Subsequently, in Han Dynasty (207 BC - 221 AD), which replaced the brutal Qin Emperor and arose alike a Phoenix from the ashes of the Qin Empire to build a more benevolent, successful and longer lasting rule, Lingshui is recorded to have been part to Dan’er Prefecture of the Han Era Empire of which again also included Hainan Island. As mainstream history reminds us, the original Yue people were displaced from their original territories and a better armed and technologically more advanced Chinese civilization pressed southward (on the mainland) during the first 500 years after the birth of Christ leaving remnants and memories of Yue Culture and Language behind in Chinese language and also population groups who today can still be identified among the 56 ethnic minority groups recognized by the Peoples Republic of China today. However, usually little is mentioned about historical facts regarding the island of Hainan and its population in these times. Given the fact that even the term Yue is derived from the Chinese script and language and that much knowledge about the Yue derives from early Chinese History, unraveling these mysteries is a complicated matter and may quite impossible.
After the above periods, historical knowledge becomes much clearer as Chinese Courts and others started written records kept on paper. Mainstream world historians agree to the general line of history derived from these documents and often supported by archeological finds.
Within this framework, the history of Hainan Lingshui as a location is first mentioned in documents relating to the year 611 AD of the Sui Dynasty (581 AD - 618 AD) in which there is mention of a home county, and town governance to the south of the Zaytun (River or Harbor). Historically two arguments are given for the origins of the name Lingshui and County. The strongest of these again is based on ancient books which mention a Nan water on Hainan Island which was referred to as "the Lingshui," and so associating the "county" (Lingshui County Area) of that time with water. This water today is the Lingshui River and indeed there are still large inland lakes in the lower lying eastern parts of the County.
Subsequently, during the Chinese Cultural and historical highpoint of the Tang Dynasty Era (618 AD - 907 AD) the history of Lingshui County continues in official documents with a mention of "the established rule in Boji village, that originate in/is based on seven Ling-Ling gate water (ie.e the Lingshui River) which flows through the county". "Ling gate water" thus translates as "Lingshui River" and after establishment of Tang Dynasty centralized rule over its central town it was henceforth known in history as Lingshui, at least according to officially approved Chinese historical narrative.
In 622 AD, the Tang government set up the administrative divisions of Yazhou, Danzhou and Zhenzhou in Hainan Island with the intention to administer justice and collect taxes. In this arrangement Lingshui fell under jurisdiction of Zhenzhou.
It was during the Tang Dynasty Era that China first saw the blossoming of overseas trade routes later dubbed the maritime silk road. Although coastal trading traffic had existed since as early as the Han Dynasty (207 BC - 221 AD) among things allowing Roman Emissaries to reach the Chinese Capital Chang’An, in the Tang Era this emerged for the first time as an organized and Government controlled international business. In the Tang Era up to the year 907 AD, maritime trade emerged as important and at least equally lucrative as the overland silk trading routes were and this is the era when still crucially important ports in such as Hangzhou, Ningbo and Fuzhou started making themelves their historic names. These however remained the only Chinese ports allowed to do official international trade and as a result, Hainan Island - much to the south and west - remained an oceanic outcropping of non-importance during and well after the demise of the Tang Rule.
In 1073 AD during the Era of the Chinese Song Dynasty (960 AD - 1279 AD) Hainan Island was part of the Song Empire and, confirming the administrative divisions created in the Tang Dynasty, a famous Stele found at the Bei Lin Stele Museum (Former Confucius Temple) in the former Capital Chang’An (Today: Xi’An, Shaanxi) reveals, there were already at least three major Chinese settlements on Hainan Island, one of them being at or near current day Sanya (the city of Yazhou).
In the time of the Song Dynasty Lingshui fell under the jurisdiction of Wan’an. In 1279 AD, the Chinese Song Dynasty was overrun by the rising Mongolian Empire and subsequently - with Mongolian Armies moving southward, all of China became a part of the Mongolian Empire, which declared its overlordship over China in the form of the Yuan Dynasty (1271 AD - 1368 AD). Although in these times Hainan Island was still very much a (relative) back water, both Dynastic periods are of great importance to the history of Hainan Island, and also the history of the region of the current day Lingshui County due to their importance as way points along what has become known as the maritime silk route.
As described, the maritime silk road - overseas trade routes between China, India, Persia, and the Arabian Peninsula had already existed for a millenium and through the Tang Dynasty Era they had developed to new high points. However, as this Dynasty had crumpled in 907 AD, so had organized trade overseas.
The trade would however resume as soon as the Song Dynasty had established itself and a working administrative system across the newly arising Song Nation. International Trade therefor had been resumed and ongoing since 960 AD, however at the time the most important Chinese trading ports remained Fuzhou, Ningbo and Huangzhou in the north and well beyond Taiwan Island (Formosa), which accordingly led to shipping routes not leading anywhere near the island of Hainan.
When in the year 1087 the city of Quanzhou was opened as an official international trading port (under a Government Tax monopoly), the economic centerpoint of coastal Fujian shifted southward and away from its Capital Fuzhou and the earlier already important trading harbors of Ningbo, Huangzhou (Current day Capital of Zhejiang Province) to Quanzhou, which for the next two or more centuries became by far the most important international trading port on the Chinese Coastline.
This in turn put Hainan more closely to the sea routes coming from the Arabian Peninsula, Persia and the Indian Coast.
Therefor, in the following period of roughly 1087 AD to 1368 AD, Hainan Island - although not always intended as a destination - was much more often visited by International trading travelers from overseas. As one may well judge from available map, essentially all ships coming from the direction of the Indian Ocean and heading for Quanzhou Port had to pass through the Singapore Straits, and from there the most direct route northward to Quanzhou brings ships on a course leading past the eastern coast of Hainan Island and through the notoriously dangerous waters of the South China Sea. It was, and still is the realm of gigantic tropical storms.
Thus, although ships may not always have intended to make a stop over on Hainan Island, the natural ports on the Island frequently served as emergency shelters for ships running from impending storms. In addition, ships blown of course by storms frequently reached Hainan Island, where on many occassions they were wrecked on the notoriously rocky parts of the southern and eastern coast of the Island.
As travellers may find, historic evidence of such visits may found at several points along the coast, including Linsghui County and also neighbouring Sanya City Prefecture.
On the coastline of the Blue Water Bay, a part of the larger Lingshui Bay found outside of Yingzhou Town is the location of what is known as the Wanningwantou Islamic Cemetery. Possibly the oldest historic location in all of Lingshui Li Autonomous County today, the Islamic Cemetery bares witness to the lives of countless seaborn islamic migrants who had found themselves stranded on the beach(es) of this remote part of this equally remote Island and, having lost their shipping or appetite for travel, were left no choice but to settle there.
Today, one of the recognized ethnic minorities of Hainan include the Islamic Hui, who are however not equal in ancestry to the Hui found throughout the Chinese mainland and western China. Where the Hui in Xi’an or in Gansu Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region often derive from overland travelers settling in China throughout the centuries, in case of Hainan Island the Islamic People gathered under the umbrella of Hui denomination are in fact usually descendants of seaborn traders of the maritime silk road. As meticulous research of family names on head stones and muslim mausolea such as the one at Wanningwantou Islamic Cemetery has since revealed, originally Islamic immigrants to Hainan Island can often trace their original ancestry back to regions in current day Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman and to a lesser extend Persia reflecting the existence of a direct sea route across the Indian Ocean as early as in these times (the route was later used by Zheng He and then by Vasco Da Gama in order to reach India for the first time in European History). Such migrants, Hui and non-Hui (because they no longer adhere to Islamic Traditions) may also be found in Quanzhou City and locations strewn along the coastline of Zhejiang- and Fujian Provinces.
In the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD - 1644 AD) and Qing Dynasty (1644 AD - 1911 AD), Lingshui fell under administrative rule of Qiongzhou (the historical early city of Haikou). However, although during the first succeeding reign periods of the Ming Dynasty, especially the reign of the Yongle Emperor (1402 AD - 1424 AD), Ming China became the worlds preeminent naval power, during the later Ming Dynasty the Nation turned inward an by Imperial Decree the opposite of this status was achieved. No maritime expeditions or naval operations were allowed there after and a s a result, the Ming lost control over the sea. In the ensuing periods historic accounts frequently make note of piracy problems and mass raids by pirates on coastal settlements and towns. It appears that under such circumstances factual jurisdiction may have been problematic especially regarding the South China Sea Islands and tropical and wild Hainan.
1926 / 27: Chinese Communist Party establishes representation on Hainan Island.
1930s: At some time before 1939 Li Ethnic groups based in central and southern Hainan Island led by peasant village heads with Communist sympathies, raised themselves up against the central autocratic rule established by the Republic of China over Hainan Island from the mainland. Together these groups established an autonomously administered entity named the Qiong Ya Autonomous Government of Hainan Island which even had its own flag. One of the main leaders of the Hainan indigenous rebel movement was Feng Baiju (冯白驹)(Life: 1903–1973).
In February of 1939 Japanese Forces, already well established on the Chinese mainland and occupying Ceylon (current day Taiwan), launched an operation to take over Hainan Island in order to use it as a base for further strengthening their naval blockade of the Chinese Coastline and further to build airbases needed to control surrounding sea's as well as parts of the Chinese Interior. With three separate landings at Tsinghai Bay, Haikou and subsequently Sanya, the offensive was brief and completely successful. The subsequent Japanese rule of the island would however be fraught with problems and as such over time declined into a brutal affair. According to credible historic sources some 1/3 of the male population of the Island lost their lives in the period of occupation between early 1939 and the Japanese surrender in 1945.
This page was last updated on: June 1, 2017
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History of Lingshui Li Autonomous County
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Of late, Chinese historians have posed historic claims regarding the early history of Hainan Island. According to this narrative, as early as the Neolithic period, "Chinese" primitive ancestors had reached the island and survived there. As far as are are aware however, proof of such early remains has so far not been presented. Also, logically, even if the Island had been settled in the neolithic Period (early stone age), the question remains in what ways does this relate the culture of these people to the larger Chinese Nation today. This tentative supposition however continues to be mentioned in various descriptions of the history of Hainan Island, likely in relation to the disputed South China Sea Islands to which China not only has laid claim but where China has assumed factual control by building a giant naval and air-capable military force.
Making a leap of perhaps 10 thousand years the official Chinese history insists that during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 207 BC) - the period when China was united for the first time under the rule of one brutal dictatorial Emperor (previously there had been the rule of "noble" clans), Hainan was part of the
Yingli
There are no maps specific to Lingshui Li Autonomous County available at this Time. For most complete listing of available maps on Hainan Island, please refer to Hainan Island Maps Index.
Asia Report - Map of Hainan Island Province including South China Sea Prefecture
This Google supported Satellite Map provides a clear overview of Hainan Island Province of the Peoples Republic of China, including its South China Sea Prefecture. Map of the South China Sea further includes parts of Taiwan and coastline, Gulf of Tonkin, coastline of Vietnam, Brunei, Borneo (Malaysia), and western Philippines.
Marked on the map for orientation are the names of major National Capitals, locally relevant cities, several towns and villages, names of oceans, islands in the South China Sea, as well as locations of interest such as naval bases, artificial islands, airfields, tourism locations, etc.
Browse the map and follow the links to more information, maps and photos of each location.
A Full and complete Map of China (PRC) identifying all Language Areas big and small in all Provinces and Autonomous Regions of China.
Map includes Turkic Languages (Uygur, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Salar & Uzbek), Mongolian Language and Sub-Divisions (Mongol, Tu, Daur and Dongxian), Tungusic Peoples (Oroqen, Evenki and Xibe) and Languages, Korean, Tajik (Tadzhik), Mon-Khmer (Kawa + Puman (or Pulang)), Hui, Uygur (Uighur), Tibeto-Bhurman Languages, Tai and Miao, Yao and She' Language Area's and Borders. Main Area's and sub-divisions of Han Languages (Northern Mandarin, Eastern Mandarin, South-Western Mandarin and Cantonese) further included. This color-coded ethno-linguistic Map (of 1967 AD) identifies at a glance most ethnic minority regions in China
Map China Ethno-Linguistic / Language Distribution China
Yinchuan
Overview Map of the Qin Dynasty Empire that would become known as China. At its very highpoint the Qin realm extended upstream along the Yellow River in Inner-Mongolia where parts of its Great Wall can be found. The Ningxia Plain was 1st settled and the main body of China from Gansu to the Liaodong Peninsula was protected by the Great Wall of Qin. After the shortlived Qin Dynasty fell, the Chinese Han Dynasty started expansion southwards into current day Hunan and rapidly beyond driving among things the Yue People southward.
Chinese Realm and that in that early time already Lingshui was known and recorded as a part of Xiang Prefecture. There is however no information available on the status of the original inhabitants of island in that period. The original inhabitants of Hainan Island today identified as the Li are part of a group of tribes with similar culture who today also reside along the coast of mainland China but originally derive from the Yue people, a historical Vietnamese Tribe. These non-Chinese seaborn people are known to have inhabited large regions of current day North Vietnam, the before mentioned South Chinese Coastilne (in the 19th century parts of Vietnam) and also "islands in the South China Sea". Although Chines history thus claims Hainan Island as part of China through the history of the Qin Dynasty (of which era there are very few records surviving), one may also attach a Vietnamese historical and cultural connection to both Hainan Island and the South China Sea Island (the latter today still disputed between China (both PRC and ROC) and Vietnam. In fact, of course, the South China Sea, much alike the Xinjiang Region in Central Asia, was a cultural crossroads, a maritime collection of highways which enabled people to trade goods, stories, experience and knowledge. At many times, no one in particular dominated these notorious waters and therefor no one held full authority over its parts.
Yalong Bay
South
China
Sea
A Map of administrative units on Hainan Island with Lingshui situated in the south-east of the Island near the coastline. In the new arrangement the three main cities are the most important whereas ethnic counties have been reduced to all but the lowest political denominator of County and Autonomous County.
With a much lower political status and great loss of power within the system of National Politics the Li People subsequently had to watch how their still relatively pristine and agricultural island was turned over to the powerful politically connected real estate developers of the mainland who were free to develop Hainan Island into the number one National luxury tourism mecca that its has come to be.
As one may derive from available maps of Hainan Province in the year 1984, in the 1980's road connections on Hainan were still relatively sparse with among things the effect that transportation of goods or people within the tropical interior and the ethnic regions of the island was to say the least difficult. For farmers this meant meant doing business on a local level.
Starting around the year 1990, large scale infrastructural projects were undertaken in order to unlock the islands interiors.
In 1992 construction of the eastern ring highway which was to connect all communities on the east and south side of the island commenced. This was a crucial new development for all Li minority area's including also all of Lingshui County. At first, these developments were welcomed by the local populace which now had an easier
way to transport various forms of agricultural produce (tomatoes, lychees, durian, Betel nut, etc) up to the cities Haikou, Sanya and (later) Danzhou. However, while produce flowed one way on the highway, curious mainland Chinese travelers left the beaches heading the other way inland. And with this, a new kind of product was in the making. As tourists started exploring the islands interior they suddenly came into contact with what was then considered the pristine and happy rural life of the Li Ethnic Farmers. Naturally, as soon as this (media fabricated) discovery was out and the multitudes of mainland tourists eager to escape the drearyness of the mainland were notified, a wave of tourism exploded.
In the priod between 1992 and 1999 so called Ethnic Tourism Villages were established all across the island, eventually also in Lingshui Li Autonomous County. The ethnic life of the Li became a cash cow for everyone involved or getting into the tourism industry.
The Lingshui Yetian Li and Miao Village is the local Li Ethnic Tourism Venue, a fake Li ethnic village was was soleley estabished for the purpose of serving curious or bored passing tourist with a taste of Li ethnic culture. Located in Yingzhou town at a stonesthrow distance from the central Lingshui Town (Yetian District) it was established at some time in the second half of the 1990's. The Li tourism village mainly serves local dish and welcomes weary tourists with cold drinks and marvelous local cuisine. Since, the visits to artifical style tourism venues has gone completely out of fashion, but due to the fact that the Lingshui Village has been so succesful in catering to its many tourist fans, today, much later, the Lingshui Yetian Li and Miao ethnic village is one of the few surviving such ethnic villages on Hainan Island. With the local luxury resorts booming in soujthern Hainan Island, the Lingshui Li Ethnic Village has become an obligatory item on mainstream tourism iteneraries. In addition, the Li village has made itself part of the luxury exotic dream for (mainland) luxury travelers by offering fully styled ethnic wedding ceremonies with costumes for all and also yearly hosts a number of ethnic festivals so as to keep drawing in the crowds.
In 2001 Lingshui County reached the International Headlines around the world when a U.S. electronic surveilance aircraft made a forced landing at the local Lingshui Airbase of the Chinese Air Force. The ensuing episodes and international diplomatic incident are today known as the "Hainan Island Incident".
The renowned "monkey island" of Lingshui county was created in the year 1965. Although it is said to be an Island, the monkey island is better understood as the Nanwan Provincial Nature Reserve, a part of a Hilly Peninsula found along Lingshui Bay on the opposite side of Xincun Fishing Port and the Pearl Farm(s). The nature reserve spanning some 1000 hectares is home to about 2000 macaques and is still a popular destination. Today visitors can travel there from Xincun Port by means of a cable way which stretches across the natural harbor to connect with the Nanwan Peninsula directly.
In 2002 the town of Yelin was formed from local villages. Today it forms the central town and district of Lingshui Li Autonomous County.
In 2013 the Lingshui Li'An Harbor Ocean Theme Park opened outside and west of Lingshui County Town.
In April 2016 the first measures were taken by the Central Government to stem over-development of real estate in all of Hainan Province also effecting the seemingly ever expanding luxury resorts advancing from the south on Lingshui Town and its best scenic beaches and land areas. It is currently to early to tell if such measures will have any effect on the management and local officials who cooperate to drive the lucrative real estate investment market mostly for short term personal gain.
To find out more information on the general history of Lingshui and Hainan Island, go to:
China Report - Historic Map - North Vietnam & South China in 1953
A large Geographic Map of parts of South China and North Vietnam in the year 1953 AD when the Peoples Republic of China was only 4 years old, the Korean war had recently ended in a stale-mate (which continues to this day) and at the same time the partition of Vietnam into Ho Chi Minh's Socialist Republic of North Vietnam and the American supported South Vietnam was just about to be formalized (1954 Geneva Convention) and taking shape.
Map includes parts of Guizhou Province , Yunnan Province, Sichuan Province, Hunan Province, Fujian Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangdong Province and finally Hainan (Dao) Province of China (P.R.C.). In addition most of the northern "bulge", a total of 26 of the 50 Provinces of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are depicted.
The Map makes use of old westernized spelling (Wayde Giles) and where possible current names of cities and towns.
Link through where available to find more information and additional details on each location and region as marked on the Map.
While a war was raging on the mainland and the Island of Hainan was under Japanese occupation (1939 - 1945) rebel groups which already existed on Hainan Island started organized resistance against the Japanese. Although today this is hardly mentioned officially approved Chinese historical narrative, today it is know that the rebel Autonomous Government of Hainan was established well before the February 1939 Invasion of Hainan Island and previously the main enemy had been the mainland Nationalist Kuomintang. As such, logically, local rebel groups who were aiming at self government of the Peoples of Hainan Island, did not welcome the Japanese take-over as politically expedient but rather as yet another outside threat to their local sovereignty.
Thus, this already established army then fought bravely in order to deny Japanese Forces access or control to large parts of the island, mainly the ethnic regions in the interior and along the souther coastline.
Led by their experienced and locally renowned leader, among them Feng Baiju, the local resistance consisted mostly of indigenous Li and Miao People, who in turn had made contact with Chinese Communist Forces on the mainland. Sharing common objectives and enemies, some of the Li were sympathetic towards the Communist Movement, which afteral procalimed to be amovement of all farmers and workers as well as a friend to all indigenous peoples of the realm.
Although in the current day those visiting Hainan Island will hear of how all the rebels were brave Communists who in the end helped deliver the Island back to its rightful owners, supposedly the Chinese Communist party, in reality the members of the resistance were indeed fiercely Nationalistic, however not in the Han-Chinese sense of a united nation with 56 happy minorities living under central autocratic rule from the mainland, but rather in the Li- (and Miao) sense of their Island being Independent from everyone, and ruled autonomously by its (original) inhabitants.
As such, notably "Qiong Ya" in this case should be translated as meaning "Hainan" and this name as well as the created flag of the desired independent Nation in fact, leaves no doubt as to what exactly it represented at the time.
As one will learn from studying the flag of the Qiongya Autonomous Government, which shows "Horizontal green -red, with two (white) crossed "swords" it is really a flag of indigenous people who with their flag proclaimed independence from both the Chinese National Government (KMT) as well as the Japanese invaders.
As historians and connoisseurs may further recognize, the swords depicted are typical to the Li Ethnic Group and thus the Qiongya
Autonomous Government of Hainan was mainly supported by the Li (Hlai) people only and which (for historical reasons) had far less to do with the other ethnic group of the Island, the Miao people who traditionally resided in the more northern regions of Hainan Island.
Thus, although eventually the resistance army on Hainan was led by a pro-Communist Li ethnic man named Feng Baiju (冯白驹), in reality it cannot be said that the resistance army was a communist underground army. This certainly was not the case. In reality it was a majority Li ethnic resistance group which sought to establish an independently ruled Hainan Island, for the people by the people.
As one may imagine, in the current day world dominated by the Chinese Communist Party this historical narrative has long since been found to be rather undesirable, which is why in today's situation one will only hear stories of the Qiongya Column and certainly not about the intended Qiongya Independent State (a similar situation has existed in Tibet in 1935 where a competitor of Mao Zedong one Zhang Guotai allowed for the establishment of a Socialist but Ethnic Tibetan Autonomous Government, which however has nearly been written out of the history books). In order to find this truth, the Chinese manipulated official histories the world has come to except, simply go to the Chinese editor infested website www.Wikipedia.com and check the history of Hainan Island Province to find the classical but falsified histories as put forward from Chinese sides.
In 1957 a first ever form of Li ethnic script was created with sponsorship of the entirely Han dominated Communist Government.
Lingshui Military Airbase and adjoining highly secret Signals Intelligence Base were established in the year 1968.
Hainan Island was established as a Province in the year 1984. Subsequently, on November 20, 1987, the State Council approved the revocation of Lingshui County replacing it with the establishment of Li Autonomous County of Lingshui, on December 31 formally established as the Lingshui Li Autonomous County.
Subsequently, in the year 1988 the Hainan (Island) Li and Miao Autonomous Prefecture status was revoked ending more than 3 decades of Li Autonomous rule with the great Chinese Peoples Republic.
YouTube Video: Battles and Territorial gains and losses during the Pacific War (Dec. 7Th 1941 - August 5th, 1945). Notably parts of China among which the strategically situated Hainan Island were already invaed by Japan well before it attacked the United States of America at Pearl Harbor. Without posession of Yulin Harbor (Sanya) on Hainan Island the campaigns in Malayia and Indonesia would not have been possible.
At some point in the 1940's, under Communist influence and through the mediation of Feng Baiju, the socialist sounding Qiongya Workers-Peasant Revolutionary Army was formed to serve as the official army of resistance to Japanese occupation of Hainan Island. This army remained active throughout the period of Japanese occupation despite horrendous losses.
After the surrender of Japan and the end of world war 2 in the Pacific Ocean theatre, the Kuomintang Nationalist forces returned to Hainan Island however as the rebel Qiongya Army remained active (between 1945 and 1949) the legal National Government represented by the KMT under Chiang Kai-Chek could not claim full control of the island at any time.
Chinese Communist landings on Hainan Island, at the time still held by the Kuomintang National Army, commenced on March the 5th of the year 1950. At the same friendly partisan forces on Hainan Island went on the offensive to disrupt activities of local Nationalist Forces so hoping to weaken resistance to the intended landings by Communist Forces from the mainland.
Initial landings and battles fought were in the north-east and north-west of Hainan Island and not anywhere near Lingshui Town or County Lingshui Town and County were "liberated by a mix of units of the Peoples Liberation Army who had been joined by the Independent Regiment of the local Partisans, the so called Qiongya Column. Two days later on April 30 Sanya and also
the crucial Yulin Naval Harbor fell to the Communist assaults.
The Hainan Island Campaign on the Island lasted until May 1st of 1950 at which time the entire island was declared "liberated". With their field commander evacuated by air to Taiwan Island, remaining Nationalist troops surrendered, were captured or attempted a flight by sea to Taiwan.
As Feng Baiju and his autonomously oriented rebel group would find find out soon after, the successful Communist take-over of their home base, life for successful local hero was not easy in the entirely Han dominated Peoples Republic of China. Although officially, Feng Baiju maintained control of political leadership on Hainan for a short time after the Communist takeover, the Chinese Communist Party leadership had factually feigned its sympathy for the wishes of the various ethnic groups within the Nation. As history would prove, and assorted ethnic groups would cynically find out along the way to their demise, there was but one intend within the Central Leadership from the very beginning, which was essentially to unite all territories held by the previous Manchu Qing Dynasty under one flag, the Communist Flag. The usual means to achieve this included political trickery and also -if need be- organized military violence.
While China fought its way into factually independent Tibet and also plunged headlong in the ongoing war on the Korean Peninsula, the now redundant Li Rebel leader Feng Baiju and his remaining followers soon were removed in favor of leaders who were more palatable to mainland PRC leadership in the sense that they were more easily manipulated, bribed, or intimidated and less famous.
Although officially hailed as hero on Hainan and in the annals of the Chinese Revolution Feng Baiju was one of the first victims of a gradually establishing Communist autocratic regime. For being a member of an ethnic minority group he was degraded. For being an established spokesman for his community Feng Baiju was persecuted and for insisting on his demands for true autonomous rule for his people, Feng Baiju was punished with a lifetime of social exclusion and a tedious process of ongoing harassment and political persecution.
Although exact details of his story are still vague on this point, it is known that Feng Baiju suffered greatly during the "anti-localism" campaigns of the 1950s, spied on and again put through struggle sessions during the Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976). Having been removed from his people to Beijing, Feng Baiju died an impoverished ordinary but socially excluded main in 1973.
Today Feng Baiju is celebrated as one of Hainan's local heroes by Li People and the Communist Party alike, however the true life story of Feng Baiju is kept hidden from the mainstream public.
On August 14, 1951, People's Government Lingshui County was established as a part of the Hainan Island Prefecture, the exact future status of which was still under discussion.
In 1952, in part as a token of gratitude to the Li People who had worked together with local Chinese Communist groups throughout the period of Japanese Occupation of the Island and also as a means to prevent them from seeking the earlier desired full independence, the the Hainan Li and Miao Autonomous Prefecture was established on Hainan Island, making the Island a de facto Autonomously Administered part of Guangdong Province. In the light of history however, the creation of this administrative unit was a politically sinister move by non-ethnic mainland Chinese who through these means sought to placate the Hainan Island ethnic groups while already introducing the possibility of internal political discord on Hainan Island by insisting that the historical enemies of the Li, their Miao counterparts, join in the autonomous Government of the Island. It was not the beginning of, but a clear re-manifestation of an intended underlying policy intended to reestablish centralized rule over Hainan Island in disregard of local wishes paid for in blood. (this pattern of steps of apparently granting regional autonomy while the opposite was ultimately intended was followed in most ethnic minority dominated regions of the Peoples Republic in the 1950s; notably Manchuria, Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tibet, parts of Korea, ethnically dominated formerly Vietnamese and Burmese southern and western regions of the PRC).
Asia Report - Map Trade Routes in Asia in the 13Th Century
A Schematic Map of the Eurasian Trade Routes existing in the 13Th Century. Clearly marked in Red Accent on the Map are the cities of the network of land-bound trading routes through Central Asia known as the Silk Road (the path of Marco Polo and others). Marked in Blue Accent are the Main Ports and Harbors of the Maritime Trade Routes that operated between the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and Coastal Cities, the Straights of Malacca, the South-China Sea's and beyond. As shown Maritime Trade to China mainly entered through Southern Harbors, then was distributed internally by use of the Grand Canal, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.
Map includes the Route travelled by Marco Polo, William of Rubruck and John of Pian de Carpine, the three famed European Travelers of the Time.
Locations of Main Trading Ports and Cities on Trade Routes of the Time are marked.
