2 May, Yibin to Chengdu & between Chengdu and Guilin
Train K1274 0556-1345 & Train K652 1541-1752

There was a quicker way to get to Guilin from Yibin, but there were no beds to be had on the train despite us booking our tickets several days in advance. So ... we settled for a slow train back to Chengdu, took the Metro from the north train station to the east, and there boarded a soft-sleeper for the 25-hour journey to Guilin in Guangxi province. Unlike hard-sleeper compartments, soft-sleeper compartments contain four beds not six, and doors that close, offering a greater degree of privacy and comfort. One other passenger entered our compartment at Chengdu, but he de-boarded at midnight and for the remainder of the trip we had the compartment entirely to ourselves.  

Did you know that during China’s Cultural Revolution over 4900 out of around 6800 temples, shrines and cultural heritage sites were destroyed by the Red Guards?

“The Chinese Cultural Revolution ... was launched in August 1966 by the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Ze Dong during his last decade in power (1966-1976).

... Mao Ze Dong and his wife Jiang Qing started to criticize intellectualism. In 1964, Mao drew up a list of 39 artists, writers, and scholars and called them “reactionary bourgeois authorities”. In particular, Mao condemned a play called “Dramas of the Ming Mandarin” written by Wu Han. It was a story about a man who remonstrated with the emperor on behalf of the suffering ordinary people, at the risk of his own life. Consequently he was dismissed and exiled. Mao and Jiang Qing suspected that the Ming Mandarin was being used to represent Marshal Peng Dehuai, the former defense minister who in 1959 had spoken out against Mao’s disastrous policies, which had caused the famine.

Mao not only wanted to secure Maoism, a form of communism he created, as the country’s dominant ideology but wanted to eliminate any political opposition.

Mao initially pursued his goals through a massive mobilization of the country’s youths. They were organized into groups called the Red Guards.

He shut down China’s schools and during the following months, he encouraged the Red Guards to attack all traditional values and test the Chinese Communist Party authorities by publicly criticizing them.

Mao put Jiang Qing (Mao’s third wife) and three of her close associates ... in charge of China’s cultural apparatus: Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan, and Zhang Chungqiao. Wang, Yao, and Zhang were party leaders in Shanghai, who had played leading roles in securing Shanghai for Mao during the Revolution.

After Mao’s death, all four were arrested and removed from their positions. They were blamed for the events of the Cultural Revolution.

Red Guards traveled throughout China going to schools, universities, and institutions spreading the teachings of Mao with posters and speeches. They were violent and oppressive to those who went against the teachings of Mao and those who criticized him... The role of Red Guard was mainly to attack “the four olds” of society: old ideas, cultures, manners, and customs. Mao met a million Red Guards formally in Tiananmen Square on August 18, 1966. The Red Guard, carrying portraits of Mao, marched through the streets and destroyed all the symbols, which they thought were “feudal, capitalist, and radical”. They named and renamed street signs & buildings. They abused intellectuals (called “anti-revolutionaries”) and ransacked their homes.  The Red Guards also ransacked museums, destroyed old books and works of art. Many famous building like temples and shrines and heritages was destroyed (4,922 out of a total 6,843 were destroyed) ... The Revolution was especially devastating for minority cultures in China. This supposedly came from Jiang Qing’s personal animosity and contempt towards ethnic minorities.

For ten years, the Revolution caused the near collapse of China’s economy.

In 1981, the Communist Party of China officially repudiated the Cultural Revolution with the responsibility and blame put on Mao Ze Dong. According to a Central Committee resolution adopted on June 27, 1981, the Cultural Revolution was carried out “under the mistaken leadership of Mao Ze Dong, who was used by the counter-revolutionaries Lin Bao and Jiang Qing, and brought serious disaster and turmoil to the Party and the Chinese people.” (iws.punahou.edu)