Three Days in Northern Shaanxi, Part 2: Yan’an and Huangling
Leaving Suide, I took a bus to Yan’an. The ticket price at the station was 29 yuan, but I haggled it down to 20. It was over 100 kilometers to Yan’an, passing through Qingjian on the way. This area is known for producing jujubes, but there wasn’t much to see. After two and a half hours, I arrived in Yan’an, and by then it was already evening. I checked into the Yasheng Hotel at the foot of Pagoda Hill, costing 240 yuan. I requested a mountain-view room, and by pulling back the curtains I could see Pagoda Hill right away.
At the foot of Pagoda Hill is the busiest and most bustling part of Yan’an, similar to Beijing’s Wangfujing. It was packed with crowds of people, shoulder to shoulder, and the noise was overwhelming. It almost made me feel like I was in Shanghai, completely overturning my previous impression of Yan’an. Here there was a much wider choice for dining, but honestly it didn’t seem as distinctive as what I had in Yulin and Suide. The streets were full of vendors selling Dog Head Jujubes, each about half the size of a fist, but their taste wasn’t as good as smaller ones—they weren’t crispy. After eating, I wandered a bit and started planning the next day’s sightseeing. I contacted several travel agencies, but it was hard to join a group as a solo traveler. There was a guide offering a 100-yuan package covering four attractions, but it didn’t include transportation—it wasn’t very appealing. We decided to go on our own.
The next morning, I had breakfast at a small food stall near the hotel: mixed grain noodles, millet and vegetable porridge, and oven-baked flatbread. I also bought a large fried dough twist to take on the road—it turned out to be soft. The four red-tourism sites in Yan’an are all along the same line. In order from nearest to farthest: Wangjiaping Revolutionary Site, Yan’an Revolutionary Memorial Hall, Yangjialing, and Zaoyuan. You can take a taxi, but after Yangjialing it’s hard to find one, and at Zaoyuan it’s even more difficult. There is a No.3 bus that starts from Pagoda Hill and ends at Zaoyuan, conveniently connecting all these sites. Wangjiaping, Yangjialing, and Zaoyuan are quite similar—all were former residences of the leaders. The houses themselves don’t differ much, except that Chairman Mao’s bed was notably larger than everyone else’s. The most meaningful spot is the site of the Seventh National Congress of the CPC, still set up as it was back then. There’s also the site of the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art, depending on your interest. Ticket prices for these four sites range from 12 to 22 yuan, adding up to a considerable expense. Here I reveal an important tip:
If you just go around from the entrance and enter through the exit, you can sneak in without paying! Nobody checks! Of course, unless you want to contribute to the local economy—that’s a different matter. We only figured this out when we got to Yangjialing, so we only skipped payment at Zaoyuan.
The last stop was Pagoda Hill. From Zaoyuan I took the No.3 bus to the end, which wasn’t too slow. You can take a taxi up the hill, but it’s a very short ride costing 10 yuan; when sightseeing, it’s better to save your energy. Ticket was expensive—40 yuan to go up the hill, and another 10 yuan to go up the pagoda. Anyway, you can’t visit Yan’an without going there. The pagoda is a 13-story brick structure, said to date from the Song Dynasty. Structures from the Song Dynasty are rare nationwide. Next to the sign in front of the pagoda there is a party flag and the oath of membership to the Communist Party, if you’re interested you can take a photo with them.
At noon, I had some oat noodles at a restaurant opposite the hotel; compared to Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, nothing special. Then I inquired about going to Hukou Waterfall—it would take four hours one way and I would have to come back, so it was impossible. So I headed to Huangling. Yan’an is 180 kilometers from Huangling, about two and a half hours by bus, costing 35 yuan. The ticket for Huangling was even more expensive—61 yuan—and it’s very inconvenient unless you drive yourself. The Xuanyuan Temple is fine, right by the road, but the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor requires walking two kilometers up the mountain. Without a car it’s really tiring. The most interesting things here are the huge cypress trees. Elsewhere, trees a few hundred years old are treasured; here, even ones 3,000 years old are nothing special. The most famous is the cypress tree personally planted by the Yellow Emperor 5,000 years ago.
Finally, a couple of complaints: Behind the Xuanyuan Temple, a huge hall was built using reinforced concrete—extremely boring. The sign in front of the Yellow Emperor’s Mausoleum that says “Civil officials dismount from their sedans, military officers dismount from their horses” is completely ignored. In ancient times, emperors and high officials showed the highest respect to their ancestors, but today’s corrupt officials speed past in their cars, so arrogant in front of the humanistic ancestor of the Chinese nation, which really pisses me off. With this kind of behavior, no amount of incense burning will do any good!
(Reinforced concrete)
