Heshun: a Landscape in Eastern and Western Styles

    The town is somewhat vertical, starting at the foot of Mount Heilong with its old houses extending up the slope for well over two kilometers. At the entrance to Heshun, a serene and clear mountain stream has served the townsfolk for ages, as evidenced by a couple of man-made spots for doing laundry or washing vegetables. Places like this town were essentially encampments made for women left behind by merchants, who fanned out from them to do business in foreign countries. Today, over 6,000 people are living here and running all manner of enterprises. Apart from exchanging greetings with you, they keep at their work, knowing you are here to enjoy their picturesque home place. Somehow they, like you, are part of this landscape painting or movie, scenes changing dramatically as you pass by.

    Life here today epitomizes how mountain people used to live in western Yunnan. Moving at a leisurely pace in the sunset and evening breezes, I followed the age-old flagstone path deep into the town, and wandered through those old houses that have been preserved as showcases of old Heshun. I saw finely crafted furniture in the classic style, embroidery from Suzhou, rattan chairs from Burma, American ovens made in the 1920s, a noodle maker from Japan, a Qing-dynasty ladies vanity, and a huge carved and engraved wooden bed from the Ming Dynasty. Shipping them by horse along the winding roads, thick forests and rocky mountains would have been the only means of getting them to this remote town in those days. No surprise that they would have been so well kept they could be proudly exhibited today.

    You could say Heshun is a landscape painting in both Western and Chinese styles. Local people, though their town was cut off, had kept in step with outside trends. By the mid-20th century, this town of 5,000 had sent 7,000 abroad to make their living in 20-some foreign countries. Of all its attractions, architectural or otherwise, the town library is a tourist must – a hybrid of Chinese and foreign architecture rarely seen in any other place. Its 1,392 square meters were commissioned in 1928 with money pooled by ex-patriot villagers in their newly-adopted countries.

    The Folk Art Gallery should also be on the visitor's agenda. A small room, no more than 20 sq meters in size, it houses lithographic plates from the Qing Dynasty. Visitors can make a copy of any plate they like, a perfect souvenir.

    The list of local attractions is long for travelers who can stay awhile in the area, but my time was limited, so I had to wind up the trip, determined to revisit this shrine to the past at a future date.