China’s Forgotten Mist Town: A Mysterious World

In this episode, we travel along misty forest roads to a village called Yumu Zhai, and hidden in the mountains lies a place that may hold the last remaining secrets of the Tujia people. In this remote part of southwestern China, Yumu Zhai was once a haven for Tujia people centuries ago. The steep terrain making it a stronghold that was easy to defend, yet hard to attack. Isolated from the world, it lost a paradise. We'll find elaborate tombs and cliffside dwellings from the old days, and I needed to see what these tombs look like, and whether the homes concealed in the rocks are still accessible for us. Hey everyone, what I'm on right now is called Yumu Zhai, a place that's quite renowned for its exquisitely designed tombs from Qing dynasty, China's late imperial time. And this entire area is situated on top of a mountain, all surrounded by cliffs. Like right now I'm walking on the pathway, and on both sides are cliffs. And right ahead of us is the only entrance that we can walk in. It kind of like resembles a fortress gate, with some small openings above that were likely generations of Tujia people due to its abundant rainfall, fertile soil, and favorable farming conditions. Because of the vital location and steep terrain, this village became a hot spot for battles among rival Tusi. And nowadays, the most fascinating part of Yumu Zhai is its burial customs and elaborate tombs. They built their ancestors' tombs inside their house, a tradition that has now disappeared. Now we are inside this village, and on our way to find one of the biggest old tombs here in Yumu Zhai called Shuangshouju. It means a couple was buried there, and they said that this tomb is adorned with a lot of stone carvings, even including over 70 dragon designs there that were actually forbidden at that time, because only the emperor was allowed to use such a large number of dragon motifs. So through the right door of this tomb, here it is, an old house just right next to it, like a very short distance between the house and the tomb. But all the doors are closed. Seems like nobody lives here anymore. And here is a courtyard. Many corns hang here. You can feed it to your livestock after drying here. So looking back from this spot where I am, I can imagine that in the past, there was probably an estate that connected several houses or buildings from the right-hand side all the way to the left-hand side. And that tomb is in the middle, inside of this massive house. And people were probably living with their ancestors. In front of this big estate, there was a large field for farming and an open view stretching far into the distance. Aside from Shuangshouju built in 19th century, Yumu Zhai has other nine large tombs from the same period, mostly belonging to powerful families. Locals says these tombs were painted in red and took up spacious areas. But now most of them are left as only gravestones with the paint peeling away. Tujia people mostly live in mountainous regions with abundant water and challenging roads. Because they were far from the Central Plains dynasty, they were kept away from traditional cultural influences. The ones who live in this area had a chance to develop their own burial customs, living alongside the dead. They would design their own tombs while alive and place it inside their house, sometimes blending the gravestone into the living room wall. The most reasonable explanation for this is to protect the tomb from bandits and chaos. Now that winter is approaching, we can already feel the cold and humidity on the mountaintop. With the crops harvested, most villagers prefer staying indoors by the fire to keep warm. So the fields and forest outside and the path are almost empty. We continue down the trail going for signs of life in the cliffside dwellings, another tradition of Tujia people. I'm not so sure about whether this was someone's house before, but it looks like they're totally landslide, it's not safe enough to live here these days. So they moved out and all those houses are In the past, people farmed the lands on the hills in front of those caves and hundreds of households lived here. Besides serving as residence, caves were also used to house troops, produce gunpowder and firearms and mint coins.