Zhangye Travel Notes

During the National Day and Golden Week, it is rare to have a lot of leisure recently and have the opportunity to travel.

I have been thinking about going to the Gansu River Corridor area for some time, and Zhangye, together with Wuwei, Jiuquan and Dunhuang, is a military important place known as the "Four River Counties". must pass through.

One

In the early morning, the dry and cold sunshine hovered over the forehead of the town. It was the town that had just woken up and took off its gauze-like pajamas, highlighting the gray along the desolate road. film.

After passing through Wuwei, about half an hour away, we rushed directly to Zhangye Grand Buddha Temple. We set out early in the morning and arrived in the morning. The golden light was flowing down from the eaves of the four-shaped ancient building. People came closer and tried to feel the warmth of the sun. However, they only had the coolness and the coldness of the "frost" season. Unique dryness.

We stopped at the ticket gate and looked at the main entrance of the Buddhist temple. It is open in the middle, with two light-colored plaques facing each other on the left and right. The black inscription reads: "The sleeping Buddha is not the sleeping Buddha, but I am not awake yet." This content is quite similar to a Buddhist story I read before. I remember that it was a story about Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism, in the Tan Sutra, "It's not the flags that move, the flags that move, the heart of a benevolent person moves." Continuing to refer to this couplet in detail, and comparing it with the "Prajna Heart Sutra" that I have recited several paragraphs, perhaps this is elaborating on the core idea of ??Buddhism - "emptiness"! By describing the sleeping Buddha's posture, in fact, "everything is empty", and the thought process is Knowledge, the same is true.

As you enter, the unique ancient fragrance of the wooden building lingers around the visitors. The incense smoke in the distance contrasts with the almost completely discolored Mahavira, giving you a sense of the vicissitudes of the times. The temple is lined with ancient buildings, towering giant trees, shaded green grass, and has a beautiful environment. Accompanied by the squeaking of magpies, the area is ecologically peaceful and somewhat Zen-like. According to the introduction, the Zhangye Great Buddha Temple originated from the Han and Jin Dynasties, started in the Xia Dynasty, and flourished in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. As the only fully preserved temple in the Xia Dynasty today, it is one of the important places of interest along the river corridor.

In a picturesque temple scene, the Main Hall standing in the middle is even more solemn and solemn. However, compared with the seriousness and silence of the Forbidden City, the Grand Buddha Temple adds a bit of vitality to the solemnity. Looking up at the roof of the Main Hall, we can see that it is a hilltop-style building that we saw at the Wuwei Kumarajiva Temple. It is said that this design is generally only used in royal courtyards or palaces.

The Mahavira Hall opens to the front. Inside, there is a 34.5-meter-long Nirvana statue of Sakyamuni Buddha, surrounded by ten disciples, eighteen Arhats, colorful murals, and vivid and interesting characters with different moods and moods. Directly opposite the Giant Buddha, the Buddha squinted his eyes and stared ahead. From this angle, the Buddha seemed very awake. However, if you walk around the Buddha statue and look at the Buddha's feet, you will see that the Buddha's eyelids are closed, transcending life and death, and is about to reach Nirvana. Seeing that this is the unique creativity of ancient craftsmen, I can't help but marvel at its exquisiteness.

On the northeasternmost side of the Great Buddha Temple, there is also a Shan? Guild Hall. This is a typical northern residence. The ancient building has carved beams and painted columns, which is simple and beautiful. In particular, the Guan Gong Temple and the stage are uniquely designed, adding a special touch to the Great Buddha Temple.

Tuesday

At noon, wisps of cooking smoke floated into the blue sky. We were traveling through the desert, heading from the Great Buddha Temple to Zhangye’s most famous Internet celebrity attraction, Colorful Danxia.

Looking out the window lazily, I was surprised to find that the light in the desert along the way was completely different from that in Lanzhou at that time. Lanzhou has a unique geographical location, just on the 400 mm annual precipitation line. It is the boundary between farming areas and nomadic areas. It is also an important commercial and cultural integration place. The well-known Lanzhou Beef Noodles was born here. Zhangye, on the other hand, is on the 200mm annual precipitation line, dividing nomadic areas and desert areas. Starting from Zhangye, to Jiuquan, and then to Dunhuang, where the annual precipitation is only 39mm, the scenery along the way is getting closer and closer to the so-called "desert smoke". Straight, the light outside the Great Wall "the sun sets over the river", all the way to Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring written by Mr. Yu Qiuyu.

I was baptized by the scenery along the way. The sky was a vast expanse of blue, reflecting a few gray-green vegetation on the monotonous Gobi. I occasionally passed by a herd of cattle and sheep, which was completely different from the cities I was used to living in. Looking up at the snow-capped mountains in the distance that should be the Qilian Mountains, I realized how "insensitive" I was, completely unaware of the subtle changes along the way, as I was about to enter the desert area.

This desert is located at the core of the river corridor, with the Inner Mongolia grassland to the north, the Tibetan Plateau to the south, the Tibetan Plateau to the east, and the Taklimakan Desert, the second largest desert in the world. In this way, it is like Zhang Qian surrounded by Huns cavalry. Under such natural danger, it is no wonder that there are Yangguan, Yu?guan and Jiayuguan that we are familiar with.

Three

The sun sets, dusk is about to fall, the smoke is still smoke, I don’t know where it comes from, soft and soft, on the Gobi, it is the sand that has been exposed to the sun for a day. Apply a bit of haze. We finally arrived at the Danxia landform area.

I looked at the crowded ticket gate and finally squeezed into the queue to enter the attraction. I took the ferry straight to point 4, the most classic scenic spot.

I sat alone in the window seat, counting the colors on the colorful mountain. "The red must be iron oxide, the black is tetravalent iron, the red is phosphorus, and the white should be salt, right?" Perhaps the colorful Danxia colors that come to mind are not as colorful as those captured by Weibo influencers, but in the present moment , next to the sunset, but there is also a different kind of emotion.

After careful observation, the colorful Danxia gradually shocked me far better than any promotional album. I truly felt what "God knocked over the paint tray" was. Different colors are evenly rendered, soaked in, and backed by light, creating a silhouette beauty that is rare to find. The red color of the Danxia landform was so intense and dazzling that I seemed to be able to hear the roars of the border guards and the call from nature, the howling cold wind caressing gently from the cliffs.

The colorful Danxia is like a beautiful girl, missing her passionate but careless and slow lover who went away to fight and fulfill her ambitions. It's a pity that she will never get what she wants. Since your lover has been lost in the iron-clad desert, you should also turn into the colorful mountains along the way, guide him in the direction, add a bit of splendor to his monotony, and look at him from afar across many different terrains.

My eyes suddenly began to turn. The twilight gilded the colorful mountains with a golden edge. The colorful danxia under the observation deck seemed to flow and become a river of color, dispersing to the surroundings. It is a rich oasis of color. The peerless majestic mountain seemed to have been melted by the sun at this time, with distinct ribs and swollen blood vessels. The colorful mountain, with an unusual awe, gradually softened. This gives the colorful Danxia in the far north a tender and melancholy feeling of a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, which is eternal and pure.

Autumn and the scenery are bright, the smoke is gone, and the sunset is thousands of miles away. For a moment, I seemed to feel the joy of merging nature and heart in Fan Zhongyan's "Yueyang Tower", "When you climb the tower, you will feel relaxed and happy, forgetting your favors and disgrace, and when you drink wine, you will be overjoyed." This feeling and scene must be expressed directly from the heart.

This is a world belonging to mountains, majestic and stretching for thousands of miles. It is also a world that begins with color, as colorful as danxia. At the same time, it also belongs to the natural world, with temperament inside and dignity outside. What I feel is the baptism from nature's divine craftsmanship, and the greetings from the magnificent masterpieces of heaven and earth. The right path is "as colorful as Wodan, as bright as bright clouds"!

IV

After walking all the way to Zhangye, you will see the Big Buddha, desert, and Danxia. They are the river corridor that never fades in history, and the dazzling connected stars. How long has it been since I calmed down like this, appreciate nature and feel life? I am pursuing "goals" and being "insensitive" every day, am I living, or am I just perfunctory? I am lost in the concrete jungle every day, abandoned. The realization and feeling of slow thinking.

I hope that one day, I can return to Colorful Danxia and revisit the river corridor. Let go of your arrogance and anxiety, feel the history, and feel every minute and every second that creates your own value.