Travel Stories
The Asian Continent
To travel around the world really does not prepare you with the life of the Asian countries that it is India, stopover of considerable travellers in search of themselves, Japan, cradle of the sacred trees, or China which reveals its secrets only gradually and where the Love has surprised me!
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Click on the pictures, good adventures!
China
China contain considerable sacred places, and certain provinces indexed their older trees as it is the case for Yunnan. Very often the worthiest trees are protected, cherished in the old temples, but it arrives some exceptions.
The goal of my expedition was on the one hand of going at the fine bottom of Xishuangbanna, to discover the oldest wild tea tree (Camellia sinensis) of which oldest would be thousand seven hundred years old approximately. I also wished to know better the Chinese minorities such as Aini and Dai.
Other part, I wished to photograph ancestral Metasequoias glyptostroboides in the area of Hubei, the very old Ginkgo biloba of the province of Shandong and the thousand-year-old Wisteria of the Forbidden City of Beijing. A length and surprising travel was going to await me...
It is difficult to make choices. Why only these four species compared with the botanical richness of China; what to publish an exclusive book on the venerable trees of China, why not a French-Chinese encyclopaedia!
Why not a French-English-Chinese book of the Asian sacred trees
Then after having finally left the African continent after many misadventures, I arrived at HongKong to take the train trought Gangzhou to Kunming (Yunnan); more than twenty four hours of travels. In this train, considering that I had much trouble to speak and understand the Chinese, I was helped by Gao Yan, which had sat near to me. We became friendly and later on, she invited me in her birthplace, Yuan Jiang (Yunnan).
In Kunming, I was helped by Warren and Crystal which have the Sunnyside-Up Restaurant. Warren is one of my first Chinese private donors. Helped by his/her friends journalists, an article was published in the local newspaper. Their cook prepare very good barbecue and cakes. I suggest to go there for your parties and birthday. Following this one, a Chinese young person (Xuemei Zhang) also wished to help.
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Sun Weibang, Botanist of the Institute of Botany in Kunming decided to finance my plane ticket to go in Xishuangbanna.
But first of all, I went to meet Gao Yan, in Yuan Jiang. She had prepared me a superb stay. Surrounded by three of her friends, they drove me around in the mountainous heights of Yuan Jiang. We discovered there the immense rice plantations laid out in terrace on the foothills of the large valleys. We spoke and eaten with local people and I made beautiful images of the children as well as the old people of the villages. I remember an old tree contemplating all the valley of the rice plantations, receiving all the energy of the sunset and sunrise.
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The Children have the Future of the Earth in their Heart and Hands
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It is unimaginable to see all these Chinese cultivating rice with wisdom and dexterity so that we have these small grains of rice every day in our plates, and that since millenia.
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The Chinese villagers often have houses into bad state. However they deserve to be restored and others are also worthy to be preserved like the village of Lijiang, classified with the World Heritage. As much Chinese, Gao Yan has a good heart and she is quite devoted. She was the first Chinese woman who helped me. Thank you Vicky.
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I will wish to give an homage to the women of China because it is especially them who helped me during my travels in China.
I especially wish to dedicate these last pages and this Chinese crossing to Sara, an excellent trekking guide living in Jinghong, in Xishuangbanna. She became the one I love, undoubtedly my soul mate until I waited since so long time. Nature offered her to me.
Concerning her city, Jinghong, it is the door of entry to go tando see the old wild tea tree (Camellia sinensis) and the various ancestral plantations, but also to meet the various minorities which populate the province of Yunnan, like Dai and Aini which live in the temperate tropical forest.
The wild Tea Tree (Camellia sinensis) of Bada, Menghai county,Yunnan:
First of all at the time of my arrival in
Jinghong, I was welcomed by Geraint, a local guide and together we
went in the very small village of Bada, where lives an Aini
minority, and where grows for thousand seven hundred years the oldest wild tea
tree (Camellia sinensis). During the four
hours of way in the car, we could see the various plantations of teas but also of trees
from where the latex is collected.
When we arrived at Bada, I admired all these splendid wooden houses lost deeply in the valleys of Xishuangbanna and Mekong River, comparable with the chalets of our European's mountains but a little more simple. It is a little paradise, people are cordial, and silence is imperturbable there.
We went in the house from Huan Yong Ming or Xi You, a young person of the village. He cooked us a tasty traditional delicacy. The interior of his house is quite ventilated and extremely pleasant. A partition separates the first floor, and on each side are fires. Then he accompanied us by foot to this Venerable tea tree. We walked in the forest during a good hour, under a beating and refreshing rain, the feet in the mud.
And we saw this tea tree which is surrounded
by a luxuriante vegetation with a variety of bamboos that people of the village eat.
Compared with the other tea tree cultivated downwards, which 
have a trunk cut very low,
that of Bada measures more than 20 meters in height and more than one meter in diameter.
Certain journalists claim that in the area of Lincang, a tea tree would be two thousand five
hundred years old, but on a book which inventory the oldest trees of Yunnan,
it is mentioned to have only eight hundred years old. Then, before going
to photograph it, I wished more information, so I met the botanists of the 
Institute of
Botany of Kunming. They assure me that the local journalists and guides had been mistaken
and that it could not be two thousand five hundred years old! It is necessary to be very
attentive when we give an age to a tree.
History of the "Puerh's Tea" of Yunnan:
China is the fief of the Tea.
It has been the first country to use the tea like drink and that for already four thousand years. During the Dynasty Han (206 BC - 8 AD), the tea was already marketed, and during the Tang Dynasty, the tea was at the agenda.
The experts concluded that Xishuangbanna and Simao in the basin of the Lancang river, in Yunnan, are the cradles of the tea trees. Those which grow in the "Ancient Six Tea Mountains" are named " Puerh's Tea ", and are popular already since hundreds of years.
The history of the " Puerh's tea" can go back until the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), based on folk tales which tell that the seeds of this tea had been left by Zhuge Liang, Marquis of Wu and Chief Minister of the Shu's State ; the culture and the use of the " Puerh's tea " started at the latest time from the Three Kingdoms, more than thousand seven hundred years before. At the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the " Puerh's tea " became a good means of exchange between people. During the Ming Dynasty, this Tea became a mark " labellized " through all the country. From the beginning to the half of the Qing's period, the " Puerh's tea " arrived at its zenith.
Going from India, Burma, Ceylon, Siam, Cambodia, Vietnam, and other countries of the South-east and South of Asia came in Xishuangbanna for the Teas's market. Annually, caravans of more than fifty thousand horses and mules came and crossed mountains and rivers, with the sounds of the bells.
It is recognized that the " Puerh's tea " has significant medicinal properties. It looks after certain diseases and virus. The " Puerh's tea ", used as traditional drink, has particular curative properties. It produces saliva, calms thirst and refreshed the heart and the ideas. The extract of " Puerh's tea " can stop various diseases.
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The destiny is unforeseeable, surprising, and if we wish better to know it, it is a waste of time and effort because every day we create it, at each step that we take, at each choice that we decide, at each way of life that we use. It is better to let Nature create our destiny. But I don't tell that we mustn't do anything.
On my return to Jinghong, Geraint showed me " Mémé Café ", to hav a dinner there. It is a pleasant place and Orchyd the
owner is extremely welcoming. The following day, after many reflexions, I went back there
for the lunch. But which force pushed me to go there? And why? It is at this time there,
that my life was going to change.
In
this Coffee was sat Sara. She has herself " Forest Café ", in Jinghong. She (and her employees) will cook with
passion a good meal, and good fruit salads. She adores to play ping- pong. We discussed
lengthily and she said to me that she organized trekking excursions to discover the
various minorities Dai and Aini and their villages without to forget the nature.
I wished more anything to do a trek with Sara. Other guides propose trekkings, but she would be the only woman guides of Trekking with Jinghong. Moreover I could appreciate how she loves Nature. An internal and intense force pushed us to better knowing us, and the following day, Sara and me were going to make this trek. "Departure at eight o'clock in the morning, after a good breakfast." said Sara. Five hours of walk awaited us and many surprises.
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These first days, beginning on July 17 2002, was going to become unforgettable. We initially went to make a turn at the local market of Jinghong. Then we continued in autorixo towards the first villages, out of the great circulation.
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Whereas they are the men who take the first step, this time I was surprised. After a few hours of walk, Sara taken my hand in her hand. I would never forget her gesture. It was a magic, intense, fabulous moment. Hand in the hand, we walked hours and hours on the muddy trails, at the edge of the Mekong river. After a short stop to eat, a storm occurred from the valley. Its breaking rain did not prevent us from continuing our walk. We were completely wet, even my photographic material. I do not know many women like Sara, who are so courageous and who likes so much her passion and Nature. She showed me splendid butterflies made up of myriades of colors, insects which flying away reveal a carmine red under their wings, and together we contemplated the tiny flowers with their subtle scents. Ah! That Nature is splendid. Therefore Sara made bubbles into blowing in the stem of a plant. This one undoubtedly has saponin. We became again children, rediscovering Nature in all her beauty. Both, we have many common points, which we know to share.
After this strong storm, surrounded by lightnings and the thunder, we rested a short moment in a Dai's house. The Lady of the house offered us some tea and a pineapple, then we continued our excursion towards the preferred Dai village of Sara, " Padan ". This village is approximately six hundred years old, but most of the houses have less than twenty years.
We remained three days in a Dai's house. These houses are entirely built with wood of various species. The ground floor is reserved for cereals, food and animals, and the first floor has a large common room and bedrooms. The shower, made with bamboos, is on the landing, and it is fabulous because we can contemplate the valley, the forest, and the village Dai. It is a place of dreams. The morning, the fog rises, the birds sing, and people are very smiling, jovial. One of my dreams would be of living in a house like those, undoubtedly with a little more comfort and less mosquitos... The trees are cut nearly one yearbefore, then they prepare the ground. Then all together they build the house. No nail are used! They use the indigenous trees, and one of their characteristic, it is against mosquitos. The roofs are high and ventilated. They also are made in wood shingles.
During these few first days, Sara and me we learn to know us better. I told her my projects, my travels of which that to cross China to go to the meet the oldest Metasequoias glyptostroboides of the province of Hubei, as well as the oldest Ginkgo biloba of the province of Shandong.
She decided to follow me in my pelegrinations and adventures. She became my private translator, my guide and especially my soul mate How could I have crossed China without her assistance?
During all these years, I travelled so much around the world to publish my splendid book and photographic travel stories, about the research of the old trees, undoubtedly to find myself too , know my capacities, and especially to discover my soul mate with whom I would wish all to share. Sara, is the women that I love so much, and for all my life. Why now, at the end of the travel, why Yunnan? Sara is the most beautiful reward which Nature offered to me after all my misadventures. To have met her in Xishuangbanna, a new door opened to me towards happiness, she gives me more hope and of energy. She offered her heart to me, she was entirely devoted to help me in China. We travelled from Kunming to Beijing while passing by the province of Hubei and Shandong. What a tour! What would I have make without her?
Metasequoia glyptostroboides of Modaoxi, Lichuan County, Province of Hubei:
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First of all we took the train until Chongqing then the boat for a navigation on the yellow river " Yantze ". In Wanxian, we travelled by the local bus to go in the cradle of the oldest Metasequoia glyptotroboides of the world, at the village of Modaoxi. It is here that the majority of the botanical discoveries were undertaken between 1946 and 1948.
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This Metasequoia is only thousand years old witness of what were the forests of Metasequoias. It almost grows alone, surrounded by some other young Metasequoias undoubtedly planted by the Chinese and American botanists. There is still an old traditional farm, but more and more of modern concrete buildings disfigure the valley. The river which was slightly drained, contributes to the wellbeing of this venerable tree.
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We slept in this village for 10 RMB(Yuan), and we got
information about the locality " Sui-Sa-Pa " (Plantation of water fir trees).
We were just near, but it is as if people of the village did not know this
valley. In fact, without it and the river and his rice plantations, nobody would live
here. We had just a dialect trouble. We could see some young Metasequoias
glyptostroboides, overhanging the rice plantations and the fields of
sunflowers and corn. Some beautiful traditional old houses decorated the landscape.
Moreover, people are welcoming and it is a relaxing place.
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History on Metasequoia glyptostroboides and " Sui-Sa-Pa "
The vegetation of the Metasequoia area is a
living sample of a comparatively well-preserved ancient flora. As mentioned above, all the
genera of gymnosperms that occur naturally in the area have fossil records in the Tertiary
epochs, and some extend back into the Mesozoic era. Paleobotanical discoveries indicate, moreover, that many of the lineages of the
angiosperms represented in the metasequoia flora can also be traced back to the Tertiary. For years, the scientists study the species that have survived for
millions of years, and which are still alive in different parts of the Earth.
From the time that two botanists "Hu and Cheng" sent
some seeds of this species to different arboretums around the world between 1946 to 1948, different expeditions went to research the tree: the Metasequoia
glyptostroboides.
These expeditions proved that the Metasequoia glyptostroboides grows naturally in the Hupeh and Szechwan Province, and to the south of West Hunan.
During the autumn of 1947, CT.Hwa discovered mature trees in the place of "Shui-sa-pa". They grow between 1000 to 1100 meters high.
Shui-sa-pa,
as mentioned above, is at an elevation of 1050 meters, in a flat-floored valley or basin
in a mountainous plateau or tableland region located about 60 km. southeast of the Yangtze
River in the Li-chuan District, southwestern Hupeh Province (lat. 30'10' N., long.
108'35' E.).
The Chi-yao Mountains (Permian limestone) attain an altitude of 1500 meters and surround the basin at an oblique angle on the northwest; mountains of another range, the Fu-pao-shan (Jurassic sandstone) reach about 1400 meters and surround the basin on the east.
Since 1948, explorers have discovered that the flora of the Metasequoia glyptostroboides had a rich ecosystem.
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After these two days in Modaoxi, we travelled by the local bus to turn over to Wanxian and continued our cruise in boat until Ytchang where a new French friend, Bertrand, awaited us with his friends to go to the Dam of the Three Gorge.
Phenomenal and titanic construction, this Dam is built mainly manually by the Chinese. It is also a gigantic ecological disaster. We could save the old trees of the cities and villages which will be absorbed by water. When we were over there, it made a canicular heat. I'm feel sorry for the Chinese workmen. A small shop is there to refresh. We found excellent water melons there...
I manage to salvage a " marble carrot ", coming from 40 meters under grounds. Imagine its value when the water of the Dam will flood all these valleys.
After these small adventures, we continued our road while passing by the mountains. Which superb landscapes and of good people. The houses have roofs made with flat stone (shiste) a little as in the Alps's mountains. The walls are made with clays and reinforcements with wood. We discussed with peasants who, with our great surprise raise silk's worms.
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At the time of our cruise on Yangtze, I could observe how certain Chinese could pollute their most famous river. It is unbearable. They do not hesitate to trough all packing of foods whereas dustbins are placed for this purpose on the baot. It is overwhelming to see all these floating boxes on the sacred river of Yantze! It would be time that a true awakening wakes up for the environment in China like everywhere in the world, and even in France. We also need that Nature in China must be better preserve such as the tropical forests of Xishuangbanna, which decrease with the profit of the companies of latex and teas as well as other projects of dams on Mekong river.
Ginkgo biloba of the Dinglin Temple , Fulaishan, Juxian:
Sara and me continued our tour in the crammed train until Tsintao, to go to discovered the oldest Ginkgo biloba, which would be old of more than three thousand years, as to see the friend of Sara who has a department store of pearl. While circulating in the bus, the landscape is hardly different: flat and very few trees. Often cultures as far as the eyes can see. Since Tsintao, we need approximately 3h30 to arrive at the town of Juxian. We travelled by a motor bike-taxi, and we arrived at the Temple of Dinglin. This place becomes increasingly famous, and it is in its center that lives since more than three thousand years, the oldest female Ginkgo biloba of the world. After all these years it is still fertile! It measures approximately sixteen meters of turn. Concrete was injected at certain places of the trunk and the branches.
Sara and me were allowed inside this Buddhist temple, but we have to follow the strict rules like sleeping separetly. It was rocambolesque(incredible). Whereas the tourists had left and the magic of the evening woke up, I benefitted from it to photograph this venerable Ginkgo using a flashlight. Mysterious result! Curiously this Ginkgo has the two shapes of leaves. The basal leaves are indented whereas on the branches, the leaves have well the aspect of a fan.
For which reason? Another Ginkgo grows in the northern temple but it is much younger. When we climb at the top of the pagoda to observe a sight with 360 degrees, we can wonder how this old tree could live during all these thousand years. We do not see other trees in the neighbourhoods. How much of these Ginkgos existed in this province? And how many old trees were cut down for the benefits of agriculture? The temple is one of the oldest, and UNESCO already came to visit it. This venerable tree owes its life to the Buddhists, he is the vegetal senior of the Province of Shandong and undoubtedly of all China. He could be the efigie of this gigantic country which is China, and being classified as World Heritage.
History of the Ginkgo biloba :
Some Ginkgos biloba have the merit to be photographed just near Shangdong, Chengdu and in the Hunnan.
A gymnosperm group composed of the Ginkgoaceae was already on the earth 270 millions years ago, during the Permian period. 213 millions years ago, dinosaurs knew this species very well. The leaves and the vegetative organs fossils proved that two species of Ginkgo existed. 144 millions years ago, 11 species existed around the world as well as in Europe, Asia and North America.
After the geological cataclysms, only one species survived, the Ginkgo adiantoides. This was 65 millions years ago, during the Tertiary era.
The dinosaurs and other reptiles' extinction and also the disappearance of great seeds' dispersers had probably influenced this decline, conformed to the fossils, which had been studied.
The Ginkgos had probably disappeared from North America 7 millions years ago, and from Europe 2,5 millions years ago.
The scientists believed that the Ginkgo had disappeared forever, but in 1691, Engelbert Kaempfer rediscovered this species in Japan.
The Ginkgos survived too in China and there, we can find them principally in the mountainous monasteries, in the Palace's and temple's gardens, where the Buddhists cultivated the tree for thousand years for its numerous qualities. Kaempfer imported them in Europe in the 18th century, and the first female plant was discovered near Geneva in 1814. A graft had been made on a male tree at the botanical garden of Montpellier, France. If we observe an actual leaf to a fossil's leaf from the Permian era, there is no difference, no evolution can be seen. Between the thousand species of plants existing today, the Gingko biloba could be one of the most precious links between the present and the past. Some of these trees could live more than 3000 years.
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To finish our long and exciting pelegrination, we travelled by the train to Beijing (Which polluted city!). We wished to finish in beauty before being left, while going to visit part of the Great Wall of China, but in a place less touristic. We thus went in the area of Hebei and decided to sleep under beautiful star on the roof of one of the old towers. These long walls are architectural chefs d'oeuvres, titanic work, worthy of Hercules.
Around the world so much of hands were solidarized to build these immense Walls, these castles, these cathedrals, these medieval houses. Will be us able, human that we are, to better mobilize us to preserve these heritages than they are vegetal kingdom or mineral. Still great steps are to be made!
On my way back in France,leaving my lovely Sara (I miss her so much), the medieval residence in which I lived since more than twenty years was sold, sold off. Whereas it was a unic monument, historical. Eight hundred years of age filled of stories. I would loved to make of it the head office of my International Foundation for Trees' lovers and Heritage' lovers. It only remains me to find generous donors to rise from his ashes an old field with a venerable forest in France, in British Columbia or also see in Yunnan...
Opinion to all the trees' lovers!
If you wish it, I can organize for you a travel to discovered China. Contact me at: arbres-venerables@orange.fr
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For all contacts and informations:
arbres-venerables@orange.fr – http://arbresvenerables.free.fr
Jérôme Hutin – route de Villac – 24120 – Terrasson – France.
Tel: (33) (0)619772808