Luodai Old Town

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Hi All,

Things have changed quite dramatically in the last couple of months. I came to Leshan at the end of December after the University closed down because of a COVID outbreak. After the students had been gone a week or so the government completely abandoned its zero COVID policy and all restrictions were lifted. This did lead to a huge outbreak of COVID case, nearly all of my students caught it, and myself and my wife both were laid up for about 10 days. We were both fine again for the New Year holiday.



We spent the New Year with my wife's family out in the sticks eating too much and I really enjoyed playing with the fireworks.



With the festivities almost over we went for a few days in Chengdu and then went to spend one night in Luodai which is on the eastern outskirts of Chengdu. It's easy to get to just take line 4 to Xihe then catch bus 209 to the last stop and hey presto you are there. We stayed in a quiet inn on the main street of the village opposite the Guangdong Guildhall for 195元. The lady who runs it is very friendly and was also very helpful.



Luodai is a Hakka minority village. Hakka people are an off shoot of the Han who migrated to Fujian and Guangdong around the 4th century AD to escape from war and famine. They called themselves hakka, which I believe is Cantonese word, to differentiate themselves from the locals. Hakka people may have some linguistic and cultural differences but in many ways they are indistinguishable from Han people. The Hakka people in Sichuan came here from the Fujian area in the 17th century due to the costal clearance policy of Emperor KangXi. KangXi was the second Manchu Qing Emperor who ordered parts of southeastern China to be cleared so as to quell a Ming Rebellion. I have visited Hakka people before in Fujian where they live in tulou fortified homes, see earlier blogs.



Luodai today is pretty much like many other old towns in China, all spruced up for the tourist trade with virtually the only thing for sale being snack foods of all kinds. There are some lovely Guildhall buildings which bear the names of the provinces that donated money to the villagers for the buildings. Although some of them were closed, maybe they are open in the summer. There is also a tulou here but it is a faux copy made of concrete. It houses a museum inside which is almost all in Chinese.



It is lovely to be able to travel around without restrictions, no more QR codes to scan or being afraid of being whisked off into quarantine or being glared at for not wearing a mask. Now the only glaring is for being the only non Asian face. Which I'm used to.🤣



A really enjoyable few days out and about

Enjoy the photos



JAH BLESS

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