Baishi Pass

Baishi Pass

The 1928 (17th year of the Republic of China) edition of the "Annals of Lianshan County, Guangdong" in the section on scenic geography states: "Baishi Pass is located sixty li north of the county seat in Hedong Village, with a road leading to Jianghua County." There are no records of when the pass was built, but its role as a border checkpoint is described with statements such as "sufficient to restrict the advance of cavalry" and "its commanding terrain... is a natural formation, serving as a shield for the land of Guangdong."

Following the starting point of the Hefang Highway toward Jianghua Yao Autonomous County, it takes less than 30 minutes to reach Baishi Village. The village is at most a hundred meters from the top of Baishi Pass. Layered green mountains stretch from west to east and from high to low up to the pass, with each tree-shaded hill resembling a valiant border general. To the east, there are also ranges of mountains sloping westward, stopping at the pass. According to elders in Baishi, the mountain at the pass was originally a single continuous white stone mountain, which was split into two sides during a fabled heaven-earth cataclysm. Fish leapt and waters surged through the gorge, and later this mountain came to be known as "Shili Mountain" (the Separated Stone Mountain). The mountain has many large maple trees, whose leaves glow red, exuding an autumn feel.

Elders in Baishi point out that embedded within the white mountain is a large dark brown boulder called Jiguan Stone. In the local dialect, "jiguan" means "cock’s comb," and the name of Baishi Pass may be related to this. He told me that there used to be a military outpost here, known as Baishi Xun, with an officer surnamed Mo. Elder Baishi said the pass was only slightly more than a foot wide—a narrow path carved out by hand. It was easy for a single person to cross, but very difficult for those carrying loads or leading pack animals. There were legends of merchants and horses falling into deep ravines. In the past, Sichuan troops attempted to cross into Jianghua via this pass, but their carts, horses, and heavy artillery could not get through, forcing them to turn back. Elder Baishi recalled, “In the past, there were stone battlements built by our ancestors atop the pass to facilitate shooting, and piles of cobblestones were also stacked. When bandits passed by, shooting and rolling rocks would surely ensure safety.” When he was around seven or eight years old (and already in school), which would have been the early 1940s, there was an incident where bandits from Dalong Mountain came from the direction of Huangshi. The brave villagers, relying on the strategic steepness of the pass, fought hard to repel them. Some bandits were wounded, others fled, and the villagers triumphantly returned, even capturing a rifle. “A path fit only for birds and goats, truly a place where one man with a spear can hold off ten thousand.”

Baishi Village was formerly part of Lianshan County, Guangdong, but was later incorporated into Jianghua County, Hunan. Although Baishi is under the jurisdiction of Hunan, it maintains deep connections with neighboring villages across the border in Guangdong. At a gas station in Mashì, the female owner first quoted prices in Mandarin, but upon hearing us speak in the Lianshan dialect, she switched to the same dialect. She mentioned that many local girls marry into Guangdong. Elder Baishi told me that people from Baishi Village have always gone to the Hedong Market—both before and after the highway was built—because it is close, there is a shared language, and many have relatives there. According to Secretary Chen, the water and electricity from Mashì will be transmitted to the Guangdong power grid via Hedong. From this, it is evident that historical ties, economic exchanges, and intermarriage mean that the bond between the people of these bordering regions cannot be hindered by mountains or rivers. Baishi Pass is no longer a checkpoint for defending against enemies, but rather a channel of integration for communities on both sides of the Hunan-Guangdong border.