2021 Ningxia "two suns and one promotion" the first stop Yanchi County: the hometown of tan sheep carrying hard salt ponds

Hangzhou's G20 summit gave the world the first taste of the salt pond. Nowadays, the Ningxia Yanchitan sheep have been on the state banquet and are known as the top of the mutton. Hangzhou Louwailou, a century-old shop, where you can eat authentic salt pond beach sheep, but here you can't see the figure of lamb in the summer menu.

Yanchitan sheep have today's quality, not only because Yanchi has a unique ecological environment and pasture resources, but more importantly, Yanchi people continue to pursue the pure genes of the Yanchitan sheep population, so the spirit of death seems to be the "hardness" in the mouth of the people of Yanchi, which comes from the inheritance of the spirit of the Red Old District.

"Once the spring rain has passed, everything is clear", this year is the centenary of the founding of the party and the 85th anniversary of the liberation of Yanchi County. Yanchi was the first county liberated in Ningxia by the Red Army of the Western Expedition, the only county in Ningxia, the revolutionary base area of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, and one of the places where the spirit of Yan'an was practiced.

Salt salt, fur, sweet licorice and small grains abundant in the salt ponds provided an important material guarantee for the success of the Chinese revolution. Chairman Mao once pointed out that Ding (Dingbian) salt (salt pond) is the economic center of the border area," "the government should buy a batch of beach sheep from the salt pond," and "this wool is very fine and soft, and can produce two catties per sheep per year."

The felt hat worn by Chairman Mao was produced at the famous Yanchi Yuanhua Factory. The Yuanhua factory produced a large number of military supplies such as clothes tires, quilt tires, and felt hats for cadres in the border area and front-line soldiers. Today, the former site of the Yuanhua factory has become a production site for handmade carpets and two-fur for intangible cultural heritage projects, and it takes several months to weave pure wool carpets. This handmade method has been used since the establishment of the Yuanhua Factory in 1943, when they were used to support the War of Resistance, and now they have become the most representative tourist goods in Yanchi.

This is the story of the salt pond, but not the whole story, here you can also touch the Sui ming Great Wall, look up at the brilliant starry sky... Of course, the most important thing is that you can get to know the people of the old district who still retain the custom of "fighting the ping gang" here, and they have evolved the custom of "fighting the ping gang", which used to be poor and could only make up money to buy sheep to eat, into a good thing to share together.

Come on friends, let's taste the purest wine, taste the freshest meat, and ride the horse and whip together in the salt pond grassland, not to bear the hard, not to live up to the Qing! (China Daily Ningxia Reporter Station Hu Dongmei)