My hands were tremoring as I shot this series of pictures, my heart pounding and my breath puffing in the crisp mountain air. My thighs felt incredibly weak, and the strenuous climb was only half the reason.
I was confronted with, by far, the most visually stunning village I had ever seen.
I have to clarify again -- I am NOT a photographer, but a traveler who records his journey in still images. It was 7:30am on a sunny, cold autumn morning in the depths of backroads of China's Jiangxi Province, when I walked into a misty fairyland straight out of Chinese ink paintings.
But before anyone falls in love with this village and starts planning a trip to China, I must warn that:
i) Transportation to this village is NOT simple
ii) The mist is highly seasonal -- in fact it's not mist at all
iii) Standard Chinese is not spoken, let alone any English
But if you're excited by the prospect of exotic locales, a little culture shock and some breathtaking scenery, read on and decide whether this is your kind of vacation.
You've probably never heard of this little village called Shicheng, but you may have heard of Wuyuan. Self-proclaiming as the "Most Beautiful Village in China," Wuyuan has successfully transformed in recent years from an impoverished county in a landlocked province into one of China's biggest springtime tourist draws. And while the entire nation flocks here for its golden rapeseed flowers in April, luckily only a handful come for the arguably more pictureque tea-seed oil season in late autumn.
In any other season, the remote village of Shicheng is photogenic enough with its warm inhabitants and Huizhou-style architectural touches -- whitewashed houses, crumbling grey tiles, towering rectangular walls topped with curving rooflines. But in the mornings of late autumn, white magic emanates from the chimneys when the locals cook their breakfast in a spectacular display -- by lighting up the otherwise unusable shells of the tea-seed nuts.
Shielded by mountains on all sides, the aromatic smoke from Shicheng gets trapped in the valley and blankets the entire village in a misty, dreamlike world of black and white. 200-year-old maples tower above the smoke while the first rays of the sun penetrate through to illuminate each family's little courtyard. The scenery becomes totally unreal -- you have to see to believe.
You won't find this perfect atmospheric condition elsewhere, not even among neighboring villages in northern Wuyuan. And you won't witness this ritual of burning tea-seed shells any other season -- it occurs only between October when tea-seeds are harvested, and December when the remaining shells run out. After December the villagers revert to regular wood fuel which result in a light, quickly dispersing smoke. And you have to arrive early in the morning, preferably before 07:00 when villagers start cooking their first meal. Align all these conditions and you'll find yourself in a mythical landscape, at least for the next couple hours until the tea-seed smoke disperses.
Take a stroll between the farmhouses and you'll appreciate an authentic, pre-commercialized rural Chinese village, before the onslaught of mass tourism. The only tourist-oriented facility is a new public toilet on the roadside and a viewing platform at the top of a small hill. As of 2012 there are still NO SHOPS within the village centre, with the only general store located near the village entrance. There are also no hotels or restaurants, only informal mom-and-pop operations of "Nongjiale" (farmhouse stays) and "Nongjiacai" (farmhouse meals).
The village's main claim to fame -- the prized tea-seed nuts -- continue to crack under the autumn sun in front of every farmhouse. The seeds inside would be cold-pressed into camellia seed oil, a light, fragrant cooking oil with an extremely high smoking point perfect for Chinese deep-frying dishes.
At the current retail price of RMB 80-100 (CAD$13-16) per kilogram, tea-seed oil has become a major source of income for Shicheng's villagers aside from green tea, also planted on the hillside next to the village. Amid heightened consumer concern about the safety of cooking oil (the harvesting of sewer oil comes to mind), organically-produced tea-seed oil now commands premium prices from the Chinese middle class.
"Baby pigs for sale daily in Lingxia village in Gutan. Note: cheaper prices than Qinghua town," reads a hand-written advertisement on the side of a dilapilated farmhouse. Plantations and livestock farming, and not tourism, remain the economic backbone of these remote villages. Things are starting to change though -- the village now charges an admission fee of RMB 60 (CAD$10) on certain days, typically during the peak autumn foliage season of November and December, if you arrive via the main road like we did.
There is a way to get around the entrance fee though. An ancient footpath links Shicheng to the picturesque village of Changxi, a 4 hour hike beyond the other side of the lush green hills. This 10 km trail is well-known to Chinese hikers, and there are locals in both villages willing to act as walking guides for around RMB 150 (CAD$24). This was the one hike that captured my fascination among many hiking options in Wuyuan, and it was a shame that we didn't have time at the end.
TRANSPORTATION
While the seclusion of Shicheng deters most casual tourists, it's actually not difficult to get to.
The local transportation hub of Wuyuan will be easily accessible by high-speed rail with the scheduled opening of the new Wuyuan Station in 2013. By bus it's a 2 hour ride from either Huangshan City or Jingdezhen, each having its own airport. Most travelers tend to spend two or more days within Wuyuan, often splitting time between the eastern and northern parts of the county.
Once you're at Wuyuan, there is only one daily scheduled minibus between Wuyuan town and Shicheng village, departing Shicheng early in the morning (~06:00) and returning from Wuyuan town around noon. With early morning being the absolute best time to see the village, this bus schedule simply doesn't work for most visitors.
Private taxi is by far the best way to get to Shicheng. It's a long 55 km drive from Wuyuan town to Shicheng village, negotiating numerous hairpin turns up a steep mountain road in the final stretch. Also remember that unless you overnight inside the village, you want to get here before 07:00 and thus starting out from Wuyuan town by 05:45. As of late 2012, one full day's private taxi between Wuyuan town and Shicheng cost between RMB 300 (CAD$48) roundtrip in a minivan and RMB 400 (CAD$64) in a comfy sedan, reasonable prices if you have two or more people to share.
For solo travelers, 2- and 3-wheeled motorcycle taxis, known locally as "Modi," offer a cheap and flexible alternative, albeit at a much slower speed. A full day currently runs about RMB 80, though getting up the steep section towards Shicheng would be a definite challenge in inclemental weather, not to mention the dirt and mud splashes on the village roads. As a result we never considered this option.
If you're planning to do the hike between Shicheng and Changxi, one option is to hire a taxi or Modi from Wuyuan town for a day to see the villages in northern Wuyuan, ending with Shicheng. Sleep in one of the Nongjiale farmhouses (around RMB 120 for a double room) and have dinner with the locals (expect RMB 20 per person), then wake up and enjoy the priceless morning scenery. Have brunch, then hire a local guide for the 4 hour hike to Changxi, and either stay in Changxi village for the second night or hire a local car to drive back to Wuyuan town.
EPILOGUE
I'll never forget our taxi driver, Ms. Cheng. This is a story about the honourable, kind-hearted nature of the Wuyuan people.
A couple weeks prior to our trip I spotted an online advertisement of a private taxi driver with an SUV in Wuyuan. At the time I was researching a possibly treacherous mountain route linking Northern Wuyuan in Jiangxi to Southern Anhui and onto our next destination of Hongcun. So I called and found a husband-and-wife team of Mr. Zha and Ms. Cheng. While the hypothetical route didn't work out due to the huge distance and therefore the price involved, Mr. Zha did provide a lot of useful info and I decided to give them our business of driving us between Wuyuan town and Shicheng village.
But I kept the devil inside my details. We needed to get to Shicheng by 07:00, which required him to pick us up from Wuyuan at 05:45. And since Mr. Zha didn't even live in Wuyuan town, he probably would need to get up before 05:00. I actually felt guilty of having him drive the roundtrip of 110 km, starting from 05:00 in the morning, through mountain paths, in a gas-guzzling SUV, while only paying him the standard rate of RMB 350.
At 06:00 the SUV showed up outside our hotel with Mr. Zha's wife, a small lady in her 30's, being the driver of the day. Ms. Cheng was extremely polite and strong for her size with our heavy backpacks, and always spoke with a tone of sad realism as I often asked about life of the Laobaixing -- common folks -- in Wuyuan. From her I learned a lot about harsh life in the rapidly changing rural China -- rampant urbanization, skyrocketing apartment prices, questionable policies by local officials, and the desertion of ancestral villages by the younger generation.
Throughout my travels in China, it's always customary for passengers to buy lunch for the driver when a private taxi is hired for the entire day. As we started out at 06:00 in the morning, I offered Ms. Cheng breakfast at one of the Nongjiacai farmhouses in Shicheng village. She declined, to my slight surprise, saying that we could then spend more time on sightseeing. Such a sincere and honest lady, I thought, but nothing prepared me for what happened next.
It was mid-morning as we finished touring Shicheng, when SHE OFFERED US FREE BREAKFAST in the form of pre-packaged sponge cakes purchased from the village general store. A taxi driver spending her own money on the client is absolutely unheard-of for me. Granted it only cost RMB 10 or so, but as I knew rural taxi drivers don't run huge profit margins either. I was so moved that I didn't even dare touching any of her cakes -- she had a kid to feed at home.
A few more villages later and lunch-time approached. I've got to convince her to at least have lunch with us, I thought.
Again, she declined.
She turned down a free breakfast. She turned down a free lunch. At this point I came up with an offer I had been mulling for a while. At the end of the trip I offered to pay her RMB 380, 30 more than the agreed price. I even came up with the rationale that it's for the trouble of meeting us at the ridiculously early hour of 06:00. Now RMB 30 was only a Starbucks coffee in my home country, but over here it's a supper for three.
She declined, strongly and solidly, without any wavering whatsoever. And I'll never forget her reason for declining:
"The money you spend on traveling is hard-earned as well," she said simply. It left me speechless.
I'm still shaking my head five weeks later as I record this story -- the genuine honesty and sense of honour in these hardy people! If you need to book a taxi driver in Wuyuan and don't mind speaking Chinese, leave me a message and I can pass you their cellphone number. You won't find a more trustworthy taxi driver anywhere.
EDITOR'S NOTE: As of late 2014 this taxi driver is no longer in the taxi business, and as a result I will no longer give out her phone number. This is too bad for us travelers.
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