D. Maria Hill was the Spot where Adherents of the Past Dynasties, Ming and Qing, Looked Nostalgically to China in the Far Distance

The D. Maria Hill was the place where adherents and poets of the past dynasties, Ming and Qing, admired the seascape of Macao and looked nostalgically to China in the far distance.

During the 33rd of reign of Emperor Guangxu of Qing dynasty (1907), Zhang Yi (1871－1942), a painter-poet native of Panyu district of Guangdong who took permanent sojourn in Macao, composed a lyric poem titled “Lament at D. Maria Hill”. The verse, “when married couple settled in a drifting life of homelessness, things around them changed so rapidly that they dare not to look back to the old days”, is an emotive narrative of Zhang’s life.

In a poem of Qiu Fengjia (1864－1912), one of the three master poets of the Lingnan region of China in modern times, he metaphorically described the pounding waves at the foot of D. Maria Hill as “hordes of roaring and warring soldiers covered in armor made from rhinoceros’ hide”. The poet was a native of Zhengping county (today’s Jiaoling county) of Guangdong who had passed the “jinshi” level in the imperial examination.

Many other poets had works about D. Maria Hill too, namely Yang Zenghui of Shunde county who was a sojourner in Macao during late Qing era, Zheng Zheyuan of Xiangshan county who took refuge in Macao during the Second Sino-Japanese War period and Wu Daorong from Panyu district. After Xian Yuqing settled down in Macao, she had written poems about her visits of D. Maria Hill. Xian was an outstanding scholar and poetess of the Lingnan region of China in contemporary times.