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Steeped in history and culture, Yangzhou confronts modern life on its own terms
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Last Friday and Saturday, I attended a ceremony in Yangzhou which marked the city’s founding 2,500 years ago.
Including this last trip, I’ve been to Yangzhou six times in just over two decades. With any luck, I hope to visit the city many more times over the years ahead. Of course, I also hope that Yangzhou can retain its unique cultural and historical character.
As is widely known, many smaller, ancient cities across China have demolished or paved over thousands of years of cultural heritage in the race to emulate the economic achievements seen in cities like Shanghai. My wish is that Yangzhou can avoid such a fate, for the city has much to admire just the way it is.
Indeed, like Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, Yangzhou is known as one of China’s “earthly paradises.” Philosophers tell us that one is never bored in paradise. If this is true, Yangzhou’s reputation as a heaven on Earth seems well deserved.
During my latest trip, I stayed at a hotel very close to Shouxihu, or Slender West Lake, as its name translates in English. Like the better known West Lake in Hangzhou, it boasts picturesque water views, charming stone bridges and trees reaching toward the sky.
In the adjacent Ye Forest, one finds a certain rugged masculinity about the cedars and cypresses which seems out of place with the scenes normally found in the Yangtze River Delta region. Adding to this impression is the white pagoda by the lake, built in characteristically northern style during the Qing dynasty to please emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) during one of his many visits to the area.
Today, emperors like Qianlong are often criticized in textbooks for their extravagant state trips, during which their subjects would often fritter away vast sums of money on grandiose projects calculated to win favor with their visiting sovereign. But such assessments just scratch the surface.
All major Chinese rivers flew from west to east. Thus, 2,500 years ago, when the King of Wu (whose territory included parts of today’s Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces), decided to attack the Kingdom of Qi (in today’s north Shandong Province), he had a canal dug to link up Yangtze and the Huaihe River.
This canal, originally known as the Hangou, gave rise to the city of Hancheng (today known as Yangzhou), which for its part was first built as a fortress for troops marching north toward the Kingdom of Qi. With time, the city’s importance grew considerably, especially as invasions from nomadic tribes in the north pushed waves of migrants and refugees southward.
By the Tang Dynasty (618-907), authorities in the capital city of Chang’an were heavily dependent on grain produced in the south and shipped north via the canal. Over the centuries, emperors frequently inspected the canal with a view toward safeguarding this vital shipping route.
‘Skins filled with water’
For their part, local officials along the canal spared no expenses when it came to erecting elegant gardens, palaces and other attractions to please royal inspectors. The necessarily huge costs for these vanity projects were footed by merchants, particularly salt merchants. At one point, taxes on salt accounted for half of Yangzhou’s fiscal income and a full quarter of national revenue.
The city’s wealthy salt merchants contributed greatly to local prosperity and were great patrons of the arts. By the Qing dynasty, Yangzhou had become synonymous with relaxation — in addition to its fame as an important node in the imperial examination system and an epicenter of traditional Chinese opera.
According to one ancient account, locals were like “skins filled with water in the morning and skins soaked with water in the evening,” a phrase which hints at their fondness for the city’s teahouses and baths. Today, some locals still spend large portions of their days in teahouses and public baths. In many respects, life continues to unfold at a leisured, unhurried pace in the city despite the vicissitudes of the preceding centuries.
Yangzhou is still a very livable city. During my walk around Slender West Lake, I struck up a conversation with one older local gentleman. He said that as a sexagenarian, he pays just 15 yuan (US$2.41) for an annual pass. “When I turn 70 though, I don’t need to pay anything at all,” he added.
During my recent trip, local hosts seemed somewhat apologetic, often beginning sentences by saying “ours is but a small city...”
I, for one, was thankful the city had not grown larger. Now back in hustle and bustle Shanghai, I’m glad to know that there is still somewhere in China where one can live life at one’s own pace.
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