About three thousand five hundred years ago, the ancient Kunmingnese used to make their living through preying on the snails, fish and shrimps to make a living, after a long period, the mounting shells of the escargots were formed into the shape of “shell cave”, readers would wonder about the origin of the name Guandu when they learn Mandarin in Kunming.
Well, this place used to be a ferry place during the Song Dynasty, all types of fishing-boats and officer ship passing by would dock and berth here for a while, or to take a sedan or ride a horse to enter into the Kunming city, thus it got the name “Guandu(official ferry) ”.
The Guandu ancient town enjoys a history of more than thousands of years, as you stand on the ground of the ancient town and look around, the architectures erecting everywhere seem to be ancient temples and pagodas, according to statistics, nearly all the most ancient and magnificent temples and pagodas all rallied here.
The King Kong Pagoda lying in the center of the city must be mentioned, its construction materials is unique and incomparable, it is said that during the Ming Dynasty, local people intended to built the King Kong Pagoda, but they did not have cements, people waiting to learn Chinese in China must be worried for them.
Well, Chinese teachers in qualified Mandarin program may tell you that the smart ancient Guandu people started to tamped the snail shells with the black daub to make compacted clay, then they fell off hundreds of pine stakes and used the glutinous rice and porridges into mixture with the red clay to lay the subcrust of the pagoda, upon which they piled up layers upon layers of bricks and succeeded in building the pagoda.
As can be seen by people expecting to study Chinese that the drill bases of the King Kong Pagoda is square, and people would be able to travel through the gate leading four directions at the tower bottom.
It is noteworthy for most of the foreign students who have free Chinese lessons that there are all together five small pagodas on the drill bases, with the King Kong pagoda at the center, which is sixteen meters high, and the four pagodas centering the King Kong Pagoda are of the same shape and style, within which four exquisitely-engraved statues of the men of great strength are placed.
The mottled shells seem to be telling the wisdoms of the people in the ancient Guandu town through their traces of chisels. To the west of the pagoda lies the Land-Temple which enjoys a history of more than one thousand two hundred years, foreign students from Chinese school in China must be curious about its style.
The Land-Temple is located on the platform bricked up with the bluestones, the ancient hall has overhanging eaves high up in the air, bendy arches, carved beams and pained rafters, the lively and exquisitely embossed and pierced front gate, which makes the hall magnificent and spacious, ancient and elegant, stately and serenely built. learning Mandarin Chinese will show you more about it.
Another thing worth mentioning for people when they come to learn Chinese language in China is the marvelous technology of “black copper run through with silver”, during the Qing Dynasty, this art craft used to be adored and vied in collecting by the local nobilities, landlords, as well as large families, and all of them were proud about the possessing of it.
Everyone coming to study in China would discover that it is the copper handicraft which had been enlisted as the intangible cultural heritage of China, people may be puzzled and interested about the technology, well, it really takes up a lot of time in making a single piece, which is probably a whole week, the purplish copper will turn black after rubbing with fingers for twenty minutes after the cooling down of the filling of the 900 degrees silver water into the copper frames.
After a day’s travelling, tourists who are ready to learn to speak Chinese in Kunming may try to have a try on the various types of local delicacies and snacks in Guandu , one of the typical ones is the Guandu BaBa, which is made up of the glutinous rice and various and stuffing so as to the different flavors of different people.