XI’AN: “Cave houses” have become a top choice for tourists in Yan’an, a former revolutionary base of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
“In addition to their distinctive appearance, the facilities inside are modern. I can take a hot bath and have access to the internet,” said tourist Cheng Shangzhi.
A cave house, or “yaodong,” is a form of earth shelter dwelling common on the Loess Plateau in northern China. Taking advantage of thick loess layers and favorable landforms, the sturdy and durable yaodongs are mostly carved into hillsides. They do not take up valuable arable land and are warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Earthy caves were once considered a symbol of poverty. But in 2019, Yan’an put an end to absolute poverty. Although China is undergoing earth-shaking changes, cave dwellings — one of the earliest dwelling types of human beings — are still found all over the Loess Plateau.
American journalist Edgar Snow wrote about the unique dwellings when he first visited Yan’an in 1936. He penned the classic “Red Star Over China,” which gave a rare, detailed and brilliant account of the Chinese revolution in the 1930s.
Edgar depicted a Red Army university that “was probably the world’s only seat of ‘higher learning’ whose classrooms were bombproof caves, with chairs and desks of stone and brick, and blackboards and walls of limestone and clay.” In the process of the Chinese revolution, Yan’an cave dwellings played an important role. One night in 1935, exhausted Red Army soldiers arrived in Wuqi county of Yan’an. Mao Zedong spent the night in the cave of local villager Zhang Ruisheng. – Agencies
