River life Clockwise from opposite top left: Local girl in intricate costume; A welcome invitation to a street bar; stepping stone bridge; tourists enjoying river life; green tea drying in a local home; an elderly local enjoys some theatre time; quiet, stone streets of Fenghuang away from the bustle of mid-town; local man smashing up pecans for sweet delicacy. This page: peaceful ponds of Qianzhou
“ fenghuang and its people are holding onto their traditions while rising to meet the future ” hunan
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he contorted finger of an old man beckons from the shadows of a splintered doorway, his weathered chin motioning towards a glaring phoenix engraved on his door. He whispers: “Tea? Relax? Want to kill some cancer?” How do you say no to that? Inside, the sun spills through the cracked roof tiles and the floor seems to almost sway. But that could just be down to the knowledge that all that stands between the wood beneath your feet and the rushing Tuo River below are the toothpick stilts upon which it is propped. “See the golden dots?” the old man asks, holding a cake of black tea up to the light. “They’ll make you live forever.” Longevity is important to the people of the 1,300-yearold water town of Fenghuang in the Hunan province – not just for individuals, but for the entire city. Having survived the wrecking ball of modern development, Fenghuang and its people, the Miao and Tujia ethnic groups, are holding onto their traditions while rising to meet the future. Inside the old tea seller’s home, the simplicity of the handcrafted furnishings and the owner’s barely concealed delight in topping up our thimblesized teacups speaks for the sentiment of the town. “Chinese visitors come to rekindle their own nostalgic visions of the past,” says our guide Tracey. “While Westerners are looking for a preconceived image of rural China.” After our tea break, it’s time to see what else draws the thousands of visitors to the ancient streets of Fenghuang. Laid out like a true Ming Dynasty fortress, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed city of towers, gates and glowing pink walls rides over the ridges and valleys of the mountainous Nanhua region in the west Hunan province. Worn flagstone-paved alleys weave between intricate ancient residences, while bundled timber stilt houses (like our host’s) line the Tuo River, a tributary of the Yangtze. In China, where many pockets of the past are being traded for another row of carbon-
copy high-rise apartments, Fenghuang has stood the test of time, remaining one of the best-preserved ancient towns in China, and according to writer Rewi Alley, the most beautiful. Thanks to its long history as a trading port, expect to find everything from a medicine cabinet packed with fungus and various animal appendages to caramelised ginger candy and dried pig faces staring you down as you walk Fenghuang. “The river has allowed locals to trade for generations in anything and everything,” says Tracey as she leads us through the alleyways. “Some families have been selling the same tea, medicines and recipes for hundreds of years.” Although the old ways can still be seen in the shuffling footsteps of men carrying sacks of grain and in the women washing clothes by the river, Fenghuang has had
Local tastes Like most of China, exploring the local cuisine in the Hunan province is a must. In every street and every restaurant of Fenghuang you will be able to track down some of the country’s best street food and snacks. Keep an eye out for Fenghuang pickled radish, tofu in pickled vegetable soup, pickled fish in Miao style and Jiangtang, a ginger sugar treat for which the area is famous and which is said to be a reliable protection against the cold in winter.
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