Dagu’s Spring

Spring in Dagu

It’s spring.

In the spring of these years, I always think about and always want to go back to my hometown. Nowadays, urban and rural areas are separated, so you need a reason to return to your hometown. The spring on the plateau is one of the good reasons for me to return to my hometown.

Spring on the plateau comes late. In Chengdu, all the spring flowers have bloomed. It is now the deep green summer, and the news of spring has only come from my hometown. Friends from Dagu Scenic Area called and said that the alpine willows were blooming; they called tomorrow and said that the larch and birch trees had sprouted. He also said that the primrose leaves and gentians you taught us to recognize are all in bloom. All this news is tempting me. Immediately, I took the car that had been parked in the garage all winter to the shop for maintenance and new tires. I want to go back to see the spring in my hometown.

Dagu Iceberg is in Heishui County, to the north of the snowy mountain that I always looked up to when I was a child. To the south of the Snowy Mountains is my hometown, Malkang County.

The new tires are dark and the smell of new rubber is like the smell of spring.

When I picked up the car, I stood under the heavy shade of an eryngium tree that had already bloomed with red flowers. I thought that the spring in Chengdu had just ended, and I had been to the spring in my hometown plateau again. Two springs in one year!

This time is one of the series of activities of "Celebrities Seeing Sichuan". We invite nature lovers among writers to go to Dagu Iceberg to help discover and refine the rich beauty of the scenic spot. Dagu Iceberg not only has magnificent snow-capped mountain scenery, but also has a vertical distribution of geological landscapes and plant communities from an altitude of 2,800 meters to more than 5,000 meters above sea level. After the tourism boom, this kind of aesthetic exploration work is where writers can make some contributions.

I decided not to go with the group. Do not attend the group lunch on the way. But I would like to suggest to the staff that the meals should reflect spring in the mountains - newly bloomed walnut flowers and fresh bracken. Moreover, villages with scattered stone buildings immediately appeared in front of them. The tall walnut trees had just sprouted new leaves, shrouding the villages like a green-brown cloud. The light brown color is the new buds of the leaves. The green color is that the walnut tree is blooming: thick catkins hanging from the branches - those are the light green flowers. At this time, the villagers plucked the flowers that would cause the walnut trees to bear too many fruits one by one. With a gentle stroke, the long strip of plump male and female flowers were removed. The ones that have been blanched and mixed with water are actually the dense epiphytic stems of small flowers. What a smell, the fresh and clean smell of the mountains! In those villages that are not disturbed too much by humans, ferns grow under the walnut trees. The tender and fat stems stretch out from the warm and fertile soil. In one night or one day, they grow to more than a foot tall. . Pick it up quickly. Otherwise, they will unfold the leaf bracts at the tip of the stem the next day. As soon as the beautiful feathery leaves unfold, the stem will immediately become tough to support those leaves. The principle in rural areas is simplicity. Take most of the stems, pick off the top leaves, or don't pick them at all. They are also lightly blanched in boiling water, a little salt, a little garlic, a little chili, what's the taste, wake up The smell of the earth!

After such a delicious lunch, they also wanted to visit Sergu Tibetan Village.

I have tasted all the good flavors. And that ancient village - I was born in a village that is similar to the same as it, and I am still observing it carefully. I wrote in a poem called "Mountains, or Ode to Myself" that these villages are exactly like the village where I was born. I'm talking about people, crops, houses, cattle pens, dogs, springs, joy, sorrow, old men and women.

Because of this familiarity, I have found new objects of observation in the familiar countryside over the years: when walking in the heart or edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, I will pay attention to observe wild plants and take photos of those beautiful plants. Or less pretty flowering plants.

The journey from Chengdu to Heishui County is nearly three hundred kilometers, all along the Minjiang River Gorge. Half of the trip from Chengdu to Wenchuan is on the expressway. A considerable part of it is walking through long and deep tunnels with no view. Leaving Wenchuan County and passing through Maoxian County, the highway is adjacent to the main stream of Minjiang River.

Leaving Mao County and traveling more than 20 kilometers along the main stream of the Minjiang River, there is a place called Feihong Bridge. Here, the river branches. Cross the bridge and go right, which is the main stream of Ejiang River and leads to Songpan. Going left is the Menghe River, a tributary of the Minjiang River, and goes up the river to Heishui. During this time, it is the snowmelt season in the mountains, so the river flow is somewhat turbid. When the water is clear, such as in autumn, you stand on Feihong Bridge and look at the two rivers converging in front of the bridge. The main stream of the Minjiang River is crystal clear. The Meng River on the left is also crystal clear, but the water is dark, so the Meng River is also called black water. , and even the places distributed on the upper and lower banks of the river are also called black water. In this area, the altitude has risen to more than two thousand meters, and it is still rising gradually. The mountains are high, the valleys are deep, and the mountains are steep. Along the way, when I saw a wide road, I stopped the car and climbed up the hillside to look for flowering plants. Spring has arrived in the Minjiang Gorge for some time, and the artificially planted acacias on both sides of the road are blooming with white flowers. On the river valley platform, in the villages composed of stone villages, the peach trees are already clumps of green. However, the bushes on the dry slopes on both sides of the river valley are still withered and yellow. But I knew there must be early flowers among these skinny bush trees. Along the way, we walked and stopped, up the hillside, and down to the road again. As expected, we encountered several kinds of flowering plants. Two kinds of blue iris. A thorny shrub covered with tiny yellow flowers is called barberry. Small yellow flowers the size of rice grains are crowded together in clusters, rushing to bloom before the green leaves unfold. The name of this plant sums up the profuse blooming of its flowers. A substance called berberine, commonly known as berberine, can be extracted from the rhizomes of barberry. There are also drought-tolerant and barren-tolerant thorny shrubs called Sophora pseudoacacia, which also bloom dense blue flowers. Tired from climbing, I sat on the hillside and looked through the flowers in the camera, but suddenly I couldn't figure out why nature allows plants to bloom so many flowers. These flowers, and this mysterious incomprehension, may be my harvest of the day.

Yes, people are trying to understand in the world, but I would rather often feel that I don’t understand a lot.

After taking the last set of photos, sitting on the hillside, drinking some water, and pulling out the thorns of the bushes stuck on my sleeves and trouser legs, it was already the sunset in the valley.

After driving for more than 20 kilometers, we will reach Blackwater.

Blackwater County is divided into two parts. The old county town arrived first. Even though it is located in a deep mountain, it has been affected by the trend of urbanization in recent years. More and more people want to make a living in towns and cities. The old county town located in a narrow valley cannot accommodate these many people. After the Wenchuan earthquake five years ago, a new county seat was built more than one kilometer above the old county seat. Some new government agencies and commercial outlets have been built, and more residents from the four villages have come to live in the city. This time I live in a new county. The county seat is new and so is the hotel. The four-story building actually has a very slow elevator.

The leaders of the administration invited everyone to dinner. Local pork, this kind of pig is half wild, and the meat is fragrant. It is called Tibetan pig. There are many kinds of wild vegetables. There are three most popular ones: one, the local name is Spiny Dragon Bun, which is actually the fat leaf bud of Aralia aralia; bracken and walnut flower have already been mentioned. The entrance to these wild game is the fresh scent of the mountains. In addition, everyone will think of the concept of pollution-free green, and they feel that they have to eat it to their heart's content. It’s just that the wine is not very good, local soju is a pity. But I also understand the master. At present, it is forbidden to eat and drink with public funds. Not only do I understand, but I also agree.

I said to the host sitting next to me: It tastes good, it tastes good!

Then he whispered to Li Shuanke, who was sitting on my left: I will treat you to a nice drink tomorrow night!

I have known Shuan Ke since I was working on magazines. Just like me, you can drink as much as you want when you are happy. He was a geologist before working for China National Geographic magazine. There is no reason why he would not be excited to visit a place with geological wonders.

Take the scenic sightseeing bus to visit Dagu Scenic Area with everyone.

The car passed through the canyon and three Tibetan villages in the canyon. These three villages are all called Dagu. Because of the high and low terrain, they are called upper, middle and lower Dagu respectively. A colleague on the bus asked me what Dagu means in Tibetan. I can't tell. From the root of the word, Da means horse; Gu means profound. But how are the two meanings connected? In the early spring of last year, I visited these three villages. The village chief is an educated man.

These can also be pointed out to tourists in certain ways, which can make them like and love them. I always feel that places like Dagu Scenic Area can become a classroom for Chinese people to learn and appreciate the beauty of nature. The beauty of geography and the beauty of plants jointly constitute the beauty of nature. Although in the current craze for Chinese studies, people often talk about how Chinese people have a view of the unity of nature and man, and how they follow the laws of nature. However, in reality, the entire country’s natural world has experienced a large-scale retreat and destruction. A day of estrangement and alienation.

If Dagu Scenic Area does more work in this area, it will definitely be ahead in terms of concepts and methods among all natural scenic spots in China.

The natural beauty of Dagu Scenic Area is really everywhere!

At an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, the snow has just melted, and clusters of tender green needles bloomed on the soft branches of the larch. The alpine willows and primroses that have just woken up from the freeze are already busy blooming. Further down, there are more flowering plants. On the roadside grass, the patches of small white flowers are wild strawberries, and the dots of blue flowers are a kind of gentian. It is a blue that is more beautiful than the blue sky! When we arrived near Dagu Village, wild cherries were blooming by the lake. When the wind gently shook the treetops, the thin snow-like petals began to fly. Further down, there are clusters of yellow flowers on the roadside, which are wild Ditang flowers. There are also vine clematis, which climb upwards when encountering shrubs and trees, and in this way lift strings of bright white flowers to high places. Those flowers are really pretty too. The four pure white petals are spotless. In the center of the petals, a large number of stamens hold up a little bit of bright yellow anthers. The pistils are green all over, and they are generously surrounded by the stamens in the center. I don’t know, this is a kind of happy resignation. , any gust of wind blows, or any insect flies in, and sprinkles the anthers on any stamen onto the delicate and sensitive stigma. After being dizzy in the sun for a while, the child will be fertilized; or everything must pass through her without moving. Careful selection of sensuality, rejection, rejection, or hesitation between rejection and acceptance, before finally incorporating the sperms of several male flowers into the ovary?

Dagu Scenic Area sets the best time for tourism in autumn. If tourists can open their minds and eyes to seek beauty, the mountains and fields in early spring will be full of vitality and will be extremely beautiful.

That night, we ate Tibetan food, not to mention the Tibetan pig and yak meat prepared in various ways, but the freshly picked wild vegetables were even more exciting. The Tibetan table is low and the seats are also low. In fact, it is suitable for a couch. Three people can sit on each couch. It has a soft mattress and a backrest, which is suitable for drinking and chatting. My servants brought some good wine from the car to treat everyone. First, Shuan Ke, the female writer Ge Shuijing and I formed a core group of three wine lovers. They took the lead in drinking one large glass after another, which led the whole table to drink. Soon, people were asked to get off the car from downstairs. Get the second bottle of wine. At this time, everyone started talking more and less, and someone took the lead in singing. More than an hour later, I got a third bottle of wine. And it attracted people at the next table to bring their own wine to join. I don’t know when I finished the third bottle of wine, and everyone returned home exhausted.

When everyone dispersed, someone asked me why you like this place. I remembered the advertising slogan I once thought of for the scenic spot: the nearest is far away. Just say, because this is the closest complete nature to the metropolis.