Live Long and Prosper

Just being here adds years to your life -- or at least that's what elderly natives, eager government officials and hopeful visitors in this remote place contend. Poyue and several other villages near the Vietnam border in China's Guangxi Autonomous Region comprise a 'longevity cluster.' They claim an inordinate number of centenarians, including one said to be 113 years old. The surrounding Bama county, with a population of 250,000, has 74 centenarians, or about one for every 3,400 people, according to Luo Ronghui, a local tourism official. That's a far higher incidence than in the U.S. or even in Japan, which has one of the longest average life expectancies in the world.

Experts on aging are skeptical about the existence of longevity clusters, but that hasn't blunted Bama's ambitions to become a center for health tourism. Visitors who aren't interested in the supposedly life-prolonging air or soil will still find much to admire in the region's scenic limestone karsts, mud and stone dwellings and breathtaking caverns that are a natural sculpture gallery.

Bama's plans include building upscale accommodations for foreign tourists who want a spa vacation without the costly treatments, massages and exercise regimens. The pitch: Visitors need only hang out -- breathe the air, drink the water, eat the food -- and they'll benefit. 'The treasure of longevity in Bama belongs to people all over the world,' says Mr. Luo, whose office is in Bama City, a half-hour drive from the longevity villages. His expansive vision for the area's future includes a visitors' complex somewhere nearby, with separate facilities for different nationalities so that everyone will feel at home, he says. Tourism, currently no more than a trickle, could be a huge growth industry for the region. 'We can accommodate 10,000 tourists a day,' Mr. Luo says.

Frank Lin, a 61-year-old garment maker from Taiwan, is currently spending three months at Poyue's clean but spartan Life Extension Hotel, where a room and three meals costs the equivalent of $10 a day ($150 for a month). He came here last year with a group on a whirlwind tour of mainland China and liked it so well that he returned for another month. After 30 years of smoking, Mr. Lin says he gave up cigarettes during that month without a second thought and hasn't had one since. 'When people try to quit smoking in the city, they become irritable and think about cigarettes all the time,' he says. 'Here, I had no reaction. Bama is really blessed by God.'

Several other regions around the world are renowned for the unusually long life expectancies of their residents. No group investigates and certifies longevity-cluster claims, however, and no two lists of them are the same. The Caucasus Mountains in Russia, the Japanese island of Okinawa and the mountain town of Vilcabamba, Ecuador, are often mentioned. Dan Buettner, author of a book published by National Geographic earlier this year about diet and lifestyle in longevity clusters, even identifies a group of Seventh-day Adventists living in Loma Linda, Calif. Possible explanations range from eating yogurt (the Caucasus) to eating very little meat (Okinawa) to drinking water from melting glaciers (Vilcabamba).

Genetics is by far the most important factor, says Thomas Perls, associate professor of medicine and geriatrics at Boston University's School of Medicine and head of the New England Centenarian Study. The notion that something in the air, water or soil can prolong life is 'nonsense,' he says.

And longevity claims are only as credible as the birth records they're based on. Many places can't document the ages of the people in their purported cluster. 'A lot of the literature is filled with testimonials and anecdotes, but never any scientific evidence,' Prof. Perls says. Longevity clusters are 'mostly a marketing ploy.'

Don't tell anyone in Bama county, though. Water from the local river comes from springs and is considered so pure that it is drunk without treatment or filtration. I had three glasses of it during lunch at the Life Extension Hotel; it tasted fine and produced no gastric distress. Residents freely bat around terms that translate as 'low alkalinity' and 'magnetic fields' when describing the soil and water. Because local animals drink the local water and eat local plants, 'their meat is different,' says Mr. Lin, the Taiwanese visitor. 'People eat fatty meat here, but they're all thin. You never hear of a cancer case.'

Another believer is Huang Malun, who says she is 107. She and a dozen family members span five generations and all live in the same tiny house in Poyue. A wrinkled, sweet-tempered woman who walks with the aid of a cane, Ms. Huang recalls traveling with revolutionary Red Army soldiers decades ago; she helped their cause by making their clothes. 'We lived on wild vegetables,' she says. 'All the hardships were very tough.' How does she explain her long life? 'Organic food and the good air,' she says. 'I ate all naturally grown food. Now they use chemicals, and of course it's going to hurt.'

In Bama City, the four-star Longevity Hotel sells everything from Long Life bottled water to snakes coiled in a jar of alcohol (a staple of Chinese medicine). The hotel travel agency found a car and driver to take me, my translator and a guide to the villages for $30 a day. But we could find no one in the county who spoke even a few words of English. In the tourist center of Guilin, a one-day drive or a one-hour flight from Bama City, travel agencies have guides for hire that will set you back about $100 a day or more, plus expenses.

The road from Bama City to Poyue looks out at dramatic tree-lined rock outcroppings, the sort that inspired China's famous brushstroke paintings. Some locals say a supposedly high concentration of negative ions in the atmosphere -- remember the fad for home ion generators? -- inspires a feeling of exhilaration and explains residents' longevity tendencies. That may be -- but the scenery is so exhilarating that it's hard to believe that negatively charged particles could make much difference.

The longevity villages, with their stone or mud-brick houses and tile roofs, make for some scenic walking. Lunch at the Life Extension Hotel was delicious, although it's hard to tell if it was life-prolonging. The big bonus, though, was the Hundred Demon Cave, a network of caverns with immense rock hangings, like a vast sculpture gallery. The local government has built 2.5 miles of illuminated concrete walkways, with railings on steep portions, making for what is surely one of the world's most tourist-friendly caves -- despite the almost complete lack of tourists. Our guide said she sees a foreign visitor about once every two weeks.

The cave is popular among locals, however; they gather each morning to talk and play mah-jongg. They come because the cave's negative ion reading is supposedly off the charts. It was there that I met 84-year-old Guan Rongcang, a retired teacher who moved to Poyue four years ago. He is a walking commercial for Poyue's negative ions, bicycling twice a week into Bama City to shop -- a 36-mile round-trip. 'I'm famous in this area for my bike rides,' he says. 'Everyone knows me.'

要

长寿，到坡月──至少当地的老年人、急切的政府官员和满怀希望的游客是这么认为的。位于中国广西省壮族自治区和越南边界附近的坡月及其它几个村庄组成了一个“长寿之乡”。他们说这里的百岁老人比比皆是，其中一位更是113岁高龄。根据当地旅游官员罗荣辉（音）的介绍，长寿之乡所在的巴马瑶族自治县共有人口25万，超过百岁的人瑞竟多达74人，大约每3,400人中就有一个百岁老人。这个比例要比人口平均寿命居世界前列的美国、甚至日本都高出许多。

老龄化专家对长寿之乡的存在表示怀疑，但是这并没有妨碍巴马希望成为养生旅游中心的雄心。即便对当地延年益寿的水土不感兴趣的游客仍然能够在这里找到足以让他们留连忘返的景致──优美的石灰岩地形、独特的泥石建筑、令人叹为观止的天然岩洞，简直堪称一个自然雕塑博物馆。

巴马计划针对外国游客打造高端酒店，吸引他们来到一个没有昂贵治疗、按摩和健身器械的疗养胜地。巴马的卖点是：游客只需四处闲逛──呼吸新鲜空气，饮用山泉，享用土特食物──就能获益匪浅。在距离长寿村半个小时车程的巴马市办公的罗荣辉表示，巴马的长寿财富属于全世界。他说，他为巴马地区构想的未来发展蓝图包括在附近建设一个观光中心，来自不同国家的游客将入住不同风格的居所，让游客有宾至如归的感觉。该地区目前尚未形成规模的旅游业可能成为该地区一个巨大的增长点。罗荣辉表示，“我们每天能够接待上万名游客。”

现年61岁的台湾制衣商Frank Lin已经在坡月村干净而简朴的养生旅馆住了3个月，这里的客房加三餐只需每天10美元（月租为150美元）。去年，他跟随一个大陆观光团首次来到坡月村，没想到一下子就喜欢上了这里，后来又单独回来住了1个月。Lin说，他有30年的烟龄，在那个月，他想都没想就戒烟了，而且此后从未犯过烟瘾。他说，住在大城市的人试图戒烟的时候，一般都会变得性情暴躁，无法抵御烟瘾的诱惑。“而在这里，我根本没有什么不良反应。巴马真是受到上天的恩待。”

世界上还有其它几个地区也以当地人口异常长寿著称。不过，还没有任何机构对所谓的长寿村进行过调查或者验证，而且长寿村的名单各不相同。经常被提到的几个地区包括俄罗斯的高加索山区、日本的冲绳岛以及厄瓜多尔的山区小镇比尔卡班巴(Vilcabamba)。今年早些时候《国家地理》(National Geographic)出版了一本丹•布特尼(Dan Buettner)撰写的有关长寿人群饮食和生活方式的书，书中甚至发现一群住在加利福尼亚州罗玛琳达的基督复临安息日会教友要比一般人长寿很多。对长寿秘诀的解释通常包括经常食用酸奶（高加索），少吃肉（冲绳岛），饮用融化的冰川水（比尔卡班巴）等等，不一而足。

波士顿大学医学院(Boston University's School of Medicine)的医学和老人病学副教授、新英格兰百岁老人研究(New England Centenarian Study)项目负责人托马斯•佩尔斯(Thomas Perls)表示，到目前为止，遗传基因是最重要的因素。他说，那些认为长寿与空气、水或者土壤所含物质有关的观点简直就是“胡说八道”。

另外，长寿说法的可靠性还有赖于出生记录的可靠性。许多地方无法提供他们所声称的长寿人群年龄的记录。佩尔斯教授说，很多说法充斥着他人陈述和奇闻轶事，但是从来就没有任何科学证据。长寿村的说法“基本上是一种营销策略”。

不过，可别跟任何巴马县的人说这个。据说这里河流的水源都是山泉，非常纯净，无需处理或者过滤就可以饮用。在长寿酒店吃午餐的时候，我喝了三杯山泉水；味道很不错，没有感到任何的胃部不适。在描述当地水土的时候，这里的人经常用到表示“低硷”和“磁场”的词。上文提到的台湾游客Lin说，由于这里的动物喝当地的水，吃当地的植物，因此肉质很不同。“这里人都吃肥肉，但是他们都很瘦。从来没有听说过有人患癌症。”



Stan Sesser / The Wall Street Journal



107岁的黄马伦（音）曾跟红军战士一起行军



另外一个信徒是黄马伦（音），她说她107岁了。她家是五代同堂，全家十几口都住在坡月村一所小房子里。黄女士满脸皱纹，性情和蔼，走路的时候杵着拐杖。她对我们回忆起几十年前跟红军战士一起行军的往事；那时候她帮红军做衣服。她说：我们只能靠吃野菜维生，非常艰苦。”她有什么长寿秘诀吗？她说是有机食物和新鲜空气。“我吃的东西都是自然生长的。现在，他们老是用农药，那样当然对身体不好。”

在巴马市，四星级的长寿酒店(Longevity Hotel)里在出售长寿水和蛇酒等多种长寿商品。酒店的旅行社找到一个司机开车带我前往巴马县，一天30美元。但是，我们在巴马县找不到会说英语的人。旅游胜地桂林距离巴马市一天的车程，坐飞机的话只要一个小时，在那里你可以雇用当地旅行社的导游，不过一天需要100美元以上，外加各种费用。

从巴马市到坡月村，路两旁是树木和岩石构成的美丽风景，彷佛中国水彩画一般。一些本地人表示，这里的空气富含负离子（还记得曾经流行的家庭离子机吗？）让人感到身心愉悦，这正是当地居民大多长寿的原因。也许吧，但是这里的景致本身是那么妙不可言，很难相信负离子还能有多大关系。

长寿村的房子通常是石头或者土砖修葺而成，屋顶则铺置瓦片，一路上风景别致，很适合漫步。养生旅馆的午餐异常美味，虽然很难说它到底有没有延年益寿的功效。不过，最大的惊喜是百魔洞，这是一个壮观的石灰岩溶洞，就像一座巨大的雕塑博物馆。当地政府修建了一条长达2.5英里的水泥人行道，不仅有灯光照明，在陡峭的地区还设有护栏，堪称世界上最具旅游潜力的岩洞──尽管这里根本就没有多少游客。有位导游说，她每隔两周左右会见到一位外国游客。

不过，百魔洞在当地居民当中很受欢迎；他们每天清晨都会聚在这里聊天，打麻将。他们喜欢百魔洞是因为这里的空气富含负离子。我在那里遇到了84岁的退休教师关荣仓（音），他是四年前搬到坡月村的。他每周两次骑车到市里采购，往返36英里，可谓是坡月村负离子的流动广告。他说，“因为经常骑车的缘故，我在这里很出名。大家都认识我。”