Jimingyi
Saturday afternoon we remained in Hebei province. Thanks to the Excursion Guide and our GPS, we easily found ourselves at the ancient walled town of Jimingyi.
This town figures greatly in the Yuan Dynasty as it was here that the Mongols operated their largest Post Station. Hundred of years later, Empress Dowager Cixi would take refuge there on her way out of Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion.
When we arrived we were surprised they are now selling tickets to get into the town. Some travel websites indicate there wasn't any admission charged, but it was only 30 kuai a piece. Also hanging around the front gate were a group of local elderly men. Each carried an ID badge with their photo in it. They were tour guides for hire, and they were not included in the ticket price. At many tourist sites in Beijing, like the Summer Palace, it is common to be approached by people offering to be English-speaking tour guides for a price. Usually we decline as places like the Summer Palace are fairly well-known and well-marked, but it was obvious to us that we would not be able to find anything in the town without help. His charge was 60 kuai, but in the end we gave and him a little more than that. So to future foreign visitors that like to get everything cheap--we're sorry we ruined it for you. He didn't speak English, and once we tuned our ears to his accent we had little problem understanding him.
Our first stop was just inside the East Gate.
Immediately he took us to the top of the city wall. We could see the Jiming Mountain towering over the village.
The walls around the city are being restored. Right now on the interior walls flanking the East Gate, the earthen walls are still visible. These are being rebricked over. While from an historical perspective, it is fascinating to see those elements of these city walls that pre-date the Yuan (our guide pointed out to Randy Song-era evidence). However, if the walls aren't rebuilt and reinforced, then they will crumble away.
One of the main parts of the tour are visits to a few of the village's temples. At one time there were more than a dozen, but currently only three open for tourists. Each temple dates to the Ming Dynasty, and reflect the common synthesis of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. There's a Chinese expression that is used in the way we Americans use the word religious. Literally translated, it is "have beliefs." That expression, in my mind, doesn't indicate any one religious allegiance, but rather a subscription to any of a number of beliefs.
These temples are treasures. From the moment we walked into the first one, we were blown away. "This alone makes the trip worth it," Randy said as he studied the murals.
In the first temple we saw, all of the original Ming-era paintings were damaged and aged, but intact. The second we saw, none but some paintings of leaves in the rafters survived the Cultural Revolution. One wall had collapsed in, painting-side down, in a third, so the Red Guard could only vandalize the other two walls.
But back to the first temple, Taishan. All of the murals are still there in a remarakable state considering time and history.
This painting in the courtyard of the Wenchang Temple, once a school for reading and studying scrolls, was much too dear. Around the altars, all of the murals are gone, but somehow this one out in the courtyard survived. After the Cultural Revolution, this location was used as a primary school.
Randy's main reason for wanting to visit this town was because of its connection to the Yuan Dynasty. In addition to be obsessed with all things Great Wall, Randy has been reading a lot of John Man's books about the Mongols. Under Genghis Khan, Jimingyi was an important, and at one time the largest, posting station for communicating between Dadu and points west in his empire. The historical signs, like all of those in the town, identities this as Ming Dynasty. Randy wondered at the accuracy of these, especially since the Mongols did use this same post station before the Ming. Yuan Dynasty history has not been that popular of a subject within China. I thought perhaps the signs indicated that the current structures dated to Ming Dynasty.
The front door and the screen behind it still featured the elaborate carvings of hundreds of years ago.
As I mentioned before, this town also figures into 20th century Chinese history as Cixi stopped here on her was escaping the Boxers, a rebellion she encouraged, and yet she felt the need to flee from them.
This is the actual kang where she slept when she took refuge here. As this is still someone's private home, it appears that this kang is still in use today.
Coals were burning on the little stove heater. Having never slept in a kang myself, I was tempted to touch the bed and see how warm it actually was. Of course, too, the windows were wide open, too. There's a belief among many Chinese people that in the winter, even with the heat on, windows should be opened to bring in fresh air. While this is important in places where the heat comes from coal or wood stoves inside the home, people still do it in homes where the heat comes from radiators or even electric heaters. (thanks, Globabl Gal, for pointing this out).
A view of the West Gate. There are a few websites that say that this town was built by the Mongols. We hope to find some reliable information because the East-West orientation is more Chinese. From what we've read in books, the Mongols, when they did build walls, tended to use a North-South alignment.
I have so many more pictures, but I can't post them all because of time and space. And our visit has left us with a need to search out some more books (hopefully on Kindle so we can have them NOW) to study more. We are left with so many questions, too, that we hope to ask when we make a return visit in the spring. For instance, from whom are the (what appears to be) bullet holes in some of the murals?
Travel time between Jimingyi and our home is around an hour or so, so those in Beijing proper would have another hour or so added on to that.
This town figures greatly in the Yuan Dynasty as it was here that the Mongols operated their largest Post Station. Hundred of years later, Empress Dowager Cixi would take refuge there on her way out of Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion.
When we arrived we were surprised they are now selling tickets to get into the town. Some travel websites indicate there wasn't any admission charged, but it was only 30 kuai a piece. Also hanging around the front gate were a group of local elderly men. Each carried an ID badge with their photo in it. They were tour guides for hire, and they were not included in the ticket price. At many tourist sites in Beijing, like the Summer Palace, it is common to be approached by people offering to be English-speaking tour guides for a price. Usually we decline as places like the Summer Palace are fairly well-known and well-marked, but it was obvious to us that we would not be able to find anything in the town without help. His charge was 60 kuai, but in the end we gave and him a little more than that. So to future foreign visitors that like to get everything cheap--we're sorry we ruined it for you. He didn't speak English, and once we tuned our ears to his accent we had little problem understanding him.
Our first stop was just inside the East Gate.
Immediately he took us to the top of the city wall. We could see the Jiming Mountain towering over the village.
The walls around the city are being restored. Right now on the interior walls flanking the East Gate, the earthen walls are still visible. These are being rebricked over. While from an historical perspective, it is fascinating to see those elements of these city walls that pre-date the Yuan (our guide pointed out to Randy Song-era evidence). However, if the walls aren't rebuilt and reinforced, then they will crumble away.
One of the main parts of the tour are visits to a few of the village's temples. At one time there were more than a dozen, but currently only three open for tourists. Each temple dates to the Ming Dynasty, and reflect the common synthesis of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. There's a Chinese expression that is used in the way we Americans use the word religious. Literally translated, it is "have beliefs." That expression, in my mind, doesn't indicate any one religious allegiance, but rather a subscription to any of a number of beliefs.
These temples are treasures. From the moment we walked into the first one, we were blown away. "This alone makes the trip worth it," Randy said as he studied the murals.
In the first temple we saw, all of the original Ming-era paintings were damaged and aged, but intact. The second we saw, none but some paintings of leaves in the rafters survived the Cultural Revolution. One wall had collapsed in, painting-side down, in a third, so the Red Guard could only vandalize the other two walls.
But back to the first temple, Taishan. All of the murals are still there in a remarakable state considering time and history.
This painting in the courtyard of the Wenchang Temple, once a school for reading and studying scrolls, was much too dear. Around the altars, all of the murals are gone, but somehow this one out in the courtyard survived. After the Cultural Revolution, this location was used as a primary school.
Randy's main reason for wanting to visit this town was because of its connection to the Yuan Dynasty. In addition to be obsessed with all things Great Wall, Randy has been reading a lot of John Man's books about the Mongols. Under Genghis Khan, Jimingyi was an important, and at one time the largest, posting station for communicating between Dadu and points west in his empire. The historical signs, like all of those in the town, identities this as Ming Dynasty. Randy wondered at the accuracy of these, especially since the Mongols did use this same post station before the Ming. Yuan Dynasty history has not been that popular of a subject within China. I thought perhaps the signs indicated that the current structures dated to Ming Dynasty.
The front door and the screen behind it still featured the elaborate carvings of hundreds of years ago.
As I mentioned before, this town also figures into 20th century Chinese history as Cixi stopped here on her was escaping the Boxers, a rebellion she encouraged, and yet she felt the need to flee from them.
This is the actual kang where she slept when she took refuge here. As this is still someone's private home, it appears that this kang is still in use today.
Coals were burning on the little stove heater. Having never slept in a kang myself, I was tempted to touch the bed and see how warm it actually was. Of course, too, the windows were wide open, too. There's a belief among many Chinese people that in the winter, even with the heat on, windows should be opened to bring in fresh air. While this is important in places where the heat comes from coal or wood stoves inside the home, people still do it in homes where the heat comes from radiators or even electric heaters. (thanks, Globabl Gal, for pointing this out).
A view of the West Gate. There are a few websites that say that this town was built by the Mongols. We hope to find some reliable information because the East-West orientation is more Chinese. From what we've read in books, the Mongols, when they did build walls, tended to use a North-South alignment.
I have so many more pictures, but I can't post them all because of time and space. And our visit has left us with a need to search out some more books (hopefully on Kindle so we can have them NOW) to study more. We are left with so many questions, too, that we hope to ask when we make a return visit in the spring. For instance, from whom are the (what appears to be) bullet holes in some of the murals?
Travel time between Jimingyi and our home is around an hour or so, so those in Beijing proper would have another hour or so added on to that.
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Becky K.