The imposing National Liquor Gate, built in traditional Chinese style, visible from a brand new bridge over the fast-flowing Yanjin River, welcomes visitors to Maotai — a charming town wrapped in several layers of history.
Maotai, in the country’s southwest is touted as China’s liquor capital. Its famous Maotai Baiju (a typical Chinese brew) or simply Maotai, has been the toast of the elite for several thousand years.
Pride of place at state banquets
More recently, in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), it has been the favoured beverage at state banquets. It caught international attention when Mao Zedong toasted former U.S. President Richard Nixon with Maotai. Nixon’s 1972 visit was a game-changing event, which permanently split the Cold War communist alliance between China and the former Soviet Union.
Amid glitzy advertising, sickly sweet wafts of alcohol, made from Sorghum, are inescapable inside the town, where nearly half the land is owned by the state-run Guizhou Maotai Liquor Company. Seven exhibition halls — a part of the National Liquor Culture City, inside the factory, showcase that the art of making the Maotai wine is a timeless tradition.
Focus on liquor culture
The seven chambers, each with a unique architectural style, exhibit the liquor culture of the Han, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and beyond.
But Maotai town has much more to offer than alcohol. It is an inseparable part of the heroic Long March — a 12,000-kilometer trek over snowy mountains and fast-flowing rivers — of the Red Army to escape a deadly and existential siege imposed by the forces of the Kuomintang (KMT), led by Chiang Kai-Shek.
Long March
The success of the Long March 80 years ago was a turning point, leading to China’s liberation in 1949. In his 1937 classic, Red Star over China, American journalist Edgar Snow distils the essence of the Long March: “Adventure, exploration, discovery, human courage and cowardice, ecstasy and triumph, suffering , sacrifice, and loyalty, and then through it all, like a flame, an undimmed ardour and undying hope and amazing revolutionary optimism of those thousands of youth who would not admit defeat by man or nature or God or death — all this and more seemed embodied in the history of an odyssey unequaled in modern times.”
The Red Army’s four crossings of the Chishui River — which bisects Maotai town — following the famed Zunyi conference of January 1935, were central in permanently breaking the encirclement by KMT and its “warlord” allies. The conference at Zunyi city, led to the emergence of Mao Zedong as the master strategist of the Long March, and eventually the tallest leader of the PRC.
Suspension foot bridge
A suspension foot bridge over the Chishui River, links the two flanking slopes of Maotai. From the bridge are visible four hill top orange pillars, a memorial to the four crossings of the river. Soon after the Zunyi conference, Red Army troops headed northwards to cross the Yangtze River and break out of the siege. But their losses in the battle of Tuchen by forces loyal to a Sichuan warlord allied to KMT forced them to turn westwards, across the Chishui river in a bid to enter Yunnan province.
However, the heavy presence of Yunnan troops another ally of KMT, triggered a tactical retreat, resulting in second crossing of the Chishui river at Taipingdu.
On March 16, 1935, a third attempt to cross the river from Maotai also proved abortive, resulting in yet another pullback and the fourth crossing the river, as the troops headed southwards again.
And the tactical brilliance
But tactical brilliance, finally saved the day. With Mao in overall command, the Red Army successfully staged a feint that it was concentrating forces to takeover Guiyang, a provincial capital southwards of Zunyi.
The stratagem worked, forcing the KMT and Yunnan troops to hastily transfer forces for the city’s defence. Sensing an opportunity, the Red Army, instead of concentrating on Guiyang, looped a dramatic about-turn, and crashed into Yunnan, now lightly defended, breaking the KMT’s siege permanently.
In today’s Maotai, Red tourism coexists with the town’s liquor culture. From the hilltop memorial, a stream of cars — some from the not-so-distant city of Chongqing — bring tourists in droves. After dusk, indulgence in street food is routine, with Yangrou Fen, a spicy lamb and rice noodle soup, being a local favourite. Sometimes, the jarring notes of a noisy rock concert in the background, perhaps out of sync with town’s cultural rhythm, are an unavoidable hazard.
