Kangping village cave house. Picture provided by the interviewee

30 years ago, Yin Zhijun, a farmer in Northern Shaanxi, hooped Xinyao and married his daughter-in-law; Now, his son plans to live in a cave after he gets married.

Yin Zhijun was born in Kangping village, Fengzhuang Township, Baota District, Yan’an City. He lived in the cave for 52 years and experienced the changes of the cave from Earth kiln to stone kiln, from primitive to modern.

Cave dwelling is the residence of human beings on the Loess Plateau in Northwest China for thousands of years. People make use of the thick loess layer and favorable terrain on the plateau to dig holes and live. The cold comes and summer goes, and generations change. The cave is not only a witness to the hard-working and endless cultivation of the Chinese people on the high loess slope, but also an eternal home in the eyes of Yan’an people.

Many important historical moments are fixed in caves. In the 1930s, Edgar Snow, an American journalist, went deep into the revolutionary base areas in Northwest China and wrote a book “a journey to the west” with his own experience, which objectively reported the Communist Party of China and the Chinese revolution. It was in the caves in Yan’an that he and Mao Zedong had an in-depth discussion on China’s revolutionary road and other issues.

In the new era, the ancient Yan’an caves have taken on a new look. Walking on the Loess Plateau, newly completed caves are scattered among the valleys and hills, and more and more farmers choose to live in new caves. According to statistics, in the past ten years, more than half of Yan’an’s more than 1.5 million agricultural population moved to stone kilns.

Yin Zhijun is cleaning the yard. Photographed by Cao Bing

Yin Zhijun first lived in an earth kiln. At that time, the transportation was inconvenient and the freight was more expensive than stone. His cave is made of adobe and wheat straw yellow mud. In rainy days, it is not only wet, but also at risk of collapse. When he was 15, his family moved into a kiln made of miscellaneous stones.

A few years later, he went to work in a coal mine. His salary underground was 9 yuan a day, which was much more than farming.

In 1990, Yin Zhijun spent 9000 yuan to build a four hole stone kiln and moved into a new house with his newly married wife. In his opinion, only when you have a kiln and marry a wife can you get married.

Five years later, the cave in the village was supplied with tap water. In 2016, the government funded the cave with natural gas.

With continuously improved moisture-proof technology, spacious indoor space, modern furniture and electrical appliances, sufficient daylighting, and the improvement of the ecological environment brought by returning farmland to forests, Yin Zhijun found that he was increasingly inseparable from caves, so that it was “like suffering” to live in buildings in the city occasionally.

Yin Zhijun introduced the old furniture married at that time. Photographed by Cao Bing

“Many caves collapsed during the flood in Northern Shaanxi in 2013. After that, the village introduced a new type of waterproof resin tile to be laid on the top of the kiln, which is no longer afraid of rainstorm.” Yin Zhijun said.

Last year, he rented the two caves after replacing them with aluminum alloy doors and windows, earning 700 yuan a month. The other two self occupied caves still retain the wooden doors and windows of his marriage. “I can’t bear to change. I still keep the old furniture when I got married.”

At the same time, with the help of tourism development companies, more villagers packaged the idle caves into characteristic B & B to attract tourists to experience the original rural life in Northern Shaanxi.

“Now young people have gone out to work. Only the elderly and some women remain in the village, so there are caves left idle for home stay.” Yin Zhijun said.

Ma Hairong, Secretary of Kangping village branch, said that there are 45 cave houses in the village, and another 25 holes are under decoration. The newly renovated cave accommodation retains the traditional hot Kang and earth stove, and also installs modern facilities such as wireless internet access and cable TV.

“Cave accommodation is becoming more and more famous. It is often difficult to find a room on holidays.” He said.

Kangping village cave house. Picture provided by the interviewee

With stable rental income and tourists, more villagers began to join the service industry. After training, more than 20 villagers have become home stay room service and guide shopping. The subsequent rise of greenhouse picking and farmhouse restaurants also brought rich income to the villagers.

Yin Zhijun and his wife have been engaged in greenhouse planting for ten years. In the past, they needed to sell the cantaloupes harvested in the shed in Yan’an, 20 kilometers away. In recent years, a new road has been opened in the town, and an endless stream of tourists can buy up his melons and fruits. His family can earn 100000 yuan a year only.

Last year, he spent 150000 yuan to buy a car for his son. Yin Zhijun said that it’s OK for his son to get married and buy a house in the city. It’s ok if he wants to come back and live in a cave together.

Hao Shenglan, 72, has long moved into the new kiln, but she still goes back to the old cave every day.

Some old earth kiln caves in the village are still well preserved. In the 1960s and 1970s, Kangping village once arranged 14 Beijing educated youth to jump the queue and settle down. The cave built by Hao Shenglan’s family on the hillside as the residence of educated youth in Beijing has been changed to the former site of educated youth for tourists to study and visit.

The former site of educated youth. Picture provided by the interviewee

These several holes of earth kilns still retain the furnishings of the year. A piece of earth Kang, a water tank, several wooden boxes and a kerosene lamp are almost all the possessions in the cave. “At that time, the conditions were difficult, and five or six educated youth crowded on an earth Kang. They went out early and came back late every day to do farm work with us.” Hao Shenglan said.

Now, Hao Shenglan, who is over seventy years old, has a job to clean and maintain the old site, earning 600 yuan a month.

Ma Hairong said that although many Yan’an people have lived in buildings, they are still willing to come to the countryside to experience the traditional cave life. At present, relying on the rich revolutionary traditions and relics, as well as the teachers of Yan’an Cadre College, Yan’an University and other institutions, Kangping village has built a red education and training base, outdoor expansion training base, etc., and relying on education and training to drive rural tourism and increase farmers’ income through multiple channels.

He said that last year, Kangping village, with only more than 300 people, achieved a comprehensive tourism income of 1.2 million yuan and received 32000 tourists, many of whom were cadres of Party and government organs, employees of enterprises and institutions and students in school, and many foreign tourists came to experience the characteristic folk houses of caves.