Huaxi's Great Wall / Große Mauer
| A few days after my first impressions, I went on my first longer exploration walk. There were a few green hills around which aroused my attraction, so I went up the biggest of them. Where I found something very much unexpected: | Einige Tage nach meinen ersten Eindrücken ging ich auf die erste längere Erkundung. Es gab einige grüne Hügel, die mir interessant erschienen, also kletterte ich auf den größten davon. Wo ich auf etwas Überraschendes stieß: |
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| But before I got there, I found a number of tombs & graves. This is pretty common in China. Wherever you climb on a hill, you are sure to find some graves. Very interesting for me, nevertheless, & will be covered in my next post (because there were really a lot of them on this hill). | Bevor ich dahin kam, fand ich jedoch eine Anzahl von Grüften & Gräbern. Es ist ziemlich normal in China, daß man auf Hügeln auf dem Land Gräber findet. Für mich trotzdem sehr interessant, & wird im nächsten Beitrag näher betrachtet (da es auf dem Hügel wirklich viele gab). |
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| After the first batch of graves, I climbed up a bit higher, from where I had a nice view over Huashi. As you can see, it was another smoggy day, as there were many such days in Huashi. Perhaps in summer it was better, but I only stayed there for one winter term. | Nachdem ich die ersten Gräber gefunden hatte, kletterte ich weiter, bis ich einen guten Blick über Huashi hatte. Wie man sieht, war es wieder ein Smogtag, wovon es in Huashi viele gab. Vielleicht war es im Sommer etwas besser, aber ich blieb nur einige Wintermonate dort. |
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| If you wonder why the countryside would have such heavy smog, well, Huashi is surrounded by a number of bigger cities with a lot of industry. But there is also this: | Über den heftigen Smog 'auf dem Land' braucht man sich übrigens nicht zu wundern. Huashi ist von größeren Städten mit viel Industrie umgeben. Daneben gibt es aber auch dies: |
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| Huaxi, partially surrounded by Huashi. The back then allegedly richest village in China. & part of the reason it was so rich was its industry. Most of the riches are concentrated in the village leader's family, though. The other families there have a good income, but also have to work a lot for it & they are (were?) not allowed to leave the village if they want to stay shareholders. | Huaxi, teilweise umgeben von Huashi. Damals das angeblich reichste Dorf in China. Ein Grund für den Reichtum war seine Industrie. Jedoch ist der größte Teil des Reichtums in Händen der Familie des Dorfführers. Die anderen Familien hatten zwar auch ein gutes Auskommen, mußten aber hart dafür arbeiten, & es war ihnen nicht erlaubt, das Dorf zu verlassen, wenn sie ihren Anteil behalten wollten. |
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| Nowadays, Huaxi is not so rich anymore. The village has a debt of billions of dollars. Anyway, when I looked down upon this wonderful wonder of China's countryside, I was quite surprised to notice what looked like part of the Great Wall. | Heutzutage ist Huaxi nicht mehr so reich. Das Dorf hat milliarden Dollar an Schulden. Wie auch immer, als ich auf dieses wunderbare Wunder des chinesischen Landlebens hinabsah, überraschte mich doch sehr, etwas zu erspähen, das wie ein Teil der Großen Mauer aussah. |
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| I was quite confused, as I had never heard of parts of the Great Wall extending so far south. & on closer inspection, the wall looked very inauthentic. & when I found some fallen off parts, it was fairly clear: | War ziemlich verwirrt, denn ich hatte nie von Teilen der Großen Mauer so weit im Süden gehört. Bei näherer Betrachtung sah die Mauer dann auch eher unecht aus. & als ich einige herabgefallene Teile fand, war das recht deutlich: |
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| That wall was made of red bricks covered with plaster made to look like stones. Later, after I got home, I checked online to be sure. & it is obviously a copy. It is part of the 'Huaxi World Park' which nowadays also includes copies of Capitol Hill & the Arc de Triomphe. But, well, at least the view is good. If there is no smog: | Diese Mauer bestand aus Ziegelsteinen, deren Putz echte Steine vorgaukeln sollte. Später, wieder zuhause, habe ich zur Sicherheit online nachgesehen. & es ist offensichtlich eine Kopie, ein Teil des 'Huaxi Weltparks', der heutzutage auch Nachbauten des Kapitols & des Triumphbogens beinhaltet. Aber wenigstens ist die Aussicht gut. Naja, wenn es keinen Smog gibt. |
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| A bit higher up the hill I found more evidence of inauthenticity: | Etwas weiter oben fand ich mehr Hinweise auf mangelnde Authentizität: |
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| On the other side of the hill, a lot more 'village' life & a whole load of smog: | Auf der anderen Seite des Hügels, viel mehr 'Dorfleben' & große Mengen Smog: |
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| But the hills themselves are quite nice: | Die Hügel selber waren aber recht nett: |
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| That landscape actually makes the wall look like the original. You just should not go too close. | Die Landschaft läßt sogar die Mauer fast wie das Original erscheinen. Man darf nur nicht zu nahe rangehen. |
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| The ridge you see above goes to the east. To the right of it, in the south, is Huashi. This ridge was quite nice to walk along & I visited it a number of times. On my first trip there, I luckily walked there. The paths on the ridge ended rather suddenly at some places, at best secured by some flimsy pieces of string: | Der Hügelkamm, den man hier sieht, führt nach Osten. Rechts davon, im Süden, ist Huashi. Den Kamm entlang zu spazieren war recht interessant & ich war einige Male da. Beim erstenmal zum Glück zu Fuß. Die Wege auf dem Kamm enden mancherorts recht plötzlich, bestenfalls mit einem Stück Schnur gesichert: |
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| Some days later I walked west, towards Jiangyin, & came through Huaxi again. | Einige Tage später wanderte ich westwärts nach Jiangyin, & kam wieder durch Huaxi. |
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| The above was the symbol of Huaxi's wealth back then. They call it the 'Golden Pagoda'. Not a lot of gold to see, except for the gilded roof decoration. Later, the Longxi International Hotel took over as a symbol. Seems to have been more a sign of Huaxi's downfall through delusions of grandeur, though. Coincidentally, they started to build the hotel in 2008. | Oben sieht man das damalige Symbol für Huaxis Reichtum, die sogenannte 'Goldene Pagode'. Nicht viel Gold zu sehen, abgesehen von der vergoldeten Dachverzierung. Später übernahm das "Longxi International Hotel" die Symbolfunktion. Entpuppte sich aber eher als Symbol des Niedergangs durch Größenwahn. Zufälligerweise startete der Bau des Hotels im Jahr 2008. |
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| Here, you can see other parts of the 'World Park', a gondola lift & to the right of it a replica of the Tiananmen Rostrum in Beijing. Below, you can see the bridge connecting it to the 'Great Wall'. Luckily, the weather was a bit better on that day, but still some smog. | Hier sieht man andere Teile des 'Weltparks', eine Seilbahn & rechts davon eine Kopie des Pekinger Tors des Himmlischen Friedens. Unten kann man die Brücke bewundern, die es mit der 'Großen Mauer' verbindet. Das Wetter war an dem Tag glücklicherweise etwas besser, aber immer noch mit Smog. |
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| & that's it for the Great Wall of Huaxi. Worth a visit? You decide. I would say, not really; particularly because nowadays parts of that park seem to have fallen into disrepair, probably because of a lack of money. Huaxi, rich no longer. That's life. & now, just a few more pics: | & das war's von der 'Großen Mauer' von Huaxi. Einen Besuch wert? Meiner Meinung nach nicht, besonders, weil heutzutage Teile des Parks anscheinend schon verfallen, vermutlich wegen Geldmangels. Huaxi, nicht mehr so reich. So ist das Leben. & jetzt nur noch ein paar Bilder: |
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I have driven out to Huaxi but I didn't actually go to the wall attraction. I just went there to drive around and see what was there. I was underwhelmed. There is a deep, darker economic story to that actual area and it's claim to being the wealthiest village in china.
Yep. As in most cases of extreme wealth in China.
Where in China are you based out of?
Not in China anymore. Lived in Shaoguan, Ningbo, Huashi, Guangzhou, Beijing, Siping (Jilin) & Hefei. Emperor Xi drove me out in 2017.
I ask, because Huaxicun is about an hour and a half's drive from where I currently live. I think I have about two years of China left in me.
Can't really see how anyone would want to live in China under current conditions. Maybe if you are totally unpolitical & don't care about all this Covid nonsense, but for me, a return is only viable after emperor Xi left the scene.
I have been here since 2014, and I am not an engineer with the high salary that comes with that being that style of expat of china. I am a university teacher with two masters degrees in English. Once covid hit, leaving the country had become monetarily harder in how much just a plane ticket began to cost. Plus, there's the issue of actually lining up employment elsewhere. I left america because having a PhD in English, at the time, only gave you a 40% chance of being hired full time in higher education. Not everybody can just pick up and leave China on a whim. I do plan on leaving, but it's likely going to take me two years to organize my exit. As for this "covid nonsense," I just contracted it and got over it, thank you very much.
A bit sensitive, are we?
Don't know where you get that engineer stuff from. You don't need to be an engineer to be able to save money in China. & if you have 2 master degrees, it should actually be fairly easy to find a job somewhere else, like eg. Taiwan or Vietnam. Of course, after Covid hit that wouldn't have been possible for a while.
& if you don't think that emperor Xi's Covid policies are nonsense, well, good on you. Then you have nothing to complain about.
a sight that is beautiful enough to witness friends.
Well, I don't know. But if you had friends there, that would be at least a reason to go there.
this is really a very nice place
It is?
It could be... without all the pollution.