Haibei Story 丨 North of the Great Lake

Out of Xihai Town, we headed west along the north shore of Qinghai Lake. Cars drive along the vast prairie, and the grassy slopes on the side of the road slowly undulate with the terrain.

From time to time, there were larks singing in the distance, and a reddish-brown lark flew over the side of the car, and the dexterous gesture made people rejoice. I was surprised by the number of larks around the West Sea, and their gentle songs rose and fell, as if they were an ode to nature.

Not far from the road, there is the undulating, blue-ribbon-like Qinghai Lake, which is like a straight, blue line, accompanying us on the left side above the horizon, parallel to us, looming and appearing.

Qinghai Lake, also known as "Tsowenbu", means "blue sea" in Tibetan. It is both the largest inland lake in China and the largest saltwater lake in China. It is it that nourishes the vast and fertile grasslands of the lake. This piece of grassland in western China has also added a lot of warmth.

This dream-like blue lake made my heart dream a lot of poetry, and also made me full of expectations for this trip.

Outside the car window, from time to time, there are herds of cattle and sheep wandering on the grass slopes, but it is rare to see herders. The sheep and the yaks, each one seemed so free, so scattered, they did not care about the passing vehicles, nor did they care about the eyes and lenses we were looking at.

They take lazy steps, just pacing in their own territory. To be able to glance at you casually is already extraordinarily gracious.

Occasionally, a few horses appear on the grass, which often surprises us. The horses produced around Qinghai Lake were famous during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and people called them "Qin Horses". The Book of Poetry once described the mighty and virtuous chi of the "Qin Horse".

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the horses here were mated with the "Wusun horse" and the "sweat and blood horse" to become a unique good horse. In the records of the history books, they are not only strong and good, but also known for their ability to fight in battle.

I looked curiously at the horses, hoping that they would run as suddenly as I had imagined, letting their fluttering manes flutter in the wind.

The master honked the horn a few times, but the horses still listened and nibbled on the food, paying no attention to us on the road. Suddenly I remembered the war horse that the protagonist Dunbar rode in the American Western movie "Dancing with Wolves", those beautiful wet eyes, the heroic appearance when galloping...

The weather was sunny and the sky was so blue that it made people's hearts tremble. The majestic Mt. Odori also winds its way, far away from our journey to the grasslands. There was still snow on the far mountain peaks.

The rising snow line year by year is worrying. At this moment, all you can see is a small piece of white, like a silver-white crown on a mountain peak.

The blue waves of Qinghai Lake, the rolling Odori Mountains, the abundant water and grass grassland... Such a scenery can't help but make people feel excited.

The midday sun on the plateau is so lively and unabashed. More light shines directly on the vast grassland. Fine blades of grass, unknown wildflowers, and hada-like streams of water all flashed silver in the sunlight without exception.

The light flickered, as if countless diamonds had been sprinkled on the earth, as if the heavens were deliberately adding a little playfulness to the prairie.

Occasionally, clusters of new blue-and-white mobile marquees flash by, which are private hostels owned by some herders. The round tent shone brightly in the sun. Colorful prayer flags flutter in the breeze, as if waving to you.

In the Qinghai Road of the Silk Road, which is recognized as the Qinghai Road of the Silk Road, there is a route that runs west from Luoyang and Xi'an, passes through the north or south bank of Qinghai Lake and then goes west, passes through Delingha, Dachaidan and Xiaochaidan in the Qaidam Basin, and leaves the Dangjin Pass in the north to Reach Dunhuang in Gansu and joins the main trunk of the Silk Road. I think that the north of this seemingly silent lake also had camel bells clanging, the sound of horses' hooves, and walked through teams of merchants and cultural messengers from the west to the east.

Unfortunately, we have nowhere to trace the many past events that have been lost in the smoke and dust of history.

Outside the car window, the green gentle slopes undulated like waves, they have witnessed the rise and fall of history and are accustomed to the change of the four seasons, but they never move, one after another, like a movement played softly under the sun. It is not a symphony, it is a soft slow board played softly by nature, a soothing and melodious tune of the violin.

The further you go to the northwest, the more yellow the grass becomes and the lower it gets. Horses, sheep and scattered tents increased.

Because of the high cold, the average altitude is mostly above 3300 meters, the summer here comes very late, the rape flowers have not yet bloomed, and only the wildflowers dotted on the grass.

The grass is far less turquoise than imagined, and many places are still mixed with last year's wild grass, which is the kind of dry, lonely but tenacious mustard grass. They stand in large clumps in large clumps of green grass, making the whole grassland yellow and yellow in the green.

The yellow-green grass slopes roll and roll along the side of the road, presenting a magnificent and vast landscape.

A Tibetan-style welcome gate appeared in front of it, which was a sign of entering Gangcha County.

Soon, at a wide pass, we entered the famous grassland tibetan city of Gangcha.

Gangcha is located in the northern part of the Qinghai Lake Basin and in the middle of the Datong Mountains of the Qilian Mountains. It belongs to Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Ancient for Qiangdi. In the third year of the Western Han Dynasty to Qing Yongzheng (1725), it belonged to Xihai County, and in 1953, Gangcha County was established. Rich in natural resources and abundant water and grass, it is one of the key pastoral areas around the lake in Qinghai Province.

Gangcha, which means "bone marrow" in Tibetan. According to legend, according to Tibetan customs in ancient times, after the baby was born, a little ghee was placed in the mouth to show good luck. However, because the Gangcha tribe had difficulties in life and did not have ghee, it smashed the sheep bone to take the marrow and replaced it, so it was called Gangcha.

I lived in Delhi when I was a child, and I used to pass by in a car, but I didn't have much of an impression of it. Maybe it's because it's skimmed by and rarely stayed. At that time, whether by car or train, there would always be food and accommodation in Hargai, and the only thing left in my memory was the Hargai railway station.

On the main street of Gangcha County, there are Tibetan-style buildings with distinctive characteristics everywhere, red, yellow and white, mostly red. The town is clean and tidy, looking rustic, plain, generous and beautiful.

It is a multi-ethnic settlement mainly inhabited by the Tibetan nationality, inhabited by 12 ethnic groups such as Tibetans, Han Chinese and Mongolians.

Our group planned to go to Cangyang Gyatso Cultural Square first. The Sixth Dalai Lama, Cangyang Gyatso, left a mysterious mystery for this land, but also left endless poetry and romance.

I heard that the Fairy Bay Scenic Area, which is 16 kilometers away from the county seat, is the place where Cangyang Gyatso was mysteriously disappeared on the way to Beijing. Unfortunately, the itinerary was hurried and I was unable to go there to see it as desired.

Cangyang Gyatso Cultural Square is a large area and consists of a plateau coastal Tibetan city theme sculpture, the Compassion and Wisdom Eye Thanksgiving Pagoda, and the Cangyang Gyatso Poetry Wall.

The Thanksgiving Pagoda is majestic and majestic, while a wall of poetry is exquisite and elegant, and a poem by Cangyang Gyatso is engraved on the unique Tibetan stone wall, written in Tibetan, Chinese and English.

The scorching sun sprinkled on the earth. The average summer sunshine here is more than 14 hours, and the intensity of ultraviolet rays makes the streets quiet and tired, almost no one is seen, and most of the women I occasionally meet wear masks.

The vigorous sand willows growing on the street caught our attention. Listen to the comrades of Gangcha County: In the past, only sand willows in Gangcha could survive, but in recent years, the ecological environment has been trending well, and the variety of plants has gradually increased.

The linear, turquoise leaves of the willow shimmered in the sunlight, and the breeze blew through and made a whispering sound.

Looking at the dense sand willow forest in front of you, gently caressing the slender turquoise leaves, a trace of kindness instantly gushed out from the bottom of my heart.

I haven't seen Sha Liu in years! Delhi used to have large tracts of sand willows. Sand willow, the easiest plant to live in the Gobi wasteland, has brought us a lot of green comfort and joy of life.

I remember the poem I wrote to Sha Liu many years ago:

Dear Sha Liu / Every time you appear / There seems to be a blue light / Let my eyes be so vast and clear / Let me travel through countless days / The overlap of sorrow and joy and triviality / Replant hope in the heart / Longing and hope

It's like old friends meeting! This tenacious green plant growing in the arid land has also brought a lot of comfort and encouragement to the Gangcha people, right?

The wind blew, the sand willow forest gradually rose and fell, and the layers of green waves rippled out, drawing a circle of ripples on my heart.

The wind tightened, and the rustling of the willow forest seemed to be pouring out to me the hard work and hard work, steadfastness and watchfulness of the past years. Does it bear witness to the history of the Gangcha people's pioneering and building of the city?

It must understand the sorrow and pain of life growing in the Gobi desert in the vast grasslands, and understand the joy and happiness in their hearts that never speak softly.

The comrades in the county pointed to an inconspicuous hillside not far from the Compassion and Wisdom Thanksgiving Pagoda and told us: There is the East Mountain. Standing on the top of the East Mountain, you can overlook the whole of Gangcha County.

I was hesitating whether to go there when the wind suddenly became stronger. It didn't know which direction it was scraping from, it had no head and no brain. Looking up, an inky black cloud was coming from the west. The clouds grew larger and larger, forming a patch above their heads.

We were anxious to find shelter from the wind, and the sky was instantly dark, dark and foggy.

The clouds rolled and hung low, rushing toward you in pieces and menacingly. Before you could catch your breath, in the blink of an eye, the rain came.

Watching the dense raindrops smash a small puddle on the ground, I found that this rain was not ordinary rain, but hailstones the size of soybeans. Pick it up with your hand, a little itchy and painful.

The hail crackled for less than ten minutes, and suddenly it rained again. There was a little bit of sun rain drifting in the air, but no one cared.

Is this the climate of the prairie? Change is change, change if you want to change. Spontaneous, casual, free-spirited.

After the rain washes away, the colors of this distinctive town become more intense and mellow, showing a different kind of brightness and poetry: the sky nearby is a large white and rolling cloud, and the sky in the distance is a layered cloud stained with gold edges.

Beyond the white clouds, there is the blue sky, the crimson sky, the sky stained like gray ink, and the distant and close blue dreamy Qinghai Lake...

The town shows a new look: the roads and houses are cleaner and brighter, the grass on the distant hillsides is crystal clear, shining with bright lights, and the dazzling light makes the hillsides become hazy...

The blue sky and white clouds appeared near the edge of the Qilian Mountains, and there seemed to be golden light bursting under the clouds...

We enjoy moments like this, forget the time, forget all the troubles...

After a performance with a very Tibetan character, the town gradually fell into darkness.

The banks of the Shaliu River, which are noisy and lively during the day, have become warm and sweet without the heat of the sun and the intensity of the rainstorm.

The street lights lit up one by one, and the town in the night was so quiet.

We strolled along the wooden boardwalk by the Shaliu River, the river rushing and flowing, because of the reflection of the lights, the surface of the water flashed countless small ripples.

The lights on the opposite shore are beautiful, and the yurt-shaped Gangcha County Tibetan City Performing Arts Center has lights in the corners and corners, and the "Qinghai-Tibet Ecological Theme Museum" with the shape of a mandala is even more majestic, transparent throughout, and looks gorgeous and spectacular. They all shone with brilliance in the deep blue night sky.

Next to the wooden boardwalk, there is a brightly lit "Ama La Tibetan Restaurant", and the original Tibetan playing and singing sound coming out of it is pure and magnetic, which sounds particularly moving in the night. Should it be the dragon head piano playing, or the mandolin playing?

The unique sensual meaning of the string music exudes a vague, sad and intoxicating texture under the cover of the night, as if you can reach out and touch those silky smooth notes, or you can witness those notes beating, flickering, moving in the direction, shaking hands and parting in the blue night...

Those notes and the ripples of the flowing water seem to be easily burned on their hearts, so that the heart also follows the wild, joyful, sad...

This Tibetan singer must be a very handsome shepherd boy, right? Or are the actors of the Prairie Art Troupe, who have just been interviewed during the day, come here to star in friendship?

There are too many singers on the prairie with such a natural voice, and they are naturally good at singing and dancing, which is enviable.

This song is so lingering, probably a love song, right? Is it telling the story of Cangyang Gyatso? He has added too much poetry and dreaminess to this land. Is it an unusual love for ordinary people? In this romantic and magical land, love is probably more likely to arise.

The river is babbling, the piano is melodious, and the song is lingering, gentle and faintly sad. Night, increase the sense of flow and undulation of the singer's voice, but also increase the emptiness and vastness of the melody...

Standing on the boardwalk, there is an unspeakable ironing in my heart. The beauty of the strings and the sound of rushing water, as well as the brilliant lights on the other side, made my heart a clear place.

How strange, in just one day, the north of the Great Lake, conquered me with its unique strength and femininity, making me unforgettable in this life!