China’s Machu Picchu
My weekend trip to Laosicheng Village
Over the long weekend of Tombsweeping Holiday, my friend and I hopped on a bus to the western edge of the Hunan province to Youngshun County, a town predominately populated with people of the Tujia ethnic group. Getting there was an ordeal as we really had no idea what we were doing except that we wanted to see Laosicheng Village - home to an excavated domain of an ancient city created 800 years ago during the Song Dynasty. From the limited amount of information found online, we were able to gather enough research on this tiny village to set off for the weekend.
We took a long distance bus from Changsha to Yongshun Town, the closest town to Laosicheng Village, and that was the extent of our planning for the trip. With no clue on how to get from the town to the village or where to stay, we meandered around until we found ourselves on a mini bus, or as the Chinese call it — mianbao che, which directly translates to bread loaf car, heading into the mountains.
40 minutes of curves and bumps uphill, we arrived at the sleepy little village. An endless backdrop of lush misty mountains towering over scattered clusters of wooden homes, deep verdant hills, and the red stones that dotted each street — breathtaking! We spent some time admiring the scene before us, trying out every angle and focal points on our trusty iPhone cameras until we realized that we still need to find a place to stay. It didn’t help that we missed the last mianbao che that was going back to town. Zenmeban?
Luckily, we met a young woman named Salli who overheard us speaking in English and sensed our impending anxiety. In the most quintessential fashion of Chinese hospitality, even with her struggling English and our broken Mandarin, she managed to arrange a place for us to stay in a family’s guest bedroom in the village, and gave us a small tour (and a history lesson) of the site. Salli has an amazing job as a site correspondent at Laosicheng for a news journal, visiting the site everyday to report on its conditions.
We spent the entire following day exploring the village in the rain. Nestled between the shielding mountains and the jade-colored Lingxi river, the village was once a royal city, home to families of governors and officials appointed by the central kingdom to rule the Tujia ethnic clans. For 800 years, the village thrived under 3 dynasties, starting in the Song and ending in the Qing. It modeled a harmonious balance of power between the central kingdom of China and the ethnic groups in the Chinese empire. The city was an architectural wonder — built with high sturdy walls, well-constructed road network, and complex irrigation system. Throughout the centuries, it served as a major hub for political, military, and cultural affairs.
The ruins of Laosicheng and its surroundings are just as impressive as the ancient city itself. Often compared to Machu Picchu of Peru, Laosicheng is one of China’s greatest preserved sites. Excavation and archaeological missions uncovered many ancient relics and remains of Laosicheng, helping people understand how the systems of the mighty necropolis once functioned.
Conservations of the Tujia kingdom goes beyond these tangible discoveries. Presently, families of the Tujia ethnic descent still populate the surrounding villages of the domain site, preserving the rich cultural heritage of this national minority.
In the afternoon, we bumped into Salli again during our hike down the river. She arranged for her friend, who worked at the Laosicheng Museum, to give us a private tour of the newly constructed building that has yet to open to the public. The museum is about 3km away from the site and exhibits the history and cultural antiques of the Laosicheng people. Not only does the exterior design embody the aesthetic build of the ancient city, the natural and untouched surroundings of the mountains paint a scenic, peaceful, background for the museum. We owe much of our gratitude to Salli and Ms. Yao (our museum guide) for sharing with us the rich and captivating past of the Tujia people and making this an unforgettable visit.
Laosicheng has recently been officially named as a Unesco’s World’s Cultural Heritage Site in June 2015 because of it’s physical and cultural preservation of the Tujia heritage. In just a few months, the site will be fully opened to the public giving way to the mass influx of tour groups and crowded masses of people with their selfie sticks, just like any major landmark in China. For anyone who has the chance, I am highly encouraging you to make a trip out there before the madness ensues! Laosicheng captures the essence and beauty of one of China’s many ethnic groups, a true testament to the thriving diversity of this country’s past and present.
