Cruising China's Grand Canal: Part 5
At last, here we are in Linqing, which lies on the border between Shandong and Hebei Provinces. Linqing's claim to fame is that this is where the tiles of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City were made. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Linqing was a distribution center for textiles, grain and bricks. Here we'll be picking up the Southern Canal, a name which sounds confusing I'm sure, since we've traveled so far north. It is called southern because it is south of Tianjin, the Northern Canal runs north from Tianjin to Beijing. Simple, yes? Our route will follow the course of the Wei River for a while as we travel through Hebei Province.
Most of Hebei is in the North China Plain, but there are mountain ranges in the western and northern sections, the highest being Mount Xiaowutai. A portion of the Great Wall bisects northern Hebei as well. Hebei too has had many rulers and many names - Yanzhao for the states of Yan and Zhao during the Warring States Period, in the Tang era, Hebei, which means North of the Yellow River, Zhili or Directly Ruled by the Imperial Court during the Yuan rule, and finally back to Hebei in modern times.
Opera is quite popular in Hebei, particularly the Pingju form which traditionally has but three roles: a xiaosheng, the young male lead, a xiaodan, the young female lead, and a xiaohualian, a young comic character. Hebei is also renowned for its white porcelain. The food here is usually some concoction including wheat, mutton and beans.
We are nearing Dezhou and we'll be leaving the Wei River as the Canal follows its own course once again. In Dezhou you will want to see the tomb of Paduka Batara of Sulu, in the Philippine archipelago. This ruler visited the Yongle Emperor in 1417, along with his retinue and their families. They stayed for twenty-seven days and were given many valuable gifts on their departure. But Paduka Batara fell ill and died before he could leave the country and was given a royal burial. His widow, concubines, two younger sons and ten others stayed behind to perform the three year long mourning rituals. At the end of the three years, all returned to their home except the sons, Antulu and Wenhala, who stayed in China. Their descendants took the family names of An and Wen, families which can still be found in China today.
It's a long way up to Cangzhou, but there are many picturesque villages along the way. About halfway, we'll stop briefly at Botou to purchase some of the local pears. I know you'll find them quite delicious.
We will be stopping in Cangzhou, a town founded in the fifth century CE and long known for its inhabitants skilled acrobatics and the martial arts, along with a locally brewed beer bearing the name of Iron Lion. But it is the famous Iron Lion statue that I want to show you. Cast in 953, the forty-ton lion is said to be the largest of its kind in the world. The lion may have once been inside a Buddhist temple, carrying a bronze statue of the bodhisattva Manjusri in the open lotus blossom on its back, which was removed either for its valuable bronze or during one of the periodic suppressions of Buddhism. The statue was constructed using the traditional Chinese piece-molding technique which dates back to the Shang dynasty and was in common use by the Tang era.
If you are of the Muslim persuasion, you may be interested to know that Cangzhou boasts seven mosques. The West Mosque holds a wonderful collection of Islamic manuscripts and artifacts.
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