Do you remember that old song from when you were a kid?: This sheep looks like the kind of sheep who would sing that song 😛 **He is one of the stone statues at a mansion in Gongyi, Henan, China. Some of the statues are centuries old!
Ba Ba Black Sheep,
Have You Any Wool?
Yes Sir, Yes Sir
Three Bags Full 🎵
One for my Master
One for the Maid
One for the Little Boy
Who Lives Down the Lane 🎵
The province of Henan resides in central China, and is home to the largest population here. Although the modern day center is the famous Beijing, China’s history has to a large extent actually centered around Henan itself. Of the six ancient capitals in the country, three of them are in Henan. If you’ve ever watched some of the popular Chinese martial arts films, you will have heard the names “Luoyang,” Kaifeng,” and “Shaolin Temple.” I now can proudly say I’ve been to all these places and more! At this point, I’ve visited:
and more!
This past weekend, I got the opportunity to add a new city to my list — Gongyi (巩义市). Gongyi is a small city about 1 hour from Zhengzhou (the capital). On one side you have Mount Song and many hills (beautiful!). On another, it is bordered by the Yellow River, one of the 2 most famous in China.
The entire trip for us was planned by the Henan Tourism Organization (the provincial tourism committee), so we didn’t actually have to pay for anything. However, the cost wasn’t bad at all even if you did pay.
The bus ride up there costs about 10RMB ($1.50) and was extremely interesting just on its own. We passed the lovely shrine/temple shown above (I’m not exactly sure what that was – we didn’t stop), but even more awesome were the hundreds of Cave Homes we passed! Here in Gongyi, many people actually still live in caves dug into the cliffs surrounding the area. Although most westerners think “oh poverty!”, this isn’t actually true. A lot of these homes are really nice and awesome! They have running water and electricity, drive up roads, yards and gardens in the front, elaborate front doors, etc. They are really nice, just inside a mountain. I wasn’t able to get excellent photos since we just drove past them, but sometime I want to go back.
When you arrive in the city, you’ll see a lot of things dedicated to DuFu (杜甫). DuFu lived in the Tang Dynasty (700s) and is considered perhaps China’s best poet! According to the Chinese, he was born here and is still revered as seen through the statues and monument decorating the city. According to the tour guide, the Chinese consider him the #1 literary person to know and he has often been considered the “Chinese Shakespeare.” His ancestral home is here too!
Once we arrived, we had a small trek to our restaurant so we walked through the Imperial Mausoleums of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Also called the “Song Tombs”, this area is where all but one emperor of the North Song Dynasty are buried. They include Tai Zu (Zhao Kuangyin), Tai Zong (Zhao Guangyi), Zhen Zong (Zhao Heng), Ren Zong (Zhao Zhen), Ying Zong (Zhao Shu), Shen Zong (Zhao Xu) and Zhe Zong (Zhao Xu). 🙂
This part was free (it’s just a giant city part area where you can walk around) and was huge for a city park. A great place to take your kids for a picnic! Up towards the tombs themselves are a long row of stone statues that were really interesting.
After lunch, we got back on the bus and took about a 20 minute ride to the Kang Mansion (Kangbaiwan – 河南巩义康百万庄园). “Baiwan” means Millionaire, so this is the home of the Millionaire Kang family. Considering that they lived hundreds of years ago, that’s a pretty big claim!
The family originated with Kang Ying-Kui in the Ming Dynasty, and its fame lasted more than 400 years (that’s 13 generations!). According to a monument inside, the family was famous not only for its wealth, but also for its honor. The monument is a plaque written by an emperor honoring the Kangs for having 8 generations of “good, noble, honest sons.” Apparently, they were loyal, fair, honest, and not corrupt–well worth honoring!
Kang Ying-Kui came to fame by suppressing Bailianism (a so-called the White Lotus Religion– mixed Buddhism with Taoism and worshipped a goddess Wusheng Laomu). The group didn’t fit in with the accepted religions of the time and allowed men and women to “interact in a shockingly free manner.” 😛 (Apparently they brought a bunch of “groups” together and were a threat of rebellion. Anyway, the Kangs were really fashionable and already pretty rich from their own business (river transportation and agricultural products). There was some sort of phrase like “if you travel 1000 miles you’ll still be on Kang property). This brought them to the notice of the royal family who helped raise them up even further.
Inside, there are 19 different parts and about 65,000 square meters. There are 53 multi-story buildings, 97 “bungalows,” 73 cave homes, and approximately 570 rooms in total. It was built in the 17th – 18th centuries (1600s-1700s), and the architecture is in the form of the North China “Loess plateau” style. Basically, that means it was in the era’s feudalistic form (many small buildings with hundreds of carvings and art in the wooden, brick, and stone beams. It follow strict formality and traditionalism–“building face the street, ports on the river, cave dwellings in the mountains–everything according to its place and order.” In the 1960s and 1970s, their home was one of the 3 largest in China–today it’s the only one of the three that is open to the public.
Admissions: 30RMB (about $4.50)
Anyone 60 years or older get 1/2 their tickets (I think?). People 70 years or older aree free. Full time students can have 1/2 price and children under 1.4 meters are free. People with disability cards are free, as are servicemen and disabled veterans.
Opening hours: 8:00-18:30
Fabulous! The Gongyi Grottos is a Buddhist temple created around the Northern Wei period of 479-499 AD. The statues though are as old as 384 – around the 600s AD. There is the nearby Longmen Grottos in Luoyang, but the Gongyi set is somewhat more well preserved (although not quite so large).
To be honest, a lot of the younger people were quickly bored here — but as a historian and cultural student, I found the place truly fascinating. They have one very elaborate, colored and painted temple area with a tall statue surrounding by the various Buddhist deities on either side. All set in beautiful painted depictions of myths and stories.
All in all, it was a lovely day full of awesome art, history, and culture. My favorite kind of trip!
Henan is home to the Shaolin Temple – made famous in Jackie Chan’s films and the center of Chinese Kungfu or “Wushu.” The monks did a performance for the Henan Tourism Festival!
Gongyi Grottos – one of 4 Famous grottos in China. These are places where loyal monks have carefully carved out thousand and millions of #buddhas and religious statues into the walls of nearby caves over CENTURIES! Unfortunately, many of the ones in Henan were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution or were defaced by the Western militaries During the wars with China. Still an amazing, awe-inspiring sight! Well worth the trip! Thanks to the Henan Provincial Tourism Bureau for sponsoring our trip today – it was lovely!
This is Walmart during Black Friday – the next line is full – please go clear to the next paragraph 
😜 (Sign posted at our resident Waka – the Chinese Walmart)
The Traditional Chinese Dragon & Lion Dance! Part of a show performed by students at the University for the “Welcoming Freshmen Candlelighting Ceremony” #ChinaTravel #LifeinChina #ChineseCulture
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival from China to you!
Today (September 15, 2016) is the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhong Qiu Jie). The festival will fall on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, which just so happens to be today for 2016. Although today is the official day of the holiday, most people in China will take a 3-4 day weekend to celebrate. 🙂 For example, at our university all classes are cancelled for Thursday – Saturday, with Friday’s classes made up on Sunday.
Based on the lunar calendar, on the 15th of the month, the moon should be a full moon, shining bright and beautiful. So a lot of the stickers and pictures being sent around WeChat (Chinese version of Facebook) are full moons or things shaped like full moons. 🙂
The moon has a special place in the world of Chinese art and culture, with many of my students great enthusiasts of the “romantic and beautiful night sky.” So during the Song Dynasty, the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival was created to celebrate the Harvest Moon. This is supposed to be the brightest, biggest, most beautiful moon of the year.
One of the best and largest part of the Mid-Autumn Festival is the tradition of eating what are called “Moon cakes” (月饼 – Yuè Bĭng). Moon Cakes are little pastries or cakes about 4 inches around and 2 inches thick. The pastry crust tends to be pretty thick and then inside are any variety of treats or fillings. Most common in Henan is the red bean or Jujube paste, but there are many others with nuts and fruits inside. (I’m not terribly fond of the paste ones, but a few of the nut versions are pretty good.) The pastry top will somehow be stamped with a Chinese character of good fortune luck, peace, happiness, etc. They are usually passed around to family, friends, teachers, business colleagues, etc. Visit a Chinese shop before the holiday and for at least two weeks they will be selling these cakes like crazy.
According to legend, the moon cake became a holiday tradition during the Yuan dynasty. China was under the control of Mongolian rulers at the end of the dynasty, and the Ming Chinese were fed up. They decided to stage a revolution, but had a difficult issue in the logistics of communicating their message to the people without tipping off the Mongolians. The story says that the leader Zhu Yuanzhang and his adviser Liu Bowen came up with the brilliant idea of using moon cakes. They started a rumor that a horrific and deadly disease was spreading through the area and that special moon cakes were the only possible cure. Of course the people began buying up moon cakes and hidden inside each moon cake was a message telling them the date and time for the revolution (Mid-Autumn Festival). The Chinese revolted, the battle was won, and moon cakes became a permanent staple of the holiday! 🙂
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Another famous legend about the festival is that of a tragic romance. In the west, our culture has the beloved Man on the Moon, but in Chinese it’s the beautiful Chang’e, Lady on the Moon. The story says that centuries ago there live a famous hunter, Hou Yi, and his wife Chang’e. At the time, the world was surrounded by 10 suns and they were burning the earth and its people to death. A brave man, Hou Yi took his bow and arrow and went out to shoot down nine of the suns. He saved the world in the end. As a reward, he was given a special potion that contained immortality. However, because he loved his wife so much and because the potion was only enough for one person, Hou Yi refused to drink it. After this, he was very famous and many people came to learn from him. But some also came to steal from him, including one wicked man. One day while Hou Yi was out, the evil man snuck into the house and attempted to steal the potion from Chang’e. She realized she could not keep him from taking it, and so drank it herself. The potion immediately gave her immortality, and her body flew up, up, up and up to the moon. Heartbroken, Hou Yi came home and prepared a feast on a table under the moon in honor of his wife and in the hopes that she would see his efforts and know how much he missed her. So (according tot the legend), ever since the Chinese like to eat big meals under the moon to remember her sacrifice and to celebrate their own families.
“She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderess, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” ~ Roman Payne
Language Translation
Deceptively Blonde 