Exploring beautiful Sanming and its links to Shanghai
The five-hour trip from Shanghai to Sanming by G1509 should have packed in a lot of sight-seeing as the train zoomed past such iconic scenic sights as the Thousand Island Lake, the Huangshan Mountain and Wuyuan.
The actual experience was a little bit of let-down, as the relentless efficiency of the bullet train, having the final destination clear in view, made little allowance for the surrounding beauty, and responded with a quick succession of tunnels.
Many are the people willing to pay more for a meandering green train trip that allows the taking in of the undulating, verdant mountains, in leisure.
I thought that the boisterous crowds of tourists from Shanghai regaling themselves on cakes and ale at the lunch hour would get off at these iconic stops, but they pressed on, all the way to the terminal stop, Sanming.
Revolutionary history is explained.
During 1950-60s no less than 18 light industry companies in Shanghai were relocated to mountainous Sanming, in Fujian Province, as a measure to safeguard economic safety in view of the intensifying international situation.
About 10,000 Shanghainese workers, their families and all, chose to settle there.
The special ties still enjoy a special place in the Museum Honoring the Industrial Memory of 1958, with its all sundry memorabilia from those fiery years.
The preamble reads: "Towards late 1950s, an army of builders numbering 100,000 gathered at the foot of Hutou Mountain, by the Shaxi River, composing a glorious musical movement by joining in the effort of building a provincial heavy industry base."
Fujian Sangang (Steelworks) was built, which then gave rise to the Sanming City.
This explains the the existence of the steel plant right within the city, though the plant is vigorously rebranding itself as a green and smart factory. It is a far cry from the days when residents complained of each having to chew down a brick's worth of pollutants on an annual basis.
The area also took great pride in its revolutionary legacy.
The itinerary for the next day took us to a museum in Jianning County dedicated to the CPC's armed responses to Kuomintang army's repeated attempts to encircle and suppress the Soviet-style Red government in the early 1930s.
The Red legacy also connotes a Shanghai nexus: While Shanghai was the birthplace of the CPC, Sanming was one of the four places where the beleaguered Red Army embarked on the Long March (1934-35).
But the two places could not have been more different in terms of their ecological terrain, and herein might lie the city's enduring appeal to Shanghai residents, as tourists.
To push ecological protection without missing out on rural revitalization, local government is encouraging local farmers to supplement their income by serving as tourist guides, rafting, running home stays, or catering.
As a consequence, per capita income soared, from less than 3,000 yuan (US$428) in 1997, to 20,000 yuan in 2022.
Shot by Wan Lixin.
Huang Shengteng, 54, who steers our raft with a bamboo pole down the Shangqing River, began to sing a work song half way through the voyage.
Exemplifying this transformation was 54-year-old Huang Shengteng, a national model worker, who steered out raft down 7.45 km of Shangqing Stream, sometimes with cliff hovering menacingly over our heads.
We were the first to set out, but soon the bamboo floor began to subside under the water, and the drag slowed the raft, soon leaving our raft all alone in the secluded valley.
A father of two daughters, Huang used to pilot the raft with his wife, but on that day she needed to cure the tobacco leaves, a lucrative crop usually grown in rotation with rice.
"We used to cure the leaves with wood, but it has been now replaced with natural gas, as government initiative for environmental protection," Huang said.
Huang had a facility for talking volubly on any subject at the slightest provocation, throughout the two-hour trip, all the way deftly steering our raft clear of sandbars and rocks.
Half way through the journey, when the valley was narrowed, and the strong current made piloting easy, Huang began to sing a work song which held us spellbound.
The Ganlu Temple rests on a thick tree trunk.
Another tourist highlight is Ganlu (Sweet-dewed) Temple, against the side of an inverted triangle, with the whole superstructure resting on thick tree trunk.
First built in 1146, in the Song Dynasty, the complex was supported by one wooden pole.
Unfortunately, in 1961 the whole complex was accidentally consumed by a fire. Although the current structure was rebuilt in 1964 and 1980s, the whole edifice was sufficiently unique to be listed as a cultural relic under protection.
Personally, I think the well preserved Shangshu Di (Minister's Residence) built during 1621-1627 in the Taining County seat is more authentic for its cultural value.
With the city growing greener, the locals' entrepreneurial astuteness means it can continue to leverage its rich natural endowment in the path to prosperity.
In the Shangshu Di (Minister's Residence) in Taining County, in the quarter for young girls, in the recess of the residence, there is an equivalent of underground sewage system.
