Text/Qiao Bifeng
I feel that when people pass the age of 50, they enter the stage of loving memories. Recently, idle, occasionally flipping through notes, the cultural tourism industry inspection ten years ago is still unforgettable, and many details are still fresh in my memory.
In early May 2012, the county successfully held a large-scale cultural tourism festival, which set off a boom in the development of the cultural tourism industry in the county. The county party committee decided to take advantage of the situation and organize a delegation to study the cultural tourism industry in other places, so as to promote the great development of the local cultural tourism industry, and I was honored to be a member of the delegation.
The delegation lasted one week, spanning four provinces and covering more than 5,000 kilometers.
At 6 a.m. on May 28, the delegation gathered and set off from the county seat at 7:30. In the car, I looked at the list of members of the delegation, there were 17 people, including 3 county leaders, 4 bureau chiefs, 2 township mayors, 1 deputy office director, 1 office secretary, 1 reporter, and 5 drivers.
There were four people in our car, two men and two women, Minister Liu and Chief Shan Xiang, a woman, and the other was Director Wang of the Cultural and Broadcasting New Bureau. Since the delegation did not publish the inspection schedule, no one knew the destination ahead, and our car had to follow the lead car. Later, the convoy got on the Nanluo Expressway and headed towards Henan.
Outside the car window, under the warm sun, the wheat waves are rolling, the grass is miserable, and it is full of life. My mood was also relaxed, and my tense nerves were temporarily calmed. While we were laughing, the lead car called and said that the leader had arrived at this morning's destination, and that lunch had been arranged at the restaurant and was waiting for us, asking to speed up the car.
So, we picked up the speed and arrived at the hotel at 12:30. At this time, we learned that this is the Central Plains Big Buddha Scenic Area. After dinner, our group inspected the scenic spot with the leader.
Zhongyuan Big Buddha Scenic Area is located 50 kilometers west of Lushan County, at the end of the Zhengzhou-Yaoshan Expressway, and the intersection of National Highway 311. According to the tour guide, here is a fusion of cultural landscape and natural landscape, with the world's first Buddha, the first bell, the first soup in the mainland, and is the leading scenic spot of Henan Funiu Mountain ecological tour. After more than 10 years of construction, the scenic spot has begun to take shape. It may be around noon, and there are not many tourists here. I found that the infrastructure here is not yet perfect, and the software for the service is not very mature. However, the scenic area has convenient transportation, surrounded by mountains, beautiful mountains and waters, and beautiful environment, and the development potential here must be great.
At 3:17 p.m., we left the scenic area, passed through Luoyang, Sanmenxia, Yuncheng, and arrived in Linfen at 8 p.m.
After walking around the city several times, we found a suitable restaurant, and the leader still ordered food at the restaurant as usual. It was already 10 o'clock at night after we finished eating, and the director of the office informed everyone to get in the car and continue to hurry, and live in Pingyao at night.
After we got into the car, we all felt a little tired and fell asleep unconsciously, only the driver Xiao Zhao stared ahead, accompanied by the snoring inside the car and the whistling sound outside the car, running lonely on the highway. When we woke up one after another, we had already arrived at the ancient city of Pingyao. That night, I stayed at Pingyao Fengyan Jianguo Guesthouse, and it was 12 o'clock at night when I arrived at the room.
After breakfast on May 29th, the sky was drizzling and the temperature dropped a bit, and I was wearing only a short-sleeved shirt, which felt a little cold, but I could hold on. We all gathered in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for the leader to go downstairs to visit the ancient city of Pingyao.
At 8:30, the reception staff of Pingyao County guided us to the ancient city by tour bus. The tour guide who explained to us was a young girl in a red cheongsam, tall and beautiful. She led us on a walk along the ancient city walls, smiling and talking.
Ancient Pingyao City has a history of more than 2,700 years, and the people have the saying of "Turtle City". The street planning is designed in the style of a spirit turtle, and the city is divided into four streets, eight small streets, and 72 winding alleys, presenting the eight trigrams on the tortoise shell, intertwined with longitude and latitude, and the main and secondary are clearly distinguished. West Street is named Fengyi, East Street is famous Qinhan, North Street is named Gongji, South Street is named Yingxuan, and the Central City Building. The South City Gate is also famous as the "Urn City", that is, a small wall is built outside the main city wall, the same height as the main city wall, which is the need for defense in ancient times, and the purpose of such construction is to form a "turtle in the urn" against the enemy, which has important military significance in history. The ancient city was built in strict accordance with the order of "rites", whether it is Yamen, temples, or people's houses, all of them are decent, strictly emphasizing squareness, dignification, and symmetry in the central axis, reflecting harmony, moderation, and distinctive Confucianism and Taoist culture.
Next, we come to the city's famous South Street, which was developed into a commercial street with Ming and Qing dynasty architecture, with shops displaying Shanxi aged vinegar, local beef, jujube, paper-cutting and lacquerware. I found that the lacquerware here is very good, the workmanship is exquisite, all kinds of jewelry boxes are dazzling, but the price is not cheap, the cheapest is also three or four hundred yuan, the two ladies who are with me are more fond of this, lingering in front of the jewelry box counter, may be entangled in the price, until the car is about to leave and did not start, which left a small regret for the two ladies.
Then, we visited the Temple of Literature and the ancient county temple in the city, but what surprised me was the famous first ticket number in China - Risheng Chang.
Risheng Chang is located in Pingyao West Street, this street is famous for Risheng Chang, this is really a magical street, say the street, not that the street is wide and high, but its history is deep, so large that it is the "first street of Daqing finance".
The street is really not wide, the stone slabs of the pavement have been polished and rounded by the years, and there are still two deep rut marks on the granite thresholds of each large gatehouse, you can imagine how busy this street was back then.
These carriages and horses come and go from south to north, carrying money and materials, carrying southern and northern tunes, carrying exotic customs, carrying business dreams, and carrying the great integration of a culture and the great smoothness of economic blood.
Entering the Sunrise Courtyard, I was immediately struck by the compound. The blue-gray houses are elegant and chic, the high walls of the forest are lined up, and the heavy "Convergence of the World" plaque hangs high on the door, after one or two hundred years of ups and downs, everywhere has looked old, but it gives people the feeling of the wind bones.
Standing in this courtyard, I wondered how clever and brilliant the Jin merchants were in those days, who unloaded the heavy burden of real silver transportation in ancient China, achieved a more brisk commercial circulation, and finally established a professional and networked currency exchange mechanism.
Walking out of Risheng Chang, we came to Shuanglin Temple, located in Qiaotou Village, six kilometers southwest of Pingyao County.
The guide who received us was a pregnant woman of about 30 years old, she was dressed in a black maternity dress, her skin was slightly yellow, her steps were slow, and she obviously had the fatigue that ordinary pregnant women often have.
I have a feeling of pity for her in my heart, such a woman with a body of six should not come out to do things again, this is probably forced by life. But her explanation is very serious, and the level is not ordinary, which is very admirable.
Shuanglin Temple is a Buddhist temple with a long history. The Tang locusts, Song steles, Ming Bells, ancient buildings, painted sculptures and murals in the temple are rare treasures. In particular, the more than 2,000 painted clay sculptures in the temple are even more commendable.
They inherit the fine traditions of the mainland Tang Dynasty and Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan color sculpture, and have a highly realistic style, and are the best in mainland Ming sculpture. These colorful shapes have both gods and gods, and their artistic value is extremely high, and they are known as the "Museum of Ancient Sculpture".
After seeing the Shuanglin Temple, it was already past 12 noon, and the comrades of the Pingyao County Party Committee arranged for us to have lunch, and at 1:30 p.m. we left Pingyao and went to Datong on the Universiade Expressway.
(To be continued)