The only settlement of any size in far northeastern Guizhou,
TONGREN is a small, lightly industrial city only a stone's throw from the Hunanese border. It was formerly known simply as a source of mercury, but in 1981 a nature reserve was formalized at nearby
Fanjing Shan , a Buddhist mountain long recognized for the extraordinary diversity of its plants and wildlife, and there's been a steady flow of Chinese visitors since access improved in the early 1990s. You need to be fit, but Fanjing Shan's scenery is magnificent and there's always the chance of seeing
jinsi hou, golden monkeys , one of China's prettiest endangered species.
Tongren is curiously isolated, and it's a six-hour operation to travel here by bus from Zhenyuan, involving a change of vehicles at Sanhui . Alternatively, the Guiyang-Changsha rail line comes as close as Yuping , 70km south, from where there are plenty of minibuses.
The Town
Situated on the south bank of the
Jin River , the centre of Tongren is small and shambolic. Walk west along the river and you'll soon pass a small hill with a stone staircase leading to what might well be China's only official
Nuo temple . Nuo is an ancient animistic religion, now watered down by Buddhist and Taoist influences but retaining something of its original form in open-air
theatre , still held at festivals in villages around Tongren. Performing stylized fights to rhythmic drumming, dancers don grotesquely shaped
masks , each of which is individually named and has a spirit that the wearer is constantly in danger of being overwhelmed by, unless it is propitiated with a sprinkle of chicken's blood. The number of masks owned by a troupe increases their reputation. The temple has more than a hundred arranged in two halls, along with local batiks, a very tacky "Nuo" shrine, and other trappings of the religion.
Tongren's two adjacent bus stations are north of the river at the western end of Jinjiang Lu . Local transport, including minibuses to Fanjing Shan, tends to use the farther depot, set at the edge of town on a roundabout, while long-distance buses pull up 200m east of here. Both are near bridges across to the town centre where a five-minute wander around will uncover a department store , a bookshop with map vendors outside, and a Bank of China easily made nervous by travellers' cheques. There's a range of accommodation , but the best deal is at the Jinlong Dajiudian (¥30-75) near the bank, which can provide good meals . The westerly bus depot is also surrounded by cheap canteens and market stalls. Tongren's CITS is in the Jinjiang Binguan, an otherwise undistinguished hotel north of the river on Jinjiang Lu, 150m or so east of the long-distance bus station.
After conquering Fanjing Shan, the truly heroic continue east across the border to Zhangjiajie in Hunan. To do this, take the morning bus from Tongren to Jishou , from where you can catch a train on to Zhangjiajie town. Door-to-door it takes about eleven hours, with splendid views back from the hills into Guizhou and some interesting houses with upswept "swallow-tail" eaves along the way.
