Zhenyuan: A place you may not be able to figure out where it is, but you’ll be glad you didn’t miss it when you get there

What I write is never travel notes, but life.

When I decided to visit Guizhou, I didn’t expect Zhenyuan.

Plan to visit Libo Xiaoqikong, Xijiang Miao Village, Wuyang River, Fanjing Mountain, Huangguoshu, and visit some ancient towns or nearby villages along the way.

I chose Wuyang River because I was attracted by the scenery of green mountains and green water on stilted buildings that my friend took, but I didn’t realize that it was actually in Zhenyuan.

Until a week before going to Guizhou, I met an interesting person on Maiji Mountain. Amway I said, I must go to Zhenyuan when going to Guizhou!

It turns out that Zhenyuan not only has the Wuyang River, but also the No. 1 Drifting River in Guizhou, as well as Miao and Dong villages and many other good places.

Go and order.

The Wuyang River forms an "S" shape in Zhenyuan, painting a beautiful Chinese landscape picture.

I like S, so I will never forget the bird’s-eye view of Zhenyuan.

I brought a drone to Zhenyuan, but I carried it all the way but never took it out to fly, because I found that after I was in Zhenyuan, I just wanted to see the scenery and not use the drone anymore.

The scenery in Zhenyuan is really nice.

Shiping Mountain, as its name suggests, is really like a big screen.

The cliff facing the city is very vertical and is the most majestic and romantic background wall in the ancient city.

I always remember the surprise I felt when I looked up and saw it the night I first arrived: Why were the stars twinkling on the entire mountain in front?

I am a fan of this man-made landscape!

Turning the whole mountain into a starry night, so beautiful!

During those two nights in Zhenyuan, no matter where I walked, I would unconsciously cast my eyes on Shiping Mountain and look at the "stars" that never set. It seemed that I saw many "stars" that never set in my heart. Dream".

I found a magical scene. The cliff of Shiping Mountain revealed the figure of the Buddha under the light.

Ask a friend, is this natural? Didn't get an answer.

I can only give myself one answer -

This is the fate that Zhenyuan sent me.

Today’s Zhenyuan is most famous for its night view.

Among the photos in the circle of friends, there must be one that shows the brightly lit stilted buildings on both sides of the river reflected in the Wuyang River. At first glance, it looks a bit like Fenghuang Ancient Town.

I like to go off the beaten path.

Instead of taking a cruise to see the scenery, I walked around both sides of the bank on foot, eating at night markets along the way, enjoying the river breeze, and resting by the river when I was tired. It felt really good.

Here is another interlude.

Before arriving, I also longed to live in a river-view room in a place with the most lights and the liveliest place, so I asked my friend Mai Jishan where he could live with the best view.

That friend drew a map for me and said that the scenery in the circle was the best, and asked me to follow the circle to find a house.

After I arrived in Zhenyuan, I found that the inns in the circle area were relatively dark, with few lights on. They looked dark and not as bright as the places under the circle.

In order to protect the ancient city in Zhenyuan, the central section of Xinglong Street is strictly prohibited from vehicle traffic during the day. It would be troublesome for those with large luggage to drag their luggage when arriving during the prohibited period, so I chose to get off the bus. The place is relatively close, I stayed in a hotel at the corner of S Bay of Wuyang River on the other side of Qinglong Cave.

On the one hand, I was tired, and on the other hand, I was satisfied with the tone of the hotel I found.

After settling in, I took a closer look at Zhenyuan for two days and found that it was best to live here.

This is exactly the bend of Tai Chi Bend, with Shiping Mountain on one side, Qinglong Cave on the other, and the Zhusheng Bridge in the middle, creating the most beautiful and irreplaceable scenery in Zhenyuan.

Perhaps, it is because this place has the best scenery that the Qinglong Cave Consecration Bridge appeared.

There are many places where the scenery of Lianghe Diaojiaolou is copied, but the scenery of Qinglong Cave Consecration Bridge and Shiping Mountain cannot be found anywhere else.

Moreover, many stilted buildings along the river have been renovated and have lost their original simplicity and nature. Only the mountains, bridges and water in front of S Bay are unique and irreplaceable.

Leaning on the railing of the hotel balcony and looking at the scenery, I really feel that the scenery is getting better after all.

"He forgot about the smoke and water."

In fact, this landscape has been forgotten.

I love this place like no other!

Don’t miss Qinglong Cave when you go to Zhenyuan.

I highly recommend it because several of my friends who went there chose not to go see it. One of them retreated after hearing that they were going to climb the mountain, and another felt that there was not enough time and it was better to sleep in a hotel. Even I walked by with my arms in my arms. I missed it, and I went because I wanted to take a bird’s-eye view.

If you don’t know better, you will really think that Qinglong Cave is just a famous Taoist temple with nothing to see.

After walking through it, I realized that this is indeed a national key cultural relic unit.

Qinglong Cave is the largest ancient building complex in Guizhou that rarely combines Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

It is known as the "Southwest Hanging Temple", and together with Maiji Mountain and Hanging Temple, it is one of the three major hanging ancient buildings in ancient China.

It’s really a bit emotional to be connected to Maijishan again like this. What a coincidence!

No coincidence can make a book!

Qinglong Cave is really better than imagined!

This "Xuankong Temple" is really worth seeing!

When climbing Qinglong Cave, every time I go higher, I will stop and look at the scenery in front of the mountain. Looking out over Zhenyuan from there, there are really surprises from every angle.

"The beautiful scenery opens from the sky, and no concubine is allowed to call it a blessed place; the fairy mountain accommodates visitors, and there is no need to bother fishing boats on the shore."

In Qinglong Cave, there is a legend that Zhang Sanfeng lived and practiced. In Zhongyuan Cave, I don’t know if ordinary people can study at Purple Zen Academy. There are many palaces, pavilions, pavilions and bridges. The buildings make full use of the mountain terrain and are built against the walls and in the sky, integrating with the rocks, caves, and The ancient trees and so on are put together so beautifully.

Some people say that Zhenyuan is the cultural museum of Chinese mountain cliff architecture. I don’t know if it is because of the Qinglong Cave.

"When we were young, we went to school in the academy above Qinglong Cave. If we kicked a ball, the ball might fall into the Wuyang River..."

I think we can build another one above Qinglong Cave. It must be wonderful to have a public library where everyone can come back to study at any time.

I read a passage that said that it was very difficult for students from Yunnan and Guizhou to study in the past. There was no imperial examination room here, so going to Beijing to take the examination was the only way.

Therefore, students from Yunnan and Guizhou walked across this bridge in Zhenyuan and walked away from here. This was the only way for them to pass the exam.

The three-story "Kuixing Pavilion" on the bridge, also known as the "Zhuangyuan Building", entrusts the wishes of high school students.

I don’t know why, looking at this Zhuangyuan Building, I always feel that Guizhou students study harder than Zhejiang students, because the Zhuangyuan Building here is more beautiful than the one here, and they are all preserved.

Zhenyuan’s Bar Street is said to be the busiest in Guizhou.

When I arrived, I saw that it was indeed comparable to Lijiang, bustling with people, singing and dancing.

No, more comfortable than Lijiang.

With Wuyang River on the left and Bar Street on the right, there is always a distant evening breeze blowing from the mountains on the other side of the river, making the nightly singing here more three-dimensional and moving.

The proprietress of the hotel where I stayed in Xijiang Miao Village also came to Zhenyuan to open a hotel and bar. Her online name is "You are who you are". She has a very domineering heroine attitude, and she is also very bold when drinking.

It seems that the women in the Dong and Miao villages I met are very good drinkers.

Guizhou must have some wine at night to match its beautiful scenery. Perhaps this is also one of the reasons why Guizhou produces good wine.

The taxi driver said that if you like to see the old houses in Zhenyuan, don’t go along the river. The houses along the river are all renovated. Go inside, where there are all the old houses in the streets.

Zhenyuan is an ancient city that grows on a hillside. Its topography is "nine mountains embrace a city and a river guards the city."

This water is the Wuyang River, with the old Fucheng on the north bank and the old Acropolis on the south bank. Both cities were built in the Ming Dynasty, and to this day, some of the city walls and gates from those years can still be seen.

Fucheng, where Shiping Mountain is located, is what I consider the center of the ancient town.

Several vertical streets and lanes stretch out from the main street on the bank of Wuyang River, winding up the mountain, interacting with the horizontal streets and lanes on the mountain, forming an ancient town. Therefore, the streets and alleys in the ancient town are mostly long and diagonally long. Walking is not tiring, and it has the feeling of winding paths leading to seclusion.

The houses in the ancient town are also very beautiful. There are many large houses with deep walls in the high courtyard. The gatehouses are abnormally not in the middle but in a corner. They are opened in the southeast or southwest corner of the courtyard wall. It is said that they are for shelter. Evil and wealth are not revealed in vain.

Because of this, the streets and alleys of Zhenyuan were nicknamed "Crooked Ways".

I have never seen such a simple "crooked way", and I want to go there more often.

When checking into Zhenyuan, the location always pops up as “Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture”.

I really like this long name!

This name is actually as low-key as possible.

There are more than 20 ethnic minorities in southeastern Guizhou. If I put them all, I don’t know how many words it would contain.

Zhenyuan, located in southeastern Guizhou, has naturally become a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural ancient city.

I roughly counted, Central Plains culture, Jingchu culture, Bashu culture, Fujian and Cantonese culture, Wuyue culture, indigenous culture... I think I need to make a special cultural trip to Zhenyuan again.

"The key to Dianchu, the throat of Hunan and Guizhou, and the gateway to eastern Guizhou."

"If you want to conquer Dianchu, you must occupy Zhenyuan; if you want to reach Yunnan and Guizhou, you must first guard Zhenyuan."

Looking at the history of Zhenyuan, you will sigh with emotion at the changes from an ancient city to a modern ancient city.

Zhenyuan was once a transportation fortress between the inland and the southwest frontier. It was established as a county in the era of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. It has always been the political, cultural and economic center of eastern Guizhou and a battleground for military strategists. It is a "waterway hub" and a "water and land thoroughfare". Don’t wait for all kinds of honors.

The bronze statue of a Burmese man riding an elephant standing at the foot of Shiping Mountain also bears witness that it was once an important stop on the Southern Silk Road, allowing those who see it to imagine how great Zhenyuan was back then. It is prosperous and busy, attracting all kinds of people from north to south.

I feel that I spent too little time in Zhenyuan.

But in such a short time, I had to spend most of the day rafting on the Gaoguo River - I had no plan to raft at all, and even Zhenyuan only learned about it on the fly. How had I ever heard of Gaoguohe? ——When I arrived in Guizhou (I was in Xijiang Miao Village at the time), I was recommended this first drifting place in Guizhou.

Since I am more interested in fun than learning, I naturally did not miss this first experience.

There are several places where you can enjoy rafting in Guizhou. In Zhenyuan, in addition to Gaoguo River, there is another famous Shanmu River.

I only recommend Gaoguohe, because after going there, I can no longer look down on rafting in other places.

Unfortunately, Gao Guohe has an age limit, and those over 55 are not allowed to play.

Woohoo, I want to bring my parents here to play.

Woohoo, you won’t be allowed to play with me for another ten years or so.

……

Forgive me for being tired as I write this, I’m a little crazy.

I won’t write it anymore, I’ll just end it in a coquettish way:

I want to go rafting in Zhenyuan again,

I want to go to Zhenyuan to drink again,

I want to go to Zhenyuan again to eat bean curd noodles, bean curd fish and sweet wine glutinous rice cake...

My heart is in Zhenyuan, and the mountains are high and the water is far away.

I don’t want him to fall into the cigarette water.