15 and 16 July – Yan’an and Lijiashan (China)

Five hours after leaving Xi’an we arrived at the Folk Culture Hotel (it has two names but I do not know the other one) in Yan’an. Our stop here was because of the city’s connections with Mao Zedong and the Long March. Yan'an was near the endpoint of the Long March and became the centre of the Chinese Communist Party from 1936 to 1948. Chinese communists celebrate Yan'an as the birthplace of the revolution.

Mao Zedong

The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China. also called the People’s Liberation Army, when chased by the Chinese Nationalist Party Army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. The most well known is the march from Jiangxi province which began in October 1934. The First Front Army was on the brink of annihilation by Chiang Kai-shek’s troops when the Communists, under the  command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai escaped and in retreat were supposedly to have travelled over 9,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) in over 370 days.                                                                                                                      

Yan'an today

Mao Zedong Museum

Visitors having their photograph taken

The Long March began Mao Zedong’s rise to power, whose leadership during the retreat gained him the support of the members of the party. The bitter struggles of the Long March, which was completed by only about one-tenth of the force that left Jiangxi, would come to represent a significant episode in the history of the Communist Party of China, and would seal the personal prestige of Mao and his supporters as the new leaders of the party in the following decades. However the true role of Mao in the Long March remains disputed, with many claims that Mao's role was heavily exaggerated and certain events in the Long March entirely fabricated.

During the Anti-Japanese War period and China’s War of Liberation the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, led by Chairman Mao ruled from Yan’an leaving 140 relics and sites of the revolution. Among these are the former residence of leaders, the former sites of central committee offices and of significant conferences, the one-time battlefield, the mausoleum of the martyrs and the memorial halls. 

Two rows of 7 on top and 6 on the bottom = 20 vehicles

The following morning it took nearly seven hour to travel to Lijiashan. We had been told that the truck was to be left at he bottom of a hill and we would have to walk the last 45 minutes up to the village. Having also been told that we would have to take our own drinking water and any other refreshments people stocked up with food and drink beforehand. However, we were take up to the village in minibuses and there was cold beer and water available in the house we stayed at. It was made clear that these were not cave houses but cave dwellings which had man made front with the rooms dug into the mountain. Some of the dwellings were quite extensive with two levels built round a courtyard with the toilet either on the outer wall or outside the wall.

Lijiashan is a 550-year-old cave village on a hill near the Yellow River. It has electricity, pumped water to tanks but no sewage system. The village's nine terraced levels are linked by stone stairways that date back to the Ming Dynasty, little glass in the windows and we slept, three to a bed block, on large stone beds, known as a kang. My 1/3 of bed was covered with a rattan mat, a blanket and a sheet, and it was very very hard. These beds are supposed to be cool in the summer and in the winter fires are lit in the space underneath to heat the bed.

The entrance to the home-stay

The home-stay courtyard

The home-stay courtyard

      

The kitchen

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Having walked around the village it was noticeable how many dwellings were locked up, derelict, falling down or fallen down. There were few people in the village except for older ones, grandparents and the like. I only saw one child and perhaps only 15 dwellings were in use. The school was derelict as well. The area was green and fertile with vegetable gardens everywhere. Following are views of the village.

This was well looked after at one time. Now all locked up.

One school room with chalked blackboard still marked

Derelict

Inside

 Anita offered one cigarette for a try of the pipe                  

On leaving Lijiashan we stopped at the Black Dragon Taoist Temple before going on to Pingyao. Very interesting paintings and sculptures ass shown below.
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