good morning good morning good morning! We are in longzhou right now.
Longzhou: it's a county that belongs...I think it belongs
to nanning or another city around here not sure it's a
small town not a lot going on here um they got a river
and a little tower so what we're going to do today
we're walking over to where an old french consulate used to be.
Because, you know how close we are to Vietnam, and
there's some history there i'm not going to go into...but yeah, the French
apparently had a had an old embassy here in this little town so we're going
to go check that out and after that we're going to go see a military
fortification that is kind of like it's basically abandoned
up on a up on a hill...uh, maybe...
10 or 15 kilometers outside of town. Something like that.
so we're going to see those two things and after that
i'm not sure exactly where we're headed so i think this is the like last
full day because tomorrow we're going to start making our way back
to Panzhou and then i'm going to head back to Chengdu
on Monday. The french actually did establish
their own consulate here so there's one of the buildings, there's another
building back there. American moped sitting in front right
there , apparently. And also it seems like this is a
"red tourism site." This is one that's been
sanctioned by the Party or
this or that. Yeah it's, it's cool! I did not expect, you know, of all the places to put a french consulate i would not have
expected here because this town does not have a lot going on. There's not
a lot to really see here. And just imagine
back in the day when this was actually put up...like...
what did this place even look like? So, yeah - let's go take a look around
see let's see what's happening! Oh yeah, here we go - okay 1896.
that's when this was put up here hmm "they had been sent 28" (Chinglish)
consuls, vice consuls --- all the way to 1949.
all right ooh yeah it talks a little bit about
revolutions and stuff like that. It's got a QR code if you want to scan
that and, I guess, follow their Wechat, so yeah - there you go! Got a little
marking or a little map of the area. "I suppose
kind of the initial feeling of walking around this place is just
sadness. When you go through it, you can see
mold and moss growing over everything.
The wood on the doors is buckling and dusty, and it just is a shadow of what it once was.
Because this was a consulate it was
and important place where important matters were taken care of
but it's just been left to sit there and it's been forgotten.
Nobody knows about this place, but once you walk up the stairs and into
the buildings themselves, it's a little bit of a different story.
Hey, this one's open! All right! So, this is the history of Chinese-French
relations. You can see right here. It's amazing they've
got English here instead of vVetnamese or something.
I don't imagine a lot of foreigners are coming here.
got a timeline
i guess this is what it looked like before they were starting to take care of it.
Looks about the same, actually. A few less...few less trees growing on it.
There you go! Oh yeah, these dudes look French.
For sure - no one else could pull off that mustache.
See, actually this guy - mustache man - Consul Andy as he's referred to here.
He's the one who actually
set up this consulate here in 1849. And all kinds of pictures of him
Yep - Qing dynasty, typical qing dynasty haircut - the queue, yeah.
wow, look at this! Look at that one! Oh man, do not wear that down here, man.
it's hot! And here they've got more photos of the consulate
itself of course. They got some of the old money here, or i guess, photos of the
old, probably, yeah - definitely photos of the old money
and some photos of the trade and some other buildings
around town. They've also got records. They've got customs records of the
boats that would come in on the river right here and like how
much how many you know how much was going in and out
and uh all this kind of stuff a list of the
people who worked here. A few other things.
There also - there's a couple of churches here
this one, and then there's this one right here. I'm not sure what this one....
Something about education...like a school, I guess.
All right! Yeah, a lot of the buildings around here
look kind of like this. I've already mentioned that in these videos, I think
Yeah, it's cool - you can definitely see
the influence. It's still around town - still hanging around town.
Fortifications
Oh, the Xiao Liancheng 小连城. This is where we're going just after this. We're headed right there
and i guess that's what it used to look like.
Coming in from the other building over there,
we've got this right here, and this is actually in French,
so that's that's more expected than than English or any other language, but
this is an art museum, apparently. Yeah we got some
some art here. All right, hold on a second. Let me take some time
to read through this.
yeah looking at this art this is very very
typical of chinese paintings. These are very typical chinese
paintings of the countryside and
and animals, maybe a kid or two. Yeah, this is the kind of stuff you'll
see you'll see this in a lot of places actually.
I'm gonna get in here and see what's going on. Ah, here's one --
of the consulate right here! That reminds me of some paintings
I've seen in New Orleans! Oh, there you go! Let's flip around
It's weird to be standing in a building
that looks like this in china. You don't see a lot of these
all right here's a few more! There's a few more.
These are - they're good! Thanks for the fan
It IS hot in here...I don't know how much it's helping
but it is appreciated. It is appreciated. "The word that comes to mind and seems
most appropriate is "surreal." It's very surreal because
you're surrounded by all this French-looking stuff and
you're in these very carefully designed and really well-designed
exhibition halls and seeing these paintings and
then you just walk around the corner and kind of out the door and then you see a
factory and then you remember, "Oh yeah!"
"I'm in the tropics. I'm in China. I'm right next to Vietnam," and then all
these weird things kind of come together and it's just very surreal
and you think back: "Wow, what must it have been like
to have been one of the people stationed here
way back in the day. This place is remote NOW. It's considered remote now, so I
can't imagine what it must have been like for
the people back then. It was really cool, though --
to be able to go around this site and just see a forgotten little
piece of history and to be there to record it. And now I'm
sharing it with you, so -- thank you all for watching and
I'll see you all next time