Image source of this edition: Image China
My hometown of Hailar is located in the hinterland of the Hulunbuir Grassland, a small city in northeastern Inner Mongolia. I was born and raised here, and I have always been reluctant to leave.
Sometimes, I stand in front of the window and look at the emerald river in the city, and suddenly I see a few wild ducks and geese, wandering leisurely next to the swimmers, sometimes diving into the water with the swimmers, and suddenly raising their wings. Sometimes, on three-volt days, I walked down the West Outer Ring Road, guarded the cold spring in the wetland, and took a bunch of spring water at the entrance, and suddenly I was cool, and together, I found myself in the shadow of the horses. Those horses, like me, loved the spring water, which was as icy in the summer and as unfrozen in the winter. Sometimes, I linger at the farmers' market, where blueberries, hazelnuts, water grapes, stinky plums, white mushrooms, and chicken blood mushrooms are everywhere in the market. Whenever meadowsweets and asters bloom everywhere in early autumn, I walk downstairs, and within a few hundred meters, I bring these fragrant wildflowers back to my desk. In the early winter, I buy beef sternums, scaly fish, crucian carp melon seeds – these delicacies seem to be agreed upon, and come on time to deliver fat to the Hailars to resist the cold. In Hailar, I can touch the natural beauty of nature with my fingertips, and I am obsessed with every detail of my hometown, and I am touched by my hometown day after day.
To the east of the city of Hailar, is the high Daxing'an Ridge. This green mountain range has bred more than 3,000 rivers for Hulunbuir, of which the Yimin River from the south runs through Hailar City, and the Hailar River from the east passes through the north and west of the city. These two rivers, flowing from the forest to the grassland, all the way to the dust, lingering around the earth, containing numerous trickling streams, leaving countless lakes and large wetlands, and leaving a clear and turquoise for the city of Hailar. I don't know what year and month began, at the foot of the Ao Bao Mountain north of Hailar City, the two rivers held hands gracefully, and from then on they merged into a more abundant river, flowing into the Erguna River and finally flowing to the sea.
I remember when I was a child, whenever my grandmother said the phrase "elm blossoms without worrying about eating", the feast season of Hailar wild fruits and wild vegetables began. I can't forget the scene when her old man led me to the banks of the Emin River to pick elm tree money. On both sides of the river, there are large elm trees. The elm leaves are somber, like black horses in the wind, shrugging their manes. The elm tree money that had just bloomed, in a ball of balls, covered the wide riverbed and blended into the turquoise sky. In May, the elm tree dedicates itself to our beauty, and even more to our sweet memories. Elm money can be boiled porridge with rice, and can be stirred in cornmeal to make cakes. In the era of lack of grain, the proportion of elm tree money in The noodles of The Grandmother is very large, which just creates the smooth taste of the glutinous sticky.
Elm trees are hardy, wet-loving and belong to high-altitude plants. Hailar is located in the low temperature of the Mongolian plateau, moistened by two large rivers, and is a blessed land for elms. In addition to elm tree money, elm tree-lined woodland, elm wood, elm bark sap, elm leaves, for human life, there are many uses.
As the years passed, in the hearts of the Hailar people, they always thought of the elm tree that had been dependent on each other. Elm trees of all sizes or rugged vicissitudes, or green branches and young leaves, there are their figures everywhere in the streets. I remember that thirty-eight years ago, Hailar widened the main road in the city and changed the gravel road to asphalt road. At the beginning of the project, the elm trees on the side of the road disappeared overnight. I looked at the bare streets and couldn't help but be devastated. However, one morning a few days later, I opened the curtains to see that the elm tree had quietly reappeared, except that it had become a large elm sapling planted at equal distance. The sympathetic Hailar people understand that the city was born on the grassland with elm trees, which have been inseparable from the city for a long time, and people and nature are inseparable.
Later, these elm trees grew up, strong and tall, and leafy. Municipal departments hang many small light bulbs on the branches of these elm trees. On summer nights, elm leaves shine brightly and darkly; on winter nights, it seems that countless small diamonds and ice and snow reflect the earth, and the city has a fairytale brilliance. Later, with the rise of tourism, the urban arterial road was widened again to lead directly to the outer ring road. This time, it was not only our generation who did not give up the elm tree, but also the children who grew up with the elm tree, who put on beautiful clothes and came to the old elm tree to take pictures. Over the years, the roads of Hailar have widened, while the elms have remained. With the old elm trees as green as ever, people can walk into the past and get the comfort of the years.
The grassland where Hailar is located, because of the high cold, the frost-free period is only more than ninety days. Herbaceous plants tend to evolve to thrive and bloom and seed without growing tall, and wild leeks are one of them. Why do sheep like to linger in places where wild leeks are abundant? Why is nagano leek in the place where the air is fresh and there are few mosquitoes? Because wild leeks emit a slightly spicy medicinal taste, sheep can adjust the bitter taste of other pasture grasses in their mouths after eating, and can also kill bacteria, strengthen the stomach, and deworm. The Hailar people discovered the goodness of wild leeks and turned wild leek flower sauce into a delicacy on the table.
Whether it is elm trees or wild leeks, they all originate from the good ecology of Hailar. Here, plants, flowing water, earth, animals, and humans live together and complement each other, thus creating a better life in the city and bringing the indelible memory of the Hailar people. Today, Hailar is moving forward in tandem with the world. You see, there are more than a hundred flights a day to pick up tourists from afar; wranglers can patrol the herds far away in the grassland with a little mobile phone; ancient food, song and dance, costumes have become the city card of Hailar...
My hometown of Hailar, a city close to nature, has endured in the grasslands.
People's Daily ( 2020-09-12 08 edition)