Visited April 2019. I have visited only one component of three, the easiest to get, the largest, the oldest and the best preserved (that’s what they say) – Laosicheng (老司城) tusi domain in Hunan Province, not too far from Yongshun ((永顺) where I started the journey. Here you must find the local bus station (it does not look like a bus station, hidden somewhere among communist era apartment blocks) from where a minibus will take to the site; there is at least one minibus an hour, the last one at 5 p.m.

The archaeological site is the last stop, after 40-minute drive through very nice area. When we got there you do not have to ask anymore because everything is clearly mark, although… I was not able to find the ticket office, so I visited without paying. I went to the police station to leave my backpack where I had a cup of green tea with the policemen and guards. And the I went down to the river. There used to be two bridges to cross it (still seen on the plan of the area), but one of them has gone. On this side of the river there are remains o village walls and watch-out tower, and a newly reconstructed temple. I wanted to see the Hall of the Patriarch and was shown the way by local people – Laosincheng is still a living village. It is located at least 2 kilometres from the bridge, on the other side, and the walk itself is nothing special – you follow the so called cobbled ceremonial path. The Hall, made of wood and reconstructed many times in its history, was first built in the first half of the 10th century and is a typical building of Tujia minority (for me it was pretty difficult to find these Tujia elements, but there are informative boards in English, so I got the clue). But buildings were closed so I just walked around and came back to the main site, after taking some picture from the hill opposite the Hall. There were only few Chinese tourists wandering around like myself.

To get to the administrative, residential and funeral quarters of the domain, you have to pass through a modern village with some exhibition halls and craft workshops. There again you’ll see some reconstructed temples (among them Ancestral Hall of the Peng family – they were the tusis – with fly of stone stairs), Memory Archway, Ancient Tomb Complex, water management system, road system, and administrative buildings, of course, only some remains of them. I spent almost five hours there and when came back to the police office and the bus stop – I discovered that the last bus back to Yongshun left at 5pm.

If you’re not lucky, you can stay there for a night, there are some rooms for rent. But I was lucky and met a group of Chinese tourists speaking English. They invited me for dinner and brought back to the city. They also explained that the right way to visit the site starts at the visitors’ centre located few kilometres before the site itself; you have to leave the bus at the stop called Museum. There, you pay your entrance fee, visit the museum and some smaller remains, and then you’re put on an electric vehicle to be taken to where I started. Then you board a small vessel and are accompanied to the Patriarch Hall, they open it when a boat arrives. Then you walk around as long as you like.

I missed the museum, but what I’ve seen and what I learnt was satisfying. (Photo: Memory Archway and burial mound in the background)