WAB Wild: Miao Liang

Recent History

Probably the most significant events in the recent history of the Bai He Valley are the buiding of the Miyun Reservoir dams in the 1960’s, the aerial seeding of the area with pine trees from the 1980’s onwards, the massive drive to terrace the land in the 1960’s and 1970’s and the Japanese invasion of China in 1933.

Miyun Reservoir

You would have seen the Miyun Reservoir on the way to Miao Liang.

According to the International Lake Environment Committee, “The initial purpose of building Miyun Reservoir was flood control, irrigation and fishery, but it has become more and more important as a main drinking water storage for Beijing area. The water quality is therefore of great importance.” 

Work on the dams commenced in September 1960. The Miyun Reservoir has an area of 188 km2 and a maximum depth of 43 m.

It required the building of 7 separate dams. The two largest dams are 960 m long / 66 m high, and 1008 m long / 56 m high. The remaining five dams total 2592 m in length. This was obviously a very big project. In addition to the Miyun Reservoir dams, another large dam was built upstream of Miao Liang. This is the Bai He Po dam and it’s construction began in September 1970. It was completed in 1983. It is located approximately 88 km upstream of Miao Liang. 

Although the Bai He River level does change, floods seem to be a thing of the past.

Mr Huang Deyu, a worker who was stationed at the water measurement station just upstream of Miao Liang remembers a flood before the Bai He Po dam’s completion; 

“One night, while on duty at Miyun’s Zhangjiafen Water Management Station, I went outside to check things and my hair stood on end – there was a flood! The river which had previously been 40 to 50 metres wide had suddenly turned into a terrifying one to two hundred metre roaring torrent.

At the time my job was to survey the water flow. How did I do this? A thick steel wire cable was strung between the two banks of the river with a boat fastened to it.

Carrying the water velocity measurement equipment, I would pull myself across the river in the boat, testing the velocity of the current as well as collecting sediment. From that I could work out the volume of the water flowing into the reservoir as well as the amount of silt.

That sort of testing was very dangerous and if the steel wire cable broke because of the force of water, it just broke. A cable had once broken and a boat washed away after a heavy fall of rain in the early 1970s. Fortunately there was no one on it that time.” 

It’s interesting that this is the exact same way we cross the river. Thankfully there are no longer any floods!

Who actually built the dams? - Mr Huang Deyu said; 

“Downstream there were no longer any floods after the dam was built; in Shunyi, Tongzhou, Sanhe, Ninghe, Fengwang, Tangshan and all the way to Tianjin, flooding problems became few and far between. I remember that under government policies of the time, any regions that

were going to benefit from the dam all had to provide free labour for its construction and therefore the volunteers who built the dam were all recruited from those areas.”

(Beijing Water Oral History No.3 - July 2008)

Re-establishing forests on the hills

When you look out at the hills from Miao Liang the forest seems to cover everything. It hasn’t always been this way. Prior to 1981 the Beijing authorities in collaboration with the State Forestry Administration noted that 62% of the mountains were bare and barren. This 

may be because of fires or over exploitation of the timber for fuel. Something needed to be done. In July 1981 a re-seeding programme was begun. In 28 flights lasting 38 hours 22 tonnes of Chinese Red Pine (Pinus tabuliformis) seed was dropped on an area of 50,000 mu. P. tabuliformis is not the dominant tree species at Miao Liang but it is in much of the region. This aerial re-seeding programme continued for 26 years (until 2006). In all, 1800 flights were made, 3350 tonnes of seed were dropped over an area of 29 million mu at a total cost of 139 000 RMB.

So whether you look at the hills in Miao Liang or at the Mitianyu Great Wall you are probably looking at trees from this re-seeding programme!

Terracing the Hillsides

Terracing is the building of retaining walls on sloping land to allow agriculture or building on the flat areas above the walls. Some areas of terracing may be hundreds or even thousands of years old. The best areas to terrace have water and face South (so they are warm and receive a lot of sunshine). The terraces in this picture are near Shui Quan Yu (the abandoned village above Zhang Jia Feng). They are still used today.

Many areas of terracing are not in prime areas, the entire hillside across the valley from Miao Liang is terraced but it is no longer used. It is overgrown now but terraces can be clearly seen in winter (when the leaves have fallen).

So why were these terraces built?

Dazhai commune in Xiyang County of Shanxi Province was originally a poor mountain village. The villagers built terraces on the mountain slopes leading to a seven fold increase in grain production per mu. On February 10, 1964, the People’s Daily newspaper published by the Xinhua News Agency published “Dazhai’s Road”. This was an editorial praising the “good example and the building of revolutionary spirit”. The newspaper called on people to learn from the Dazhai people’s revolutionary spirit, especially in the agricultural front. With the rise of the National Rural “Da” campaign, Dazhai became a shining example of China’s agricultural front. Consequently volunteers and local farmers were encouraged to work on these terraces. Although some of these terraces have been abandoned now because they did not prove agriculturally useful they serve a second and perhaps unintended purpose. Terraced land is much less susceptible to soil erosion, so they still protect the Miyun Reservoir from siltation even though they are not used for farming.

The Japanese Invasion

Following the invasion of Manchuria by Japanese forces in 1931, fighting between the Republic of China (Kuomintang) forces and Japan extended southwards until final positions were taken up by Chinese forces on the Great Wall itself. The Chinese army fought valiantly against a better equipped enemy 

but the end was inevitable. The Tanggu Truce was signed between Japan and China on the 31st May 1933. 

The terms of this truce were that a 100 km demilitarised zone be established south of the Great Wall. As you can see from the map on the previous page, the area included Miao Liang. The demilitarised zone could be patrolled by Japanese land patrols and planes but not by Chinese forces. A puppet police force was established to keep order but Japanese forces could really do whatever they wanted.

Interviews with residents of Zhang Jia Feng tell the following story;

During the Sino-Japanese war of 1933 the Japanese army invaded China, and Japanese soldiers came into the Miyun area. They burned many houses and killed many people.

Word quickly spread along the Bai He valley of the actions of the invading Japanese soldiers, and the families of the Miao Liang village fled to the mountains. They set up their homes in caves, seeking refuge from the Japanese Army, who by now had destroyed the farmer’s village at Miao Liang.

The families that could not find caves gathered wood and long grass, and used this to build shelters to live in.

During this time, survival was the most important thing.

During autumn they would collect dry tree leaves, soak and then boil these for food. As spring and summer came, they would eat the new tree leaves, wild herbs and fruits.

Each of the 4 families of the Miao Liang village had 6 or 7 members living together in these caves or shelters during the Japanese invasion. Each family had only one or two items of clothing and therefore most of their time was spent without clothes, however when they slept they would gather together under the small quilts that they had brought with them when they left their homes at Miao Liang. 

Those 16 years saw a lot of changes in China. The situation in 1933 was bad but it was going to get worse. 

Fighting broke out again, southwest of Beijing, between Japanese forces and the army of the Republic of China on the 7th July 1937. The incident occurred at the Lougou Bridge (it’s often called Marco Polo Bridge in English). Japanese provocation and a Japanense soldier getting lost (but believed to have been captured) resulted in full scale fighting. This incident led directly to The Second Sino-Japanese War. The fighting continued and after Japan attacked America (Pearl Harbour), this conflict became a part of World War 2. Finally Japan surrendered, World War 2 had finished, but the smouldering rivalry between the K Mr. Mark McGarigal

uomitang and the Chinese Communist Party soon led into the Chinese Civil War. 

The last fighting near Miao Liang was the Pinjin Campaign fought in the winter of 1948-1949. The Nationalists and the Peoples Liberation Army fought for control of Beijing and Tianjin. November and December saw fighting around Miyun. 

Although it wasn’t until October 1st 1949 that Mao Zedong proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China in it’s capital, Beijing, the fighting here was finally over and the people of the Bai He Valley 

could begin normal life again.

Interviews with Zhang Jia Feng residents tell us this;

After the Chinese Liberation in 1949, the four families returned to Miao Liang. These families reestablished their farming practices, and began to burn trees to make charcoal that they would trade for cotton fabric, and other needs in the town of Miyun.

These families also farmed silkworms on the mulberry trees around the Miao Liang area; they would trade the cocoons of the silkworms for fabric in Miyun. (There are still a number of these trees around the Miao Liang site today.) They would then return with the white cotton and dye this fabric to black and blue to make the clothes for themselves.

At the Chinese New Year festival the families would attend a performance by a team from the Peking Opera. This team would travel 

from Miyun to the village of Shang Zhang Jia Fen, and the families of Miao Liang would cross the river to see the show.

Living at Miao Liang became very inconvenient because of having to cross the river, especially during the rainy season when the river was in flood, or in winter when it was very cold. The four families began to move to the village of Zhang Jia Fen. The last family that moved out of Miao Liang was in 1972. Two of the four families did not have any children; their family line is finished. The remaining two families are still in the village of Zhang Jia Fen.

Shui Quan Yu - The abandoned village

The following story is a summary of interviews with residents of Zhang Jia Feng.

More than 150 years ago three brothers and their families arrived at a place suitable for farming, which they named ‘Shui Quan Yu’. They 

had come from the Shanxi province. They cleared all of the established forest, to create a small farm. They chose to settle here because they thought the soil was perfect for farming and the scenery was beautiful. 

These three families farmed crops, which included sorghum (a cereal), corn, chestnut and soybeans. They built simple thatched roof huts, the walls were made of wood and mud clay, the roofs was grass. 

The families would dig a hole and burn the trees that had been cleared from the forest, covering the hole with soil to prevent the fire burning fully. This would create charcoal, which they could trade in the town of Miyun. The journey to transport the charcoal, although only 20 kilometres, would take three days, as there was no road between the village and Miyun, just a small path. 

The families would transport the charcoal with mule, horse and donkey while walking along side these animals. Sometimes when there were no animals the families would carry the load themselves. In Miyun the families would not make money from the coal, instead they would exchange this coal for oil and salt for cooking and fabric to make clothes. 

At its biggest the village had 30 houses. Each house had at least 6 or 7 people living in it.

In 1933 there was a battle between the soldiers from the invading Japanese Army and the Chinese Army in this area around the village of ‘Shui Quan Yu’. During this battle the Japanese soldiers were killing any Chinese, even people who were not soldiers. This of course threatened the village. People from the village of ‘Shui Quan Yu’ went to the top of the mountain to take turns standing guard, looking out for the Japanese Army. When these guards saw the Japanese soldiers approaching they sent word to the village for everyone to run away and hide in the mountains. A Japanese warplane dropped a firebomb into the village buildings, because they thought it was a base for the Chinese Army. Four people from the village of ‘Shui Quan Yu’ died because of this bomb. The families from the village could not survive in 

the mountains for a long time, so they returned to the village as soon as the Japanese Army was gone.

After this, peace returned to the village and there were around 150 people living there. In 1965 the first roads were built into this area by the government, but these were made of sand and rock, not tar seal like today. The roads were in about the same place that they are today, but the only path to the village was the one that still leads to the river.

In 1969 a large flood swept through the village and although no one was killed, many of the animals were washed away down the mountain. The families whose homes were on the low ground had water through their houses but those on the higher ground were unaffected by the flood. This large rain also dislodged a very big rock that tumbled down the mountain and into one family’s house, the house was still standing but the family was very scared. You can still see this rock lying where it fell today. Fortunately no one was killed.

This family decided to move out of the village. They moved to the village down by the river, that we now call ‘Xia Zhang Jia Fen’. Following this family moving out, other families began to find that life in the valley was no longer convenient.

One by one, for different reasons, the families moved away from ‘Shui Quan Yu’. Many of them joined the family by the river forming the village of ‘Xia Zhang Jia Fen’.

Most of the families of the original 3 brothers’ who arrived more than 150 years ago from Shanxi province, still live in the village of ‘Xia Zhang Jia Fen’. The elders in the families of ‘Xia Zhang Jia Fen’ are still farming, while the young people move toward the cities looking for better paying jobs, to help support their families. Other families opened restaurants, hotels and hostels in this area; one of these is the family that owns the Climbing Hostel and cooks the food we eat at Miao Liang.

Further back in time....

The first written records of what was then known as Yuyang County were tax records dating from 227 BC. Records of taxes paid to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a united China (and of terracotta army fame), have been found. This timing is interesting as was the end of the Warring Sates Period and before the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, which officially begins in 221BC.

Many defensive walls have been built on the strategically important northern borders of China. The Qin Dynasty were the first to build extensive walls. Not much survives of these walls because they were pretty rough affairs made from local materials like mud and uncut stone.

The “Great Wall” as we know it was built during the Ming Dynasty 1368 - 1644 AD. This was cut stone and brick, a much longer lasting construction method.

Archeological sites, including walled villages, provide evidence of human settlement as far back as 6000 BC.