Looking up at the "Noah's Ark" on the Jinkou River‖ Yuan Zheng

Look up at the "Noah's Ark" on the Jinkou River

Yuan Zheng

In the late autumn, snow has drifted in many parts of the motherland, but the western part of the Sichuan Basin is still full of emerald green and beautiful scenery. Chen Yinong and Tao Hongsheng, my old comrades-in-arms of the "Red First Division," and my old colleagues Wu Jiarong and Jia Xiansheng bid farewell to the Railway Soldier Museum with our families, and then drove around the Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon in the Jinkouhe District of Leshan City.

Introduction to the Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon Scenic Area (Photo by Zhang Ying)

Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon Scenic Area is located at the junction of Leshan City, Ya'an City and Liangshan Prefecture, and is the core component of Dadu River Canyon National Geopark and Grand Canyon National Water Conservancy Scenic Area, with an area of about 34.4 square kilometers.

Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon is a typical canyon formed by hundreds of millions of years of glacier incubation and new tectonic movement, which records the geological evolution history of the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, has well-preserved geological fossil sites, and is also a gene bank of natural animals and plants, known as "geological heavenly book" and "vast valley".

Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon Scenic Area (Luo Mei photo)

Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon is the longest, most dangerous, deepest, strangest and most secluded canyon in Sichuan, with a total length of 26 kilometers, a valley width of 70 to 150 meters, and a maximum valley depth of 2600 meters, comparable to the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canyon of the United States.

Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon Guancunba Station Tunnel (Photo by Peng Fang)

The strange peaks on both sides of the Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon protrude and the dangerous rocks stand up, forming a variety of pictographic landscapes. In 2001, the Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon was rated as a National Geopark by the Ministry of Land and Resources; In October 2005, it was rated by China National Geographic as one of the top ten most beautiful canyons in China; In January 2019, it was rated as a national 4A-level tourist attraction.

Scenery of The Grand Canyon of Jinkou of Dadu River (Photo by Qi Xiaoling)

We drove along the road along the Dadu River, and we felt that the scenery was dazzling. The water road at the bottom of the valley is accompanied by turquoise waves, winding into the mountains.

Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon Water Highway (Photo by Xu Bo)

The sky overhead is like a knife and axe splitting a gate, opening the light for the canyon.

Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon line sky (jiang less than photo)

The concentric rope bridge is like a metal rainbow, connecting the Yi and Han compatriots on both sides of the strait.

Cruise ships shuttle back and forth, bringing the smiling faces of tourists to the surface.

Boat cruise on the Grand Canyon of Jinkou on the Dadu River (Photo by Xu Bo)

Waterfalls of all sizes flow down from the clouds. There are thousands of walls on both sides of the river, and many cliffs are almost vertical. The rushing water of the river leaves a clear layer of markings on the cliff wall, each of which records the changes of the years.

The gallery-like section is high up in the observation deck and parking lot for visitors to stop and take photos. Being able to drive on such a peculiar highway does not give people a great sense of accomplishment!

Dadu River Jinkou Grand Canyon (Romei photo)

In Western mythology, Jehovah, the God who created and dominated everything in the universe, saw that the earth was full of evil and planned to destroy the wicked with a flood. When he discovered that Noah's family was a simple and kind good person who never did anything wrong, he instructed Noah to build a big ship and take his family to board the ship to avoid the flood. According to God's instructions, Noah built an ark with 3 floors up and down and resembling a box out of high-fat cypress wood. When the flood came, Noah took his family and the birds and animals and grain to the square boat. The flood engulfed the earth, and only Noah's Ark was spared. Later, God used the rainbow as a covenant mark to stop cursing the earth and allowing humans and other creatures to survive forever.

This mythical story has undoubtedly inspired designers and architects, and hotels, hotels, apartments, clubs and other buildings named Noah's Ark have appeared in the world today. On the road to entrepreneurship in Chengdu, there is a five-star Noah's Ark Hotel.

If someone were to ask, where did Noah's Ark end up? The fathers and villagers of the Jinkouhe District of Leshan City will answer very humorously and reasonably, noah's ark sailed into the land of Bashu, and finally docked on the north bank of the Jinkou Grand Canyon of the Dadu River!

Leshan Jinkouhe Dawashan (Leshan Municipal Party Committee Publicity Department Courtesy photo, source: Sichuan Daily)

On the north bank of the Grand Canyon at the Jinkou of the Dadu River, stands a flat-topped mountain in the shape of a rectangular shape - Dawa Mountain. In terms of physical geography, Dawa Mountain is located on the east side of Hengduan Mountain, about 260 kilometers away from Chengdu, and is the core landscape of Dadu River Gorge National Geopark. Its altitude is 3236 meters, surrounded by cliffs of 800 to 1600 meters high, forming a volley flat-topped plateau with an area of 1.6 square kilometers. Two small rivers originating from the top of the mountain cascade down from the cliffs in the southeast, forming a waterfall with a drop of more than 1,000 meters.

Dawa Mountain is composed of basalt from the Permian volcanic eruption, and its geological structure is the same as that of Mount Emei, a double cultural and natural heritage site in the world, and Wawu Mountain in the National Forest Park, and it is called "three absolutes in Shu".

In terms of geological origin, Dawa Mountain is a fault block mountain that has been strongly lifted by the fault limit since the late Cenozoic Era, and the surrounding areas are limited by faults, constituting a lonely mountain surrounded by cliffs. The summit is 1,860 meters above the Shunshui River Valley in the east and 2,646 meters above the water level of the Dadu River in the south, and its relative height is second only to Mount Ronaima, the world's tallest table-shaped mountain. The basalt and dolomite formed by the eruptions of the Paleozoic volcanoes covered the top of The Great Tile Mountain.

Majestic Oriental "Noah's Ark" (Photo by Ping Shui)

We drove along the Tea Horse Ancient Road and the Lexi Highway, the "Anti-War Blood Road" built by 240,000 migrant workers in Sichuan and Kang provinces during World War II, to the Dawashan National Wetland Park with a total area of 2,812.2 square kilometers. Here, we saw the ancient glacial landforms such as ice valleys, ice buckets, horn peaks, and ice lakes created by the glacial incubation and evolution of 600 million years ago, as well as the bright pearls of Datianchi, Xiaotianchi, Sorghum, Dry and Fish Ponds, which are accompanied by Dawa Mountain.

Chen Yinong's old comrade-in-arms told everyone that the "2020 National Unified Examination for Admission to Ordinary Colleges and Universities Liberal Arts Comprehensive Ability Test (Geography)" test paper is the 37th of the non-selected questions, which really stumped a wave of candidates. They later learned that the terraces of the magma condensed into basalt in the early and middle periods were eroded and cut by flowing water, the undulations increased, and the area became smaller, and successively formed the basalt of The Spire Mountain, the Basalt of Pingding Mountain, and the Basalt of the Terrace. Pingdingshan retains some of the characteristics of the terrace, and the basalt that makes up Pingdingshan was formed in the middle of the period.

Tao Hongsheng's old comrade-in-arms said that on the east side of the North Han River on the other side of the Yalu River in Korea stands a table-shaped mountain called Square Mountain. In May 1953, the 60th Army of the Chinese Volunteer Army killed and wounded more than 1,600 South Korean troops in the Battle of Square Hill.

Square Mountain Battle Position in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (Source: Chinese Military Encyclopedia)

Wu Jiarong's old colleagues said that Table Mountain in South Africa is a flat-topped mountain in South Africa, with an altitude of 1,087 meters above sea level, towering over the northern tip of the high and rocky Cape Peninsula, overlooking the city of Cape Town and Table Bay.

Jia Xiansheng's old colleague said that south of Benxi City in Liaoning Province stands a flat-topped mountain with an altitude of 657 meters.

Ms. Zhang Ying said that in the urban area of Pingdingshan City, Henan Province, there is also a flat-topped mountain with "the top of the mountain as flat as a cut". Its altitude is more than 400 meters, and the area at the top of the mountain is about 1 square kilometer.

Ms. Qi Xiaoling said that wenling in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, has a naturally formed square mountain, the four sides of the mountain are almost vertical ground, and the top of the mountain seems to have been cut with a large axe as flat as a tabletop. From a distance, it looks like a square box. The locals gave the mountain an intuitive and memorable name, called "Fang Mountain".

……

The Dawa Mountain, which is presented before our eyes, has a spectacular view and is extremely spectacular. A square flat-topped mountain with a high altitude like Dawa Mountain can no longer find a second mountain in China!

In 1878, the American explorer Bebel ascended Mount Dawa and called it "the most magical natural park in the world."

On July 1, 1903, the British naturalist and botanist Wilson was pleasantly surprised to see the Dawa Mountain surrounded by cliffs for the first time at the top of Mount Emei. He wrote in a later book: "From the top of Mount Emei, Mount Dawa looks like a huge Noah's Ark, and the side of the ship towers high in the sea of clouds."

How easy is it to climb Dawa Mountain? Due to the cliffs, the road to the top of Dawa Mountain is very difficult. Most of the roads above WashanPing are wooden ladders built along the stone crevices on the cliff walls. After climbing the Lotus Cliff from WashanPing, there is a narrow ridge called Rolling Dragon Gang. With a height difference of about 300 meters from the top of Dawa Mountain, it is the most visually stunning place on the way to the mountain. The width of The Rolling Dragon Gang is only a few meters, and the narrowest point is only about 1 meter. On both sides is a bottomless abyss, and in front of it is a cliff. The section of the road above the Rolling Dragon Hill is full of wooden ladders embedded in stone crevices. One of them, because the stone gap is too narrow, can only be climbed by one person dragging a few iron ropes tied to it. Compared with "a road from Guhua Mountain", its steepness is even worse.

Our group is all "Ben Seven" people, everyone knows that when traveling, safety comes first. Watching a group of young tourists pedaling towards the steep and dangerous Rolling Dragon Gang, we can't help but throw envious and appreciative glances at them. Despite the difficult road, the scenery along the way is charming. Waterfalls falling from the sky and lush virgin forests will make young people forget the dangers. After they reach the top of the mountain, they will see the sunrise, the sea of clouds, and the buddha's light. The south can overlook the majestic Grand Canyon, the north can look at the golden peak of Mount Emei and listen to the melodious bells, and the west can be extremely beautiful, the king of Shu Mountain, Gongga Mountain, is like a jade snow peak.

We looked up at the foot of the mountain, only to see that The Great Tile Mountain was like a sudden castle in the air, like a stacked tile covering the top of the mountains, and more like a square giant ship sailing in the vast forest sea. Wilson called it "Noah's Ark," and it was indeed alive. Although we have not climbed to the top of Dawa Mountain to see Mount Emei, Gongga Mountain, and Wawu Mountain, we can still sketch in our minds the strange state of its landform landscape and understand the beauty of the sunset and the clouds and mist!

Overlooking Mt. Dawa in the distance (Photo by Romei)

The Noah family in the Bible is simple and kind, good people who never do bad things, and thus touched God. In real life, tens of thousands of people in Jinkouhe District of Leshan City are also simple, kind, civilized and good people!

We know from the villagers living in the Dawa Mountain Scenic Area that in April 2020, the Jinkouhe District Spiritual Civilization Construction Committee of Leshan City issued a notice on the promotion and selection of "Jinkouhe Good People" - the fifth "civilized citizen" in Jinkouhe District. On September 28, 2020, jinkouhe District's 2020 National Day Mid-Autumn Festival Gala and the first moral model award ceremony ended at the district gymnasium. The evening honored 10 moral models and 14 moral model nomination award winners.

The moral feelings, fearless spirit, character, professional ethics, and most beautiful truth of the 24 moral models and nominated award winners emerging from all walks of life in Jinkouhe District show the great love of the world, touch the people around them, and warm the landscape and water of Jinkouhe District.

With reverence, I said to my old comrades-in-arms, colleagues, and friends who were traveling together: "The exemplary figures of Jinkouhe District are like climbing the high Dawei Mountain, and they are equally worthy of our admiration!"

Written on October 28, 2021