After leaving Dunhuang, the tourist bus we took began to travel through the snowy mountains of the plateau.
Passing through the snow-capped mountains that stretch for half a day, the altitude is constantly rising, the temperature is constantly decreasing, and the dense snow-capped mountains are close at hand.
On the eighth day of the tour, we ended the tour and returned to Lanzhou City from Xining City. The next step is a continuation of the Silk Road. Wuwei was our first stop at the parade since then.
Book the Piper Cloud Hotel in Wuwei Ancient City in advance at Qunar. On the morning of May 24, we boarded the green train from Lanzhou to Wuwei.
Wuwei City
Wuwei, known as "Liangzhou" in ancient times. It is not only "the world wants to rush, the national guard", but also "the five cool Jinghua, the capital of Hexi".
(Only the South City Gate Tower preserved in Wuwei Ancient City)
After Huo Qubing repulsed the Xiongnu in Hexi twice in 121 BC, the Western Han Dynasty set up four counties in the Hexi region, namely Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang, which were historically known as the "Four Counties of Hexi", also known as the "Hexi Corridor".
As the source city of the Hexi Corridor, Wuwei highlights the "martial arts and military might" of the Han Empire. It is not only the economic hub of the ancient Central Plains and the Western Regions, the place where the Central Plains culture and the Western Regions culture converge and spread, but also the key point of the western section of the Silk Road, and a city where Chinese and foreign businessmen gather.
Today's Wuwei is only showing the world a copper galloping horse. However, how many people mention the hometown of copper galloping horses?
Wuwei Xixia Museum
Daxia opened the country, and Liang was a supplementary county.
Xixia, a familiar but unfamiliar term. Regarding its ins and outs, or when conceiving this text, Baidu data suddenly realized one or two, here will not repeat the ups and downs of the Western Xia Kingdom in the past two centuries.
So, what cultural heritage did the Western Xia Kingdom leave behind in Wuwei?
With such doubts, we walked into the Xixia Museum in Wuwei City.
(Wuwei Xixia Museum)
(Xixia script, horizontal and vertical skimming vertical hook.) ）
(Western Xia woodblock prints with Western Regions style)
(Western Xia yellow-glazed porcelain vase compatible with the Western Regions style of the Central Plains)
(Western Xia embroidered shoes with strong Chinese original flavor)
(Xixia Monument)
The Western Xia Stele is the treasure of the Western Xia Museum, and its full name is "Liangzhou Renovated Protector Temple Sense Tong Pagoda Inscription". The discovery of the Western Xia stele let the world know that the Western Xia, which was only a century and a half old, had its own writing and religion, and thus glimpsed that the Western Xia Kingdom, which "ends the Yellow River in the east, the Yumen Gate in the west, Xiaoguan in the south, the desert in the north, and the place is more than 10,000 li", also created its own glory in that era.
Liangzhou words
In the ancient poems of primary and middle school, I learned "Liangzhou Words": grape wine luminous cup, want to drink pipa immediately urge...
From the Han to the Tang Dynasty, Wuwei County is the largest ancient city in the northwest region of the mainland after Chang'an, and the former Liang, Later Liang, Southern Liang, Northern Liang and the Great Liang in the early Tang Dynasty were built here during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and later it was ruled by successive counties, prefectures and prefectures, and was for "Five Liang Jinghua, Hexi Metropolis".
However, in the Tang Dynasty, Wuwei also faced disturbances from the countries of the Western Regions. Due to frequent wars and unique regional customs, many literati came to Wuwei at that time, leaving behind the poetry of Yongliangzhou represented by the famous "Liangzhou Words" (行, 曲, poem, song), which became a considerable and special poetic phenomenon in the poetry of the Tang Dynasty.
Wuwei's stay was short, and we tasted the characteristics of this 2,000-year-old city as much as possible, and also took this opportunity to taste the charm of the Great Northwest.
Leaving Wuwei, our next leg begins.