Awash in monuments of its former glory, Yangzhou is a great place to escape the urban grind and lose yourself in the relics of its cosmopolitan past.
For a small Chinese city, the abundance of historic sites substantiates Yangzhou’s former reputation as one of southern China’s economic and culture centers. Located at the junctions of the Grand Canal (dà yùnhé 大运河) and the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers, its long history dates back to 500 BC.
It was these waterways, linking Yangzhou to China’s interior and major city centers that helped Yangzhou develop into a prosperous city. During the Tang dynasty, Yangzhou was home to many foreign communities, including a large group of Persian traders. But it was the revitalization of the Grand Canal and the massive influx of funds brought by the salt merchants and their monopolies during the Qing dynasty that allowed the Yangzhou to truly flourish.
It was amongst such settings that Yangzhou developed its rich story telling tradition (píng huà 评话), which frequently attracted the attention of the imperial court. In the wake of the imperial court flocked artists and their major patrons, mostly retired officials. The prosperity of the Tang dynasty gave scholars, painters, storytellers and poets the means to pursue their craft while the retiring officials, determined to live out their days in style, endowed temples, enclosed gardens and patronized the arts.
Though not completely able to stand the test of time, many relics of its past glory days still dot this languid city in Jiangsu Province. Its ancient joie de vivre of artists and eccentrics, a group of artists defying the painting conventions of the time, can be found through exploring the canals, tree-lined streets and arching bridges, which create charming scenes.
If hordes of visitors from Nanjing and other surrounding cities make the major sites feel overrun, Yangzhou is well situated for a lazy amble. In the north and northwest parts of the city are numerous gardens and temples, while smaller than the major sites, provide a sense of the atmosphere and culture that made Yangzhou great.
Ge Garden (gè yuán个园), a classic Chinese rock and water composition, is filled with curiously styled pavilions ideal for a midday picnic. Its landscaped rocks are meant to suggest the four seasons and can be sensed with a sprinkling of imagination. From here it’s a short walk to the Yangzhou City Museum (yángzhōu bówùguǎn 扬州博物馆), which had incorporated a series of assorted old pavilions into its charming grounds. One of China’s better provincial museums, it includes a 1,000-year-old wooden boat recovered from the Grand Canal. Even older, is its centerpiece, a Han dynasty funeral suit made from 500 pieces of jade.
Right around the corner stands the Shi Kefa Memorial (shǐgōng cí史公祠), a temple devoted to the memory of local hero Shi Kefa. Toward the end of the Ming dynasty, he gave his life fighting against the encroaching Qing armies. The victorious Qing supposedly raised this memorial to him in honor of his courage though it may as well have been to quiet their new subjects.
Moving towards the city center, students of China’s Islamic past will be happy to find the Crane Mosque (xiānhè sì仙鹤寺), the main surviving testament to the presence of Persian traders in Yangzhou during the Middle Ages. Simple, small and largely unadorned save for one wall covered entirely with Arabic script, it’s a classic example of Islamic architecture in China. In a similar vein is the Garden Tomb of Puhaddin (pǔhādīng mùyuán 普哈丁墓园), dedicated to a descendant of the prophet Muhammad who came to China in the 13th century. He spent ten years in Yangzhou and made the city his adopted home, insisting on being buried within its walls. An adjacent hall contains paintings and artifacts depicting his life.
Yangzhou’s southern half has its own share of attractions. A true diamond in the rough is the He Garden (hé yuán何园). Built in the nineteenth century, this garden in miniature ingenuously employs trees, shrubs, and a raised walkway to give a sense of variety and depth. It’s an ideal place for a sunny morning or sunset frolic. Several charming teahouses provide parched visitors with refreshment and ambiance.
A bit of a hike out of town but no less interesting is the Wenfeng Pagoda (wénfēng tǎ文峰塔). Built in 1582, this large, seven-storey pagoda where Jian Zhen departed for Japan. Today it’s more likely to be employed as a vista for viewing the intense activity on Yangzhou’s canals and wharves.
IRREVERENCE & ENLIGHTENMENT IN YANGZHOU
Yangzhou’s two major and most well-known tourist sites, Slender West Lake (shòu xīhú 瘦西湖) and Daming Temple (dàmíng sì 大明寺), are located mercifully close to each other and are best taken in one fell swoop. Providing most of Yangzhou’s tourist draw, they can be unbearably crowded on weekends yet outside of the peak hours they provide a marvelous window into Yangzhou’s fabled charms. It’s easy to walk from one site to the other, but to do it in style (and pay for it) there are tourist boats linking the sites. Modeled after dragon boats and replete with plush yellow interiors, they will cruise you up the lake and drop you off at the temple entrance.
Modeled after the much larger and more famous West Lake in Hangzhou, the Slender West Lake makes up in charm what it lacks in size. Winding through a stretch of park area, it’s filled with water scenes and weeping willows.
Whimsical structures, meticulously crafted bridges and replicas of historic sites will keep your hands full for at least a few hours. There’s a white dagoba modeled after the one in Beijing’s Beihai Park.
Better known are the park’s bridges, the most famous of which is the Five Pavilion Bridge (wǔtíng qiáo五亭桥) built in 1757. Its imposing triple arches and yellow tiled roofs are one of the most often photographed sites in the park. A short stroll along the north bank of the lake leads you to the dazzling, though relatively new, Twenty-Four Bridges (èrshísì qiáo 二十四桥), named after the 24 posts used in the bridge’s design. These arches culminate in an apex so high that they nearly create a circle in order for boats to pass under. Though most of the ancient bridges are now replaced by new concrete ones, the bridge and canal atmosphere remain. A favorite spot for photo-ops is a replica of Emperor Qianlong’s old fishing platform, which is located nearby. Local tales hold that Qianlong’s servants would dive into the canal and hook fish on his line so that he, thinking Yangzhou had brought him luck, would allocate more funding to the town. Close by is the Happiness Terrace (chuī tái 吹台), with three moon gates each framing different scenes.
For those more concerned with eternity than with life’s fleeting joys, 1km north of the Slender West Lake stands the Daming Temple. Perched on a hilltop and occupying vast grounds, this temple was originally built in the 5th century AD. Nowadays, it’s experiencing a boom of patronage from Japanese Buddhists. Its centerpiece is a massive memorial built in 1973 to honor Chinese monk Jian Zhen, a famed Tang dynasty scholar who introduced Ritso Buddhism to Japan.
Jian Zhen was invited to teach in Japan and made five failed attempts at the crossing from China to Japan, each time being blown back to China by storms and gale force winds. On the sixth attempt, he successfully crossed, never to return. That he’s still highly revered in Japan can be seen in the Japanese funding of two stone lamps.
If you find all this whetting your appetite, there’s a wonderful Buddhist vegetarian restaurant on the temple grounds. Ask one of the monks to point you to it. The vast temple compound can be explored for the better part of a morning or afternoon. Not to be missed is the Fifth Spring Under Heaven (tiānxià dìwǔquán 天下第五泉), a series of parks and gardens built in 1751 and located to the north of the temple itself. Surrounding a natural spring, its clear waters run through the grounds, interlacing the sites. Here you can sample waters from the spring or opt for a cup of local tea brewed with the same ethereal waters. Airy teahouses dot the grounds, beneath which lie pools filled with brightly colored fish.