields, with golden rapeseed fields stretching endlessly. Touching the adhesive made of glutinous rice and pig blood in the crevices of the bluestone, we feel we are truly touching history, but the residents within the city walls seem ambitiously trying to incorporate history into their lives.
At the entrance of the city wall, many antiques and artifacts are displayed. A friend accompanying us said these are the locals' "family heirlooms," but today they are bought, and tomorrow another batch appears; they will still tell another buyer that these are their treasured family heirlooms. We are not entirely clear how many cultural relics 1,300 years can bury and leave behind, but surely not so abundant that their descendants could sell off a batch every day for decades on end?
Meanwhile, more and more dwellings are leaning against the city wall. An old man building a new tiled house leans on his roof, chatting easily with us as we walk on the wall. He strives to make his roof lean against the city wall to maintain an unbreakable connection with history. And by maintaining this connection, it becomes a guarantee of life—for instance, if he just builds a shed, it can be as high as the wall, and that shed, with slight decoration, can become a market for ethnic minority souvenirs... With one step, we fall into the trap of history, which is not what we expected. The expression of nostalgic reflection must be a vastness far from human habitation, but history and reality are so strangely glued together that it is truly disheartening.
Hidden in the Deep Mountains, the Stone Village—A Forgotten Paradise
Descending along the Southern Great Wall and continuing less than a mile, there is a stone village called Lahao. This village, sealed off in the deep mountains, drew my longing because of the story of a girl who fell into a cave. So after returning to Fenghuang, I went back to the Southern Great Wall, crossed several fields full of purple vetch, to seek out this stone village hidden in the deep mountains.
Just a mile from the Southern Great Wall, this place seems like a forgotten paradise. On the small stone bridge leading to the village entrance crouches a yellow dog with pricked ears; only after it finally licks its tail and leaves do we ascend the stone steps. The village is very quiet—you can truly hear the sound of a falling leaf. Almost all the houses are made of stone, even the pigsties, with roofs of thin stone slabs. Just entering the village, we see a girl with long braids and big eyes and her younger brother lying on a large rock, doing their homework. We try to talk to her and take a photo, but she keeps her head down and refuses to look at us.
Peach and plum blossoms scatter throughout the village. Some doors are ajar, some simply open; even when closed, they are not locked but merely secured with a small wooden stick. A friend who came with us said this is a village in the 21st century that still retains the vestige of not locking doors at night and not picking up lost items on the road. The households here are undefended. We enter a house with an open door, step over the stone threshold, and a cow in the cowshed on the right is startled awake, mooing twice before lazily lying back down. The owners are absent, yet the main door is open, and at a glance, we can see bamboo hats, rain gear hanging in the central room, and piled firewood. A peach branch slants out from the cowshed, creating a strange beauty.
The village is small, perhaps just a dozen households. When we go up, we hardly meet anyone, only three or five children who, through doorways, peek at us from afar. When we raise our cameras, they vanish like startled sparrows in an instant. Occasionally, an elderly person or a woman carrying water passes by; they are not surprised to see us, just glance from a distance, then continue their way as if nothing happened. We climb to the top of the small village, and suddenly the view opens up: a flat area of plum blossoms blooming like clouds, and in the distance, the remnants of a blockhouse, especially lonely among the mountains.
A Picture-like Old Woman
On the way back, I suddenly see a head with a headscarf peeking out from a stone wall, with a peach tree in bud blooming exceptionally brightly. It is a beautiful picture—an old person under the peach blossoms, watching over some household unknown. We just take one photo, and the old woman notices, turns her head, and gives us a shy smile. We say we'll take another, and she still smiles shyly, saying don't take more, film is precious. We finally persuade her to take one. She stands under the peach blossoms, trying hard to bloom her best smile, but appears somewhat shy and at a loss.
The old woman kindly invites us to sit for a while. We don't enter the house but lean against the stone wall to chat with her. She talks about the village at the foot of the Southern Great Wall a mile away, saying it has changed because of the wall's development. In the past, it also had stone houses, but in the blink of an eye, buildings have sprung up in groups. Her tone is full of melancholy. We say, aren't stone houses good? She smiles and says, building with stone is a last resort; who wouldn't want to live in brick and tile houses if they had money? If a stone roof leaks, it's hard to repair. And it's not ventilated; a house at most has one door and one window, always dark inside, rarely seeing light. The hardships are unknown to outsiders.
We ask if no one locks their doors. She smiles gently and says, "Here, no one would take anyone else's things.
" The village seems to have only women, the elderly, and children. She says the young and strong have all gone to work, to earn money and build brick and tile houses. She hopes the Southern Great Wall can continue to be restored and pass through their village, so they too can gradually become prosperous like the villages that were once as poor as theirs.
We don't know how to comfort this old woman. The children of Lahao run past us with soft cheers, through the stone alleys, seeking their joy. We hope such tranquility will never be destroyed, but would these innocent, laughing children be willing to live in stone houses for generations?
Stone Village
One kilometer from the Southern Great Wall is a village named Yingpan Village, which is basically not marked on any tourist maps. A stone road winds straight up, with buildings on both sides almost entirely of stone, including the roofs. In the village, every household leaves doors open day and night, never locking them. If you go in spring, you'll see peach and plum blossoms all over the village, exceptionally charming. Go early, before the stone houses are replaced by mosaic buildings.