Gongtan impression

Wujiang River, winding for more than 1000 kilometers, flows through Yunnan, Hubei, Guizhou and Chongqing. Most river banks are limestone. After hundreds of millions of years of crustal movement and wind and rain erosion, a steep rock wall has been formed. White limestone is white, gray, black and yellow. People imagine various animal patterns, such as monkeys, bears and horses ... These patterns, together with variegated trees and green rivers, are ink landscapes. Wujiang Gallery got its name from this.

Before the Wujiang River flowed into Chongqing, the water flow increased and it was navigable. Gongtan is located at the junction of Guizhou and Chongqing, and the narrow river rushes out to form a wide river beach. Gongtan has become a cargo transshipment center, and merchants from all walks of life have gathered. Even Shaanxi merchants in the northwest have established the Xiqin Guild Hall, which is equipped with a wide stage and many seats for homesick Qin people to watch the Qin opera. The high-pitched and passionate Qin opera will resound through Gongtan ancient town. According to legend, only a few families named Gong live on the river beach of the ancient town, named Gong Beach. Later, Gongtan gradually prospered, and along the beach, street and diaojiao building, temples (the main temple), ancestral halls (the Dong family ancestral hall) and guild halls (the Western Qin Guild Hall) were built.

In 2006, a major turning point will take place in Gongtan, because dams and hydropower stations will be built downstream near Pengshui, and the water level will increase by about 60 meters, which will flood most streets and houses in Gongtan. In order to let the aborigines live and work in peace and contentment, and the ancient town can survive and develop, the government decided to relocate and rebuild the streets and houses, because they are just a few hundred meters downstream of the original town. Some masonry buildings were rebuilt by numbers. The original buildings were all civil structures. When they were rebuilt, they used good materials and added some new materials. Laoyan Road, Youfang Road, Xiqin Road, Beifu Road and Zuofang Road are nearly two kilometers, all paved with bluestone from north to south. Like the stone steps, stone steps and stone bridges in the past, most of the residents on both sides of the street are two-story or three-story wooden houses, except for the log-supported diaojiao building. Most of the hanging parts are covered with houses.

Originally, when moving, it was mostly for living. Later, tourism flourished. Some residents changed the second floor into a restaurant and the third floor into a homestay, which added a lot of commercial elements compared with the past.

Two new three-story buildings have been built at the southern end of Gongtan, which have the artistic style of combining Chinese and western styles. One is Gongtan Art Museum, which shows some paintings depicting Gongtan and Wujiang River. One is the Wu Guanzhong Memorial Hall in Gongtan, which displays the life works and representative works of the famous painter Mr. Wu Guanzhong. 1984, Mr. Wang collected folk songs in Wujiang River and wrote "Old Street" in Gongtan. Mr. Wang loves Gong Tan deeply. He commented: This is Song Cheng in Tangjie, the home of grandparents.

The biggest change is Wujiang River. The surface of the river is three times wider than before and as calm as a lake. There is no running and roaring of water, no hard work of trackers and excitement of singing, no noose and wheels for pulling boats. There are many cruise ships and yachts visiting Wujiang River. Only the rock walls on both sides of the river are as high as before, tens of feet high, with natural murals and lush trees. The river is deeper and greener, and it is a little quieter.

My hotel is called Laojiu Store, which is built by the river. It is six rooms wide and three stories high. Street on the second floor, street on the second floor. As a restaurant and shop, it sells some local products. The first floor (equivalent to the suspended part of the original diaojiao building) and the third floor are decorated into a hotel, imitating the appearance of the hotel.

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? The boss is surnamed Zhang, and his parents run a restaurant in Laogongtan called Zhangjia Hotel. Lao Zhang's boss is very business-minded. He used to have only three rooms, but later he bought three adjacent rooms. The son of Lao Zhang's boss gave birth to three daughters after marriage. In order to have a son, he evaded family planning everywhere. The fourth child will eventually have a son. After the relocation, Zhangjia Hotel was renamed Gongtan Town Old Wine Shop. The old wine shop was booming and four children were married. The eldest daughter became a civil servant in Youyang County, and the son-in-law was also a civil servant in the county, and she was pregnant with twins. It's unfortunate when the family is in decline and the business is booming. After giving birth to twins, the eldest daughter was diagnosed with cancer and died when the baby was three months old. The son-in-law has to go to work, and the in-laws are old and weak. The responsibility of raising twins falls on boss Zhang, who will focus on running the hotel. Now the twins are one and a half years old, and they are toddlers, chasing and playing. To be on the safe side, boss Zhang has nothing to do with it before and after. When he is tired of playing and wants to hug, Mr. Zhang carries one with a bamboo basket woven in rural Sichuan, hugs one or pushes one with a car, and walks on the stone road in the ancient town, playing the roles of grandfather, mother and nanny.

Boss Zhang said that the father of the child only came back to accompany the child on weekends. Twins are unfortunate. They lost their mother when they were babies. Twins are lucky to have kind and loving grandparents. Boss Zhang said to me, "For the sake of our lost daughter, we will do our best to raise and train our two grandchildren so that they will not be wronged ..."

? There is a house at Beifu Road 19, which is nominally residential, but there is a pot in front of it. There are mung bean powder and noodles on the counter next to the pot, and some local products and drinks are also sold. After the incident, a civil servant disguised as a man. There are some dining tables in the house. It was about six o'clock in the evening when I passed by, which should be business hours, but there were no guests and there was no water for cooking noodles in the pot. I was a little curious and asked if it was still on. After getting a positive answer, I ordered the local specialty mung bean powder. The proprietress filled the pot with water and lit the gas stove. I sat down at the table by the river. At the table, a man with gray hair and a jacket is peeling garlic, with a cup of tea next to him. I guess it should be a male boss. Chatted for a while, and sure enough. The boss's surname is Yang, about my age. Lao Yang said that there are very few guests at ordinary times, and they only sell lunch boxes. Today is the weekend, so stay a little longer. I learned from the chat that they all work in the county. When the old street moved, the ancestors left two houses facing the street and facing the river and moved here.

After they retired from the army, they found the environment here beautiful, so they settled down and opened this noodle restaurant to kill loneliness. I asked why not take care of more dishes? He said: "They don't want to hire people and they don't want to be too tired. They choose the simplest noodle restaurant. When moving, most people didn't expect Gongtan ancient town to become a tourist attraction later. Now quite a few restaurants and hotels are rented out to others. " I asked, "What do you think is the difference between the old Gongtan and the new Gongtan?" He said: "There is a big difference. At that time, the stone road was polished bare after hundreds of years of walking by people and horses. When I was a child, we used to use a stone road with a steep slope as a slide. Our trousers were often worn out and would be scolded by our mother. On the beach, the water is crystal clear, and we can see swimming fish. We also went to the river to touch the fish in the cracks in the stones. You can watch the trackers pull the boat and listen to their passionate and melodious songs. These feelings cannot be found back. " I asked, "Why do you have to move back to Gongtan when you have a house in the county? He said: "The environment here is good, and I am more nostalgic when I get older. "

? There is a bookstore on the street. The vertical signboard is very tasty. It's a blue book with a thread-bound title: Mr Bookstore. It's very stylish. There are many famous brands outside the door: Chongqing NLD Photography Association Gongtan Creation Base and China Young Poets Collection Base. On both sides of the door are a pair of solid wood blue couplets. The first part: The wind carries the sound of books as friends, and the next part: It is unknown who Mr. Yu Xing Shi Meng refers to, but where did Mr. Yu's bookstore come from? ?

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? Entering the room, there are bookshelves on the right, filled with all kinds of old and new books. On the left are corresponding bookshelves, but not books, but works of art painted on stone tablets, which are colorful and dazzling and should be for sale. There are four ancient wooden screens in the middle, which divide the bookstore into two rooms inside and outside. There are tables and chairs on the screen in the back room, and there is pen and ink on the console table. The front is the traditional layout of nave, and the middle of the wall is a Chinese painting landscape. Couplets written on both sides with rice paper. The first part: boating on the Wujiang River on the moon, and the second part: Qionglou is waiting for you by the water. When I was tasting couplets, I heard a few young girls make sweet voices, and then I heard a rich voice: "Don't make noise on the bookstore land." The bookstore is quiet again. A look at some girls, dressed very artistically, are students of the Academy of Fine Arts whom they met in the restaurant this afternoon. They spread Gong Tan's exercises on a long row of dining chairs and listened to a teacher's comments in his fifties and sixties. Some are realistic, some are freehand, some are impressionist, and some have postmodern elements.

Following the reprimand, a middle-aged man sat in the counter on the right side of the door, with a short black beard and a pair of glasses with high myopia. He was absorbed in writing something in his notebook. Should be the boss? I passed by the bookstore in the morning and afternoon during the day and saw that the bookstore was closed, and it didn't open until the evening, and the owner didn't attract customers. I guess this bookstore may just be his sideline. But its existence, together with Gongtan Art Museum and Wu Guanzhong Memorial Hall, has indeed added a unique cultural and artistic temperament to Gongtan Ancient Town.

? As night falls, red lanterns light up on the eaves of buildings facing the street, swaying with the wind, and there is more light and shadow on the calm river, and the stars in the sky are dim. The rock wall across the river is more quiet and mysterious in the light and shadow. I sat on the balcony of the old B&B hotel near the river, quietly depicting the impression of Gongtan ancient town. There are already couplets in my heart: a thousand miles of Wujiang River flows through Gongtan, and the ancient town of Baili Gallery Mountain hangs.

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Ning Dehong

Written in Chengdu on April 20th, 20021year.

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