Village gives visitors a glimpse of bygone eras

An ancient village that has fallen by the wayside now waits to be reborn as a tourist destination.

Bangtang Village is only 100 meters from the major road that leads into Leizhou, about 5 kilometers away. It is half that distance to the local railway station and will be even closer to a new bus station.

But Bangtang is separated from the commotion of city life by a stretch of lychee groves and banyan trees so thick you'll have to dodge branches and twigs while walking on a narrow, zigzagging path.

When you emerge from it, you'll be standing in front of a community at the threshold of two eras.

The Li family moved here 500 years ago, spawning 23 generations. The clan thrived in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, producing dozens of minor celebrities who served as local officials.

Li Baowei, 70, did not witness any of that. He was 7 when his family took a nosedive in fortune. Baowei is among 3,000 descendents of the Li clan, and most of them moved out of the old village about a decade ago into a new village adjacent to it. Still, some genial folks hang around, looking after the empty homesteads and greeting the occasional tourist. Some play ping-pong in empty halls.

Most of the buildings are in varying degrees of disrepair, with some outlying ones in ruins. But the overall layout of the architecture is clearly visible. With a little imagination, one can visualize how prosperous the place used to be during its heyday.

Li Baowei's ancestor Li Yunlong had the most typical and also the largest dwelling - a courtyard within a larger courtyard, connected through many chambers and corridors. Covering 2,000 square meters, this residence has a total of 24 yards and 72 rooms. Some of the yards are overgrown with grass now, and the murals on the wall have fallen prey to the weather or political turmoil.

But if you look closely, however, you can notice the carvings in inconvenient corners that bear witness to the prosperity and stature of the previous owners.

A five-crane mural, partially vanished, has the animal of immortality in five different poses. The inscription of "Five types of bliss come together" above the mural is vague but legible.

The reddish bricks that make up most of the walls have turned greenish with moss. The narrow lanes that divide the households are clean and well kept. The overall design - with connectivity inside one house and relative inaccess to the outside world - hints at the era of social unrest when the wealthy had to guard against bandits and pirates.

Nowadays, most of the villagers make their living on chicken farming and growing fruit trees. Many of its young people have ventured out of the village and got jobs in construction, transportation, among other businesses.

You can envision this village being fully restored to its former splendor and turning into a tourist enclave. Amidst a maze of brick walls and courtyards, one can relax in the cool shade of a banyan tree and experience what life was like in an early dynasty.

Contact the writer at liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn.