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A fertile Land and its people
The romance of the three kingdoms, when Zhuge Liang suggester
to Liu Bei that they divide the world into three parts, the place
that Liu Bei chose as the center of this part was Chengdu. Located
in the fertile western portion of the Sichuan Basin, the area was
so productive in crops and prosperous in trade that it was known
from acient times as the land of a Thousand Granaries. To this
day, as befits the principal city of Sichuan, a vast province with
a population of 100 million. Chengdu boasts the largest heavy industry
and textiles industry complexes in southwestern China. In Chengdu
you can meet as wide a range of people as in any Chinese city.
Water and Jewels
446km north of Chengdu lies Jiuzzzhaigou. With its lakes, waterfalls,
and streams sparking with a marvelous luster, the natural scenery
is so beautiful that it can only be detected as a divine masterpiece.
The water shines with a light clearer and more mysterious than
any jewel in the world.
Mountains and Sky
Chengdu lies close to the Tibetan cultural region. Pass through
the flat Sichuan Basin and climb north, you will reach a place
where four rivers flow among rugged peaks thousands of meters tall.
And if you continue to climb through this land of rugged mountains
and rivers, you’ll eventually reach the Ruoergai Plateau.
On this plateau, resting on mountains that rise 4,000 above sea
level, unfolds a scene of such grandeur that it can hardly even
be imagined in the low-lying plains. On this vast plateau that
seems to touch the sky, we find nature in its pristine form, untouched
by human hands.
Contemplating the classics
Chengdu is Sichuan Province feels remarkably remote, and not just
because of the physical distance to any other major center.
Chosen as the capital by Liu Bei, unifier of the Three Kingdoms,
Chengdu is protected by steep mountains and deep water, and would
be difficult for an enemy to approach. It was the ideal place to
breed cavalry horses, build up military strength, and aspire to
conquer China.
To feel the breath of ancient horses in the original setting of
the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I went to Wuhou Memorial Temple
in downtown Chengdu. But the only remnant of that period is a very
unimpressive tomb of Liu Bei and his wife, while the rest of the
temple is thought to have been built much later as a shrine to
Zhuge Liang at the Wuhou Memorial Temple, you must pass through
seventeen doors, and to get trough each door you must laboriously
step over threshold as high as your knee. As the number of doors
and the height of the thresholds correlated to the status of the
person to be reached, we can see how highly the Chinese think of
Zhuge Liang nowadays.
 But when the actual tomb of Lie Bei is here, how can Liu Bei be
neglected and Zhuge Liang exalted in this way? Recently, a new
theory has arisen to address such questions. According to the theory,
the tomb of Liu Bei at the Wuhou Memorial Temple is only a monument,
and his actual burial place is at Fengji, where he was killed in
battle. Support for the theory comes from a 1982 excavation of
the former Kiuzhou Hotel, where Liu Bei’s tomb was said to
be located. Eighteen meters below the ground, archeologists found
an empty chamber containing traces of metal. According to historical
records, an iron tombstone was erected at Liu Bei’s tomb.
We don’t yet know all the fats, but it is surely an intriguing
mystery of ancient history.
Another world to the north of Chengdu: Jiuzhaigou
The Min River flows through Chengdu, and if you follow it upstream
for 446km, you came to a valley called Jiuzhaigou that lies in
the southern part of the Min Mountain Range. The name Jiuzhaigou,
meaning “Valley of Nine Forts,” derives from the nine
fortifications and ditches built here by solders of the Tibetan
Qiang people in the Tang Dynasty. The fabulous beauty of the scenery
is so wonderful that it is hard to believe until you have seen
it with your own eyes.
Stretching some 50km, the grandeur of the Jiuzhaigou Valley draws
gasps of amazement from visitors. It is so broad and extensive
that it cannot easily be explored on foot, and tourists depend
on shuttlebus that runs up and down the valley. In this Y-shaped
valley are 114 lakes, 17 waterfalls, and three Tibetan Qiang villages.
When you see the deep blue and green of Jiuzhaigou’s lakes,
and the old trees rising out of the water, you can’t help
wondering if this is the true face of nature. If you must have
a scientific explanation for this beautiful scenery, the geological
reason for the mysterious coloring of the water here is that it
contains a lot of calcium. This forms a coating around the old
trees in the water, which prevents the water from penetrating the
wood. The trees therefore remain intact for long periods without
rotting. Together with neighboring Huang Long, Jiuzhaigou was designated
by UNESCO in 1992 as a World Heritage Site.
A Plateau at 4,000 meters: Ruoergai
Ruoergai is one of the largest plateaus in China. A flat area
resting on mountains that range between 3,500m and 4,000m, it might
be called the prairie of the sky. As you might expect for a place
so high up, it is hard to get to.
When we passed the 4,000m Min Mountains on National Highway No.
213, an unbelievable scene unfolded before our eyes. It was a great
flat plain. How could there be such a huge flat expanse in such
a mountainous place? Around the green plain were scattered black
and white dots. The black dots were yaks that grazed on this land,
and the white dots were sheep.
How great a distance lies between those of us who believe we have
been successful if we own a small patch of land, and the culture
of the nomadic peoples who roam these endless plains? It made me
think of Jacques Attal’s concept of the “new nomad.” Attal
argues that an alternative to the new humanity would have to be
found in nomad society. Nomads had discovered fire, speech, religion,
democracy, trade, art, and all the things that became seeds of
civilization. All that settled peoples had contributed was nations,
taxes, and prisons.
Of course, even this may be fantasy of modern mankind. In a little
tent that smells strongly of butter, where the only trapping of
modernity is a single light bulb powered by solar energy, you will
long for civilization. But if we learned just a little of the life
of these nomads, wouldn’t it make a little difference to
our lives as we struggle from day to day in the city?
We drive across the plateau towards the upper reaches of the Yellow
River, which flows from Qinghai Province and crosses the plateau
with nine bends. The space of the plateau and the yellow river
combines with the flow of times to unfold a great panorama. The
clouds are so close you could almost touch them, and the sunlight
that penetrates through this rarified atmosphere makes the river
constantly change color, The rays are like the last drops of red
blood caught up by the dying sun. Only a grey painted Tibetan Buddhist
stupa blooms like alily in this blood-red sea.
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