Visiting the Hometown of Chinese Beauties (Part 4): The Beauty of Xiapu Nurtured by Picturesque Mountains and Waters --- Shenzhen Special Zone News
It is often said that beautiful women don't come from coastal areas, as the harsh sea breeze would ruin even the most naturally beautiful complexion.
However, the sea of Xiapu seems to be especially kind to the women of this land.
1. A Coastal County Produces Many Beauties
Xiapu, a small county along the eastern coast of Fujian Province, is not very well-known. However, visitors to Xiapu are often amazed by its fresh seafood. The authentic taste of the seafood always captivates the taste buds of outsiders: "Is there really such fresh seafood?" After enjoying the delicious food, if they take a walk on the street, they will find another pleasant surprise: the women here have clear and naturally beautiful complexions. Could it be that this place not only produces fine cuisine but also beautiful women? Travelers from all over and the Xiapu women who constantly leave their hometown have, intentionally or unintentionally, created a reputation for Xiapu as the "Hometown of Beauties." Interestingly, the local people of Xiapu do not think their women are particularly beautiful and feel somewhat uneasy and shy when hearing such praise.
In fact, Xiapu can confidently accept the title of "Hometown of Beauties."
Among the folk in Xiapu, there is a popular saying: "The lychees of Hanjiang are red one by one, and the women of Hongjiang need no selection." Hanjiang and Hongjiang are two fishing villages along the coast of Xiapu. Hanjiang is famous for its late-ripening lychees, which are grown at the northernmost latitude in China. Hongjiang, on the other hand, is the hometown of Hong Qi'er, who won the title of "Chief Model" in Fujian Province and the third place in the 9th China Model Star Competition. This saying has been passed down for an unknown period of time, but it at least confirms one fact: the beauties here, like the lychees, grow in clusters, are renowned, and are full of vitality.
In the writings of a poet from another province, the beauties of Xiapu are described as follows: "A place called Xiapu / makes every person present / hearts flutter /... A few hours' drive may seem far / ask the people around you / if there's a girl from Xiapu / even nearby / would be good too /..." While the poet's pen exaggerates, there is no doubt that the beauty of Xiapu's young women has a collective advantage.
The beauty of Xiapu's women can be described with just one word: "water." Their faces are as soft and moist as water, their figures as graceful as water, and their breaths as clear as water. This is because what nurtures them is "water," and growing into "lotus flowers emerging from water" is a natural process. Just don't be surprised; this "water" is blue.
2. Beautiful Mountains and Rivers Nurture Beauties
In a certain sense, the beauties of Xiapu are daughters of the sea.
It is often said that beautiful women don't come from coastal areas, as the harsh sea breeze would ruin even the most naturally beautiful complexion. But the sea of Xiapu seems to be especially kind to the women of this land. There is a beautiful legend about why Xiapu produces so many beauties by the sea. Long ago, at the foot of Ge Hong Mountain in the middle of Xiapu's Dongchong Peninsula, there was a strange stone. It was polished by the sea breeze every day, shining brightly like a mirror. When women stood in front of it, they became dazzlingly beautiful. Women from nearby villages often climbed the mountain to look in the mirror, and indeed, they became more beautiful the more they looked. The story of the "Beauty Mirror" spread quickly, and women from all over flocked to it. Over time, "beauty" was sown like seeds along the coast, continuing endlessly. In fact, Ge Hong Mountain is also a famous Taoist mountain. It is said that Ge Hong practiced alchemy on the mountain, cultivating techniques for health preservation and beauty enhancement, which were passed down in the coastal villages, including many secrets for maintaining beauty.
Of course, this is just a legend. The reasons why the daughters of the sea become beauties include various factors such as diet, climate, geography, environment, and culture. Xiapu is the coastal county in Fujian Province with the largest sea area, the longest coastline, the widest shallow beach, and the most islands and ports. The coastline stretches 404 kilometers with a winding shape, and the tidal flats cover 1.04 million mu, glittering with gold. 196 islands are scattered like stars, and 700 kinds of marine organisms swim freely among them. The seafood of Xiapu is famous far and wide, and ordinary families never go without seafood in their three daily meals. The name "land of fish and rice" has been around for a long time. For thousands of years, the rich variety and nutrition of seafood have nurtured generation after generation of beauties.
Xiapu has a subtropical oceanic climate, warm and humid all year round, with ample sunlight and abundant rainfall, nourishing the mountains and rivers of Xiapu, as well as the women there. To the south of Xiapu lies the Dongchong Peninsula, like a giant arm of a fairy reaching out to the sea, embracing a bay of seawater, forming the inner seas of "Dongwu Yang" and "Guanjing Yang." These two seas are rare lake-like oceans, tempering the roughness of the sea breeze. For the women born by the sea, this is undoubtedly a gift from heaven. The Dongchong Peninsula gracefully extends into the sea, creating a winding coastline with a curvature ratio of 1:10, the most winding coastline in Fujian. Its winding shape may seem unrelated to beauties, but it actually creates magnificent marine scenery in Xiapu. As the saying goes, "a land nurtures its people," the sunrise and sunset on the tidal flats, the ebb and flow of tides by the sandy beaches, the gathering of seagulls on the reefs, and the gentle sea breeze under the starlight - each of these elements is a form of beauty. Immersed in such surroundings for years, how could one not be influenced?
3. Historical Culture Nurtures Beauties
If beauty were the only attribute, beauties wouldn't be truly beautiful. Fortunately, with the influence of a long history and culture, the beauties of Xiapu possess an additional charm and depth.
In the third year of Tai Kang during the Jin Dynasty (AD 282), Wenma County was established in Xiapu. In the first year of Tian Bao during the Tang Dynasty (AD 742), it was renamed Changxi County. In AD 1286, the county was upgraded to Funing Prefecture, and in the twelfth year of Yongzheng during the Qing Dynasty (AD 1734), the prefecture was upgraded to Funing Fu, making it one of the eight prefectures in Fujian Province. In the second year of the Republic of China (AD 1913), the prefecture was abolished, leaving only the county until today. Known as the "key point between Fujian and Zhejiang," "the land of fish and rice," and "the seaside Confucian scholar," Xiapu was once the political, economic, and cultural center of eastern Fujian. With over 1,700 years of historical accumulation, once its rich aroma is released and lingers in a woman, it blossoms into a smile, revealing beauty beyond mere appearance, and such women are often talented and beautiful.
During the Republican era, two of the "Four Talented Women of Eastern Fujian" were from Xiapu: You Shou and Qiu Di. The former later became a renowned historian, archaeologist, and calligrapher, teaching for a long time at Harbin Normal University. In the calligraphy world, the saying "Southern Xiao and Northern You" refers to You Shou as the "Northern You." The latter was one of the most radical and avant-garde modern female painters of the first generation in China. During her school days, Qiu Di was known as the "campus flower," and her classmates praised her with the following rhyme: "Hezhi is fat and good, Xiaoping is thin and good, Puseng is just right, none of the three compare to Bi Zhen (Qiu Di)." As an adult, Qiu Di remained as beautiful as ever, especially the poetic clarity in her eyes, which left a lasting impression. Her talent matched her beauty. Having studied abroad in Japan, Qiu Di's oil painting "Flower" won the only "Juelan Society Award" in 1933. The "Juelan Society" was the first modern art society in Chinese art history. Her costume design for the dance and song performance "Picking Tea and Catching Butterflies" in 1956 won the national dance costume design award, and her work is now collected in the Shanghai Art Museum.
The landscape shapes the region, the region carries the history, and history molds human nature. Xiapu might really be a place destined to produce beauties. The long history emits a strong cultural atmosphere that continues unbroken on this land, and its influence on women blooms into even more splendid flowers. The Japanese monk Kukai arrived in Xiapu's Chisha shore in AD 804 after being stranded due to a typhoon while accompanying the 17th Japanese envoy to Tang. He stayed for 41 days before traveling to the Tang capital, Chang'an, to study Buddhism. After returning to Japan, he became an outstanding messenger of Tang culture. For a long time, the Japanese side was unable to confirm where Kukai had landed. It was only through the archaeological research of the talented woman You Shou that it was finally determined that Chisha in Xiapu was where Kukai had landed. As a place where the She ethnic group resides, the mutual integration of minority and Han cultures makes Xiapu's culture richer and more diverse. The She ethnic song king Zhong Xueji, recorded in the "Encyclopedia of China·Literature History," is from Xiapu. The She people are a singing nation, using songs to express emotions and aspirations whether cutting wood on the mountain, working in the fields, chatting after meals, or expressing love. Every year during the Lantern Festival, March 3rd, and September 9th, the She villages in Xiapu hold She ethnic song gatherings, where many minority beauties become the main characters of the gatherings. If natural beauty is the luck of beauties, then having poetry and literature within is the blessing of beauties.
Hong Qi'er is a well-known figure. Standing at 1.77 meters tall, she exudes elegance and possesses a simple, genuine personality. Discovered while working as a hotel receptionist, she went on to win titles such as one of Fujian's "Top Ten Models," the Best Potential Award in Fujian's First "Car World Beauty," and one of the Top Ten Car Image Misses in the International (Fuzhou) Car Show. Winning the third place in the 2002 China Model Star Competition, one of China's Top Ten Models, and the Best Elegance Award in the China Model Star Competition marked Hong Qi'er's transformation from a neighborhood girl to a famous T-stage model. To date, the awards she has won remain the highest achievements in national modeling competitions in Fujian, rewriting the history of Fujian lacking famous models. Besides Hong Qi'er, Xue Ke Xin and Chen Yinxing are two other Xiapu beauties who gained recognition through competitions. Xue Ke Xin won the third place in the finals of China's First Photographic Model Competition in 2004 and received the Best Elegance Award in the Fujian Selection of the 55th Miss World China Final. Chen Yinxing won the Best Newcomer Award in the 2005 Miss Universe China (Beijing) Final. Chen Yinxing graduated from the Foreign Language Department of Xiangfan College in Hubei Province. In her middle school and university years, Chen Yinxing showcased her artistic talents and served as the host of CCTV's Hope Star English Speech Contest in the northwestern part of Hubei Province. Making her debut in a large-scale competition, she impressively outshone others and simultaneously achieved excellent results in the postgraduate entrance examination.
The fame of Xiapu's beauties has spread far and wide, becoming the desired target for high-end hotels and luxury accommodations in major cities like Fuzhou and Wenzhou. Hiring Xiapu's beauties as charming receptionists seems to bring both popularity and prosperity. The younger generation of beauties also prefers to travel the world with their luggage, representing the wandering Min Opera actresses.
In the Min Opera circle of Fujian Province, there is a saying: "No Xias without a troupe." Min Opera is the provincial opera, originating from Fuzhou, but among the hundreds of active Min Opera troupes across the province, almost every troupe has actors from Xiapu, especially female actors, one reason being their good looks. In the early 1980s, Hongjiang, the hometown of the beauty Hong Qi'er, a small village, could form five opera troupes. Under the ethereal moonlight, the beautiful village girls, with their flowing sleeves and bright eyes, sang softly, seemingly captivating even the night itself. Lin Minjin, who won the Excellent Actor Award in the Fujian Drama Performance and the First Prize in the "Yingshanhong" Award of the Changsha Folk Art Festival, and was hailed by fans as the "Maowei Tao" of Min Opera, performs over 500 shows annually and hails from the fishing village of Yuyangli in Xiapu. More than 2,000 Min Opera actors from Xiapu perform outside, enhancing the reputation of Xiapu's beauties through performances. The annual income from performances of folk opera troupes is considerable, becoming one of the important ways for rural areas to get rid of poverty and become wealthy.
Related Links: Beauty Route
Xiapu is the county with the largest environmental capacity on the "Northeast Fujian Water Tour" route, one of China's ten perfect tourist routes. Seafood is abundant throughout the year, and within the county lies the national scenic spot "Yangjiaxi Scenic Area," where you can enjoy the largest pure beech forest in southern Jiangnan and the northernmost banyan tree cluster in China. The beautiful marine scenery is not only a great place for leisure tourism but also an ideal location for photography enthusiasts to capture sea views.
From Fuzhou to Xiapu, you can drive via the Shenhai Expressway (Fuzhou-Xiapu section), taking about 2 hours. There are buses from the North Bus Station in Fuzhou to Xiapu every hour. From Shanghai to Xiapu, you can take a flight to Fuzhou Changle Airport, then take the airport expressway to Mawei in Fuzhou, and then get on the Shenhai Expressway.