Wenshan City

Colquhoun, possibly the first western traveller to Wenshan, was impressed by the approach from the Yanshan plateau: “A wonderful panorama met the eye, as the descent to Kai-hua [Wenshan] was made by our road. The town is situated in a huge valley, on the River Tsin-ho [...], which runs into the Red River, not far from the Gulf of Tonquin. The river winds like a serpent, glistening in the evening sun through the valley, which is beautifully cultivated. The whole made a most beautiful and welcome picture after the barren moorlands just left. The river, here some thirty yards wide, opens out at times into small lakes or lagoons with islands, the valley smiling with verdant vegetation. Kai-hua lies on the south bank, on a large bend. enveloped in trees, of which there is a considerable number scattered throughout the city. On the south side of the valley, a serrated hill range runs the entire length, backed by a rounder and loftier range seemingly of granite. The valley runs south-east and northwest. Several wei-kans, or honorary columns, were passed some few miles before Kaihua. These stone columns were about 15 feet high and 8 inches square, and situated on the hillside, next a large area of graves, – mostly fixed in a pedestal of carved stone, but some of them in stone mounds. A small unicorn rested on the top of each column. As the town was neared, a suburb was passed, and near a weir on the river a huge Persian water-wheel was seen, placed so as to throw up water into the adjacent fields. Numerous joss-houses of solid construction lined the road, and then, crossing a three-arched bridge of solid stone covered in by wooden sides and roof, we entered the town by one of the main streets.” (Colquhoun 1883a, pp. 369-370) Colquhoun remarked on the prosperity and the ethnic diversity of the town: “We found Kai-hua [Wenshan] a most interesting place, by far the most so that we had yet seen. There was a quaint, yet prosperous and well-to-do air about it. The streets are well paved and broader than usual in Chinese cities. Many of them hive fine trees dotted here and there, while flowers are seen in many of the doorways, giving a pleasant look to the town. The houses are of Chinese pattern, of sun-dried brick, with stone foundations, tiled roofs and brick entrances, at many of which there was a sort of side niche, where people can sit or stand. The city was full of the most diverse mixture of races and costumes, everything from the rough and sturdy Hei Lo-lo to the city-dweller, or itinerant Cantonese Wenshan pedlar. There were the vigorous and robust Lo-lo women – with legs of a development which, for want of opportunity to detail with accuracy, I shall not describe – the neat and quaint Long-jens, the Yeou jens, Pou-las and the Pal, each with their quaint and original national costumes. The neighbourhood teems with these people, and a great proportion of the citizens proper show traces of their descent from some one of these races.” (Colquhoun 1883a, p. 377) On Stadium Street is a small museum for ethnic artefacts. Near Wenshan are the Liujing Caves.