Devote Affection to it and Future is Promising

Mansion, big tree or great master are always marks of the universities at home and abroad which possess long history. Although it is not long since SUSTC was built, in the core of the campus stands a centennial ancient banyan tree. Through years of wind and rain, it witnesses the various changes and becomes a unique landscape in SUSTC campus.

Standing under this tree, you will find that its trunk is very thick. Only several adults hand in hand are able to embrace this tree. This tree has big crown as well as luxuriant branches and leaves. If you want to take a panoramic picture of it, you need to move back for several decameters. Locating in front of the gate of students’ canteen and diagonally across the teaching building where students will pass to attend classes or people will pass to have meals in canteen enables this tree to be familiar to most people. Probably it is the only one who can recognize all people in the campus. We can see that it is also respected by people from the refurbished Earth Temple in front of it. And the new tributes also reveal that people love it although few of them come to worship. We’ve learned from villagers that the ancient tree has experienced more than 300 years of wind and rain as well as witnesses the historical changes of Fuguang village and Shenzhen. The villagers treat it as a sacred tree.

The place where this ancient tree locates is originally owned by Fugang village, a village of centennial history before it becomes the campus of SUSTC. In 2008, Fuguang village and another village called Tianliao were demolished entirely due to the establishment of the South University of Science and Technology as well as the new campus of Shenzhen University. “Project of the South University of Science and Technology and New Campus of Shenzhen University” is considered as the largest demolition project since Shenzhen special economic zone was established. The total planned area of lands is about 3.72 square kilometers, among which the area of lands used by SUSTC is 2.16 square kilometers and the area of lands used by new campus of Shenzhen University is 1.56 square kilometers. This project involves three villages in South Mountain-Fuguang, Tianliao and Changyuan villages. The total area of lands demanded to be demolished is about 1,470,000 square meters among which area of nonresidential real estate is 1,170,000 square meters and area of residential real estate is about 300,000 square meters as well as Fuguang and Tianliao villages need demolishing entirely. About 700 enterprises and 50,000 people need relocating. In order to always remember the support and contribution provided by the local villagers as well as respect tradition and protect nostalgia, the ancient banyan tree is preserved in good condition during the establishment of SUSTC campus and now becomes a unique landscape in the campus.

In January of this year, we found relevant records about this ancient banyan tree in a brochure called Memory • Fuguang Village which was published jointly by Fuguang community work station and Fuguang Industrial co. ltd.. The records about this tree are put in the opening parts of the brochure and the black-and-white picture of it has recorded its original appearance.

An old picture of Fuguang villagers

In the memories of Fuguang villagers, the ancient banyan tree located in the west of the village’s entrance. It witnessed the historical changes of Fuguang village and kept green, tall and luxuriant throughout the year regardless of typhoon, lightning or vicissitudes of everything. South Mountain District’s cultural relics management department protected it by decorating a guardrail and hanging up archive card of ancient tree. Villagers admired its exuberant vitality, so they set up censers and altars at its root. On every first and fifteenth day in lunar calendar, people would come to worship and burn incenses to pray for good harvest and safety of family.

During the demolition, except the ancient banyan tree, a barbican was also preserved. According to the record, this barbican was made of cement bricks with about 10 meters in height and 100 square meters in area. It was the unique barbican in Fuguang village. Currently it is still solid and strong after going through torture of time. The inheritor of this barbican is an old man of 84 years old called Xie Hehuan. She said that the barbican was built to defense bandits in those days. Before 1949, bandits often appeared near Fuguang village. They kidnapped a child of rich family in Wenwu village and obtained a lot of money. This matter happened when Xie Hehuan was four or five years old. When her grandfather Xie Jiatian heard about this matter and was told by a friend from Longhua that some bandits had targeted his wealth, preparing to kidnap his two sons, he built this barbican as per Cantonese practice to protect family and property from bandits in advance. This barbican was built by leveling a small barren mountain at the edge of the village. The materials of this barbican are cane sugar, lime, papers shaped in shoe-shaped gold ingot and stones. Xie Jiatian employed several craftsmen and spent over a year completing it with over 1500 silver dollars. Maybe due to the barbican, bandits did not invade them. It protected the village, so people call it Hermitage. Gradually this building became the unique landmark building in the whole village due to the high construction cost of barbicans others can not afford. Later, militia, the guerrillas, the Japanese had lived in it and food had been put in it in the early days of our country’s foundation. After the reform and opening-up policy, as housing condition of villages had been improved, the barbican left unused because it was light-proof with bad ventilation. The government retained this old barbican during the demolition and also paid compensation to Xie’s family.

Time passes quickly. On March 8, 2015, new and tall residential buildings erected rank upon rank at the riverside of Dasha, the north foot of Tanglang Mountain. The memorial archway “New Fuguang Village” appeared before everyone and over 2000 Fuguang villagers moved in their new village. In the past countless days, the ancient banyan tree and barbican were always the symbols to keep watch homeland. Nowadays, they have been a landscape of SUSTC campus and witness of SUSTC’s construction and development.

The emerging campus comprises centennial ancient tree, science and technology as well as civilization and millennium inheritance, lasts long and becomes newer. We firmly believe that our future is promising if we devote affection to nostalgia.