There's usually not much historical authenticity near highways, even in China. But an hour out of Ningbo, a stone's throw from the expressway to Wenzhou, lies a town laid back, spring fresh, and blessedly oblivious to modernization. No river town, like some of its Zhejiang cousins, it draws only a trickle of visitors, who get to witness one of the few Chinese towns in no hurry to leap forward or gloriously get rich. 

Representative of Qiantong is one 78- year-old Tong Renshi, who spends all but the most inclement mornings seated outside her front door. She's descended from the Tongs who founded the place 800 years ago and for who it is named, as are eighty percent of the residents. She picks wufan leaves on Shijing mountain at dawn, and fashions rice cakes with them, for her family and for sale, popular snacks in the region that anywhere else must be bought mass-made at some soul-less supermarket. On the lunar April 8th, the common birthday for all bovines, she gives some of these treats to her cow. Such outdated practices make both the milk and life sweet in Qiantong.

Indeed even the water is sweet in Qiantong, devoid though it is of the rivers that attract people to places like Xitang. However, a mini-canal wends its way around much of the town, running right by the doorsteps of the older dwellings. People wash their vegetables, dishes, and even clothes in it, all under the proviso that none use chemicals to do so. Residents claim you can drink from it, although few outsiders take them up on the offer. Nonetheless, the abundance of extraordinarily red and plump koi fish swimming about in this man-made stream show the water is at least pure enough for Mother Nature's higher orders. So do the many xikeng yu, so thin and light as to almost be transparent. Tiny but picky, xikeng fish only deign to live in the cleanest waters: the fact that they do in a communal water source is testament to the cleanliness of Qiantong Guzhen.

The first Tongs settled here in the Song Dynasty; sadly the most ancient buildings left are from the Ming and Qing. The walls of these buildings consist of grey stone washed with lime, and are paneled inside with wood. Families line their small yards not with grass but the small multifarious pebbles you might find by the sea.

In this ancient town, some buildings are still dedicated to family shrines, many designed by famed architect Fang Xiaoru. Early in the Ming Dynasty, the top Tong in town retained the services of Fang, famed for his Confucian erudition as much as his design theory. He lectured extensively in Qiantong, inspiring generations to a higher standard of civilized behavior, and three generations of Tong children to study and practice classic Chinese architecture.  

Fang Xiaoru's Qiantong shrine was impressive enough to bring about his ruin. He employed some grandiose roof corner effects that could pass for those found on the emperor's palaces in the Forbidden City. Not just entry after nightfall but any affectation of imperial grandeur, either in style of home or clothing, was expressly forbidden, giving the emperor's home its name. Upon discovery, Fang and his extended family were put to death for his architectural audacity. His Tong disciples were relegatred to China's borders as exile soldiers; neither they nor anyone else named Tong would be allowed promotion to officer status for the next two hundred years.

Today these shrines are among the few empty buildings to be found in Qiantong. The majority of occupied ones still have their doors thrown open during the day; all and sundry are welcome to visit for a chat: neighbor, tourist, presumably even Watchtower distributor. The houses are usually crowded, stuffy, and rather ramshackle, but few are without a large antique bed, rendered by Tong family craftsmen. They are known as qiangongchuang, thousand-work-beds, because the Tong craftsmen would only work on them for one hour a day, at the height of their concentrative powers, typically taking three years to finish one bed. Thus the Qiantong ren have their antiques, hand-made tofu, and traditionally cordial ways as legacies of the past, as well as the TVs and AC that make life so comfortable today. Such a happy medium is essence of Chinese living.

Ernie's blog

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