The Indiana Jones of imperial China has become a modern pop-culture celebrity by TONY PERROTTET TRAVELER IN THE SUNSET CLOUDS photographs by JAMES WHITLOW DELANO 2 SMITHSONIAN.COM | Monthtk 0000 nature. He would pause on his jour- night. So I decided to follow Xu Xiake’s nism lives on: Lijiang has reinvented TO CONJURE THE LOST WORLD OF IMPERIAL CHINA, ney to watch a stream flowing. He just own travel route to find any vestiges itself as China’s most raucous party you might resort to the tales of Marco Polo, that famed Venetian interloper and fabulist. But wanted to contemplate the world.” of his classical Yunnan, hoping that town, with an ambience resembling a you could find a more intimate view in the lively work of the most revered ancient Chinese Xu Xiake’s last and most ambitious the changes over the last 375 years Shanghai nightclub. Its ancient store- road trip was to Yunnan, which hap- wouldn’t require too many creative fronts have been lovingly restored, but travel writer of all, Xu Xiake (pronounced “Syoo Syah-kuh”), hailed by his growing number of pens to be on the front lines of Chinese leaps of imagination. behind the delicate lattice shutters are modern admirers as, among other things, “imperial China’s Indiana Jones” on account of his tourism today. This scenic province in karaoke bars, where singers compete the foothills of the Himalayas was par- In China, any destination that has been over loudspeakers, wailing along to death-defying adventures. Born in 1587, he was an imposing figure, over six feet tall and as ticularly difficult to reach in Xu’s time “discovered” is affected on a staggering Korean pop. The cobblestone alleys sinewy as a warrior monk, with luminous green eyes and an ascetic air. At age 20, the well- and represented a lifelong dream. He scale. This was obvious when I landed are jam-packed with young revelers set off in the fall of 1636, at age 49, crow- in Lijiang, a legendary town at 8,000 from every corner of China. Lijiang is to-do young scholar decided to devote his life to his “wanderlust” and “love of the strange,” taking ing to a friend, “I will make a report on feet in elevation, beneath Jade Dragon a parable of the dangers of success. It the exotic realms,” and on a four-year Snow Mountain, which was barely known be- the poetic nom de plume Traveler in the Sunset Clouds. Voraciously curious, he would tackle A 1987 stamp issued in journey, he explored Yunnan’s snow- for centuries has been the honor of Xu Xiake’s 400th fore 1997, when Unesco any mountain peak—“as nimble as an ape and as sturdy as an ox,” one poet said—to experience capped peaks and tropical valleys, vis- most idyllic entry point birthday portrays the anointed its historic cen- iting Buddhist monasteries and min- to Yunnan. When Xu ar- young writer determined ter as one of China’s first a sublime view, which would inspire him to rapture. “I cried out in ecstasy,” he wrote of one sum- to pursue a life of travel gling with extraordinary cultures on rived in 1639, he found it (opposite). From Lijiang, World Heritage sites. mit, “and could have danced out of sheer joy and admiration.” A friend described Xu’s character the border of Tibet. Today, Yunnan has a colorful outpost popu- Xu traveled to Dali, now Since then, tourism has again become the ideal fantasy destina- lated by the proud Naxi a hippie haven, and to been promoted without as “Drifting with the Water, Floating in the Wind,” while another called him “half stubborn, a remote area near the tion in China, and for reasons Xu Xiake people, its streets lined Tibetan border later planning or restraint, half deranged.” It’s our good fortune that Xu was at large in the golden age of Chinese travel, would actually applaud. Young Chinese with willows and canals renamed Shangri-La. and a mind-boggling during the prosperous Selden’s Map of China. visited. His diary has been reissued in Ming dynasty (1368- “His remarkable pow- annotated editions for academics and 1644), when com- ers of observation graphic novel versions for children, merce was booming bring the era to life and a biopic has been broadcast on na- and transportation for us in an extraordi- tional TV. China’s National Tourism was safer and more narily vivid way.” The Day is May 19, the date he started his efficient than ever be- pages overflow with first journey, in 1613. There are now fore. Tourist numbers sharp details—en- Xu Xiake travel awards and Xu Xiake reached record levels, counters with camel rock-climbing contests. Most surreal, seemingly in response herders, complaints his ancestral home near Shanghai is to a proverb of the about inns, comic ar- now a national monument with a tour- time that an educated guments with recal- ism park attached. Walking trails are gent should “read ten citrant porters. The signposted with images of our hero, thousand books and enormous text was like a kung fu film star, swinging down travel ten thousand hand-copied by rel- cliffs by rope, crawling through crev- li,” referring to the atives and officially ices on his stomach and fighting off imperial measure of published by Xu’s de- bandits with his staff. Bill Bryson or roughly one-third of scendants in 1776. Jan Morris or Paul Theroux could only a mile. Xu’s literary Xu Xiake has long dream of such hero worship. monument would be been admired by Chi- his travel diary, or youji, which he in- nese intellectuals for his poetic writ- To me, there was an intriguing irony who have grown up in the polluted in- fed by pure alpine springs. This was the eight million visitors a year now flush tended to edit for publication. But he ings and by others for his enviably that a land known for its teeming dustrial cities are valuing its electric very edge of the Chinese empire, where through its narrow streets, making died at age 54, almost certainly of ma- footloose lifestyle—even Chairman population and unrelenting industry blue skies, pure mountain air and aura Han settlers from the overpopulated Venice seem a model of bucolic calm. laria, before he had the chance. Today Mao once said, “I wish I could do as should embrace a travel writer who of spirituality. On one recent visit to coast mingled with local cultures con- To its critics, Lijiang is an example scholars see that as a boon to history. Xu Xiake did.” But today, as millions of was so solitary and poetic. Readers China, I met a hiking guide in her 20s sidered half-barbaric. The monarch, of everything that can go wrong with Because there is so little casual prose newly affluent Chinese are starting to of Xu’s diary are surely struck by the who had escaped the reeking factory Mu Zeng, invited the traveler to an epic Chinese tourism. Officials promote from the period, this unedited version, travel, Xu is being reborn as a pop-cul- gulf between his romantic ideals and zone of Guangzhou and had the zeal of banquet of “remarkable foodstuffs,” in- economic growth at any cost, they ar- which runs to 1,100 pages, has unique ture celebrity. Beijing has embraced the brash reality of China today, where a convert: “For Chinese people, Yunnan cluding a beloved Himalayan delicacy, gue, pointing out that the historic part historical value. “It’s a spontaneous, him as the “patron saint” of tourism, sites like the Great Wall are jammed is where your dreams can be fulfilled.” yak tongue—although Xu couldn’t quite of town has been overrun with cheap step-by-step account of his experiences giving a gloss of ancient tradition to with bus tours. “The Chinese govern- As I hopped on a flight in Hong appreciate the flavor, he complained, souvenir stores while local residents on the road,” says Timothy Brook, a his- the lucrative new industry. Postage ment’s entire raison d’être is bigger, Kong for the Himalayas, I was wary because he was already too full and ine- have been driven out. Johnson Chang, torian who has written several books stamps have been issued in Xu’s honor faster, more,” says Brook. “It certainly of more than the altitude: In the new briated on rice wine. a Chinese art curator and expert on tra- on the Ming dynasty, most recently Mr. and statues erected in the towns he wasn’t Xu Xiake’s. He was in love with CREDIT TK HERE JAMIE SIMON China, dreamscapes can vanish over- Centuries later, at least the hedo- ditional culture, argues that the mass 4 SMITHSONIAN.COM | Monthtk 0000 Monthtk 0000 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 5 The Jinsha River, the upper reach of the Yangtze, flows into Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is 12,000 feet deep in places. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain looms in the background. 6 SMITHSONIAN.COM | Monthtk 0000 A young man on a Segway navigates the stone streets of Lijiang. Once the ancient capital of the Naxi minority, the “City of Bridges” is now full of shops run by outsiders. 8 SMITHSONIAN.COM | Monthtk 0000 tourism model can devastate historic grades of tour on offer in Old and new collide in tinge of desperation” would I met a traditional herbalist named Dr. strings, drums with no hide and flutes a golden tray,” for example—the bass sites as completely as a wrecking ball. the rambling hotel com- Lijiang.