The Courtesans' Tomb Cemetery in Yan Zhi Gou

　　Along the Yan Zhi Gou stream system, head northwest to the 719 marker on National Highway 209. At the fork in the road, there is a sign for the "Courtesans' Tomb." Follow the directions and drive about 400 meters along the forked road to reach the cemetery. The tourism authorities have built an antique-style building here. Inside the courtyard, a wall is built along the slope, carved with the "Courtesans' Painting": slender and graceful women from the southern regions of China, with flowing hair, looking up with hopeful eyes for dreams of gold, yet also expressing sorrow for their tragic fates.

　　On the hillside, tall and elegant Dahurian larch trees stand with black trunks, yellow leaves, and green crowns. Their roots are interconnected, branches leaning against one another. When a gentle breeze blows, the pine needles sway, releasing a faint fragrance. Beneath the shade of the trees, soft humus soil is covered with short green Ledum palustre plants, stretching endlessly, bearing clusters of berries known as "northern red beans," derived from the line in a Tang Dynasty poem by Wang Wei: "Red berries grow in southern land." Within the forest, using wooden planks, a fence with dimensions of 350 meters in both length and width has been constructed at the original site using traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery. Inside the uneven and bumpy fenced area lie the burial mounds of the courtesans. There are no grave markers, nor are their names known. "The sunken pits are the graves," so people tend to walk on higher ground, forming a winding path over time. In the northeastern corner of the cemetery, two coffins have been pried open. The two coffins are spaced about two meters apart, almost uniform in size—approximately 40 centimeters wide and 180 centimeters long—like narrow wooden boxes. Scattered inside are the slender white bones of the courtesans. The coffin boards are made of ordinary thin wood, now decayed, and were carelessly discarded around the site. Only two graves among the courtesans' tombs have been robbed, suggesting the thieves found nothing of value. Had the courtesans been buried with their ornaments and gold and silver, the robbers might have gained a fortune, and the entire cemetery could have been ransacked long ago. Thus, over a hundred years later, the site remains largely intact.

　　In the 1880s, with the wave of the gold rush, numerous courtesans from both China and abroad flocked to Yan Zhi Gou. In 1888, Li Jinyong arrived in Yan Zhi Gou to manage a gold mine and recruited a large number of courtesans from cities in southern China such as Shanghai and Hangzhou. At that time, there were about 30 brothels, quite sizable, including courtesans from Japan, Russia, and other countries. Every day, after removing their makeup, the courtesans’ bathwater flowed into Jin Gou River, leaving a layer of rouge floating on the water’s surface, with its fragrance wafting for miles. This is another legend behind the name "Yan Zhi Gou" (Rouge Valley). They were adored and doted on by tens of thousands of miners. Among the mining officials, visiting brothels was considered fashionable, and some even took courtesans as concubines. Translator Wei Zhao Kang funded the adoption of a Japanese courtesan named Ayusang as his concubine. The courtesans of Yan Zhi Gou brought a touch of tenderness to the harsh cold and desolation of Mohe, though many of them also died here due to illness. Li Jinyong, sympathetic to their plight, allocated a piece of land as a cemetery to bury these women far from their hometowns and loved ones. There were also those who died under unnatural circumstances. Two Russian merchants visited the "Bai Hua Lou" (Hundred Flowers Building) and got into a fight with miners like Liu Chuang over jealousy, resulting in a brawl. Many women in the building tried to mediate, but two were struck and killed by flying sticks from the Russian merchants. After investigating the cause, the superintendent severely punished the Russians and immediately decided to hold a grand funeral for the two courtesans. Courtesans from every house came out in full to bid farewell to their sisters, and nearly all the miners stopped work to join the procession.

　　These special women, judged and praised—or criticized—by the world, accompanied the miners through the rise and fall of Yan Zhi Gou. They paid the ultimate price with their lives, their remains buried deep within the forested mountains. Though they have no incense offerings, no tomb inscriptions, they have drawn the footsteps of many seekers.