The first community in front of Baihua Mountain ~ Exploring the Village of Yuanyang Water in Fangshan, Beijing

The first time I walked into Yuanyang Water Village was by chance, a spur-of-the-moment idea! On a Monday in mid-April, I took advantage of the lack of people to visit the Internet celebrity Dadan Village alone to see the famous pear blossom terraces and apricot fields. The temperature in the mountains was still low, and the pear blossoms had just begun to bloom, and it would take ten and a half days for the pear blossoms to bloom. It was almost noon, and I was ready to go down the mountain and return to the city. As soon as the car started, I found that the fuel gauge was alarming. I was worried that it would break down in the mountains due to insufficient oil. I searched for the nearest gas station on Jia Shi Road, which is more than 20 kilometers away, and navigated away! After refueling, drinking some water, and filling up on something to eat, I felt much more at ease, and was planning to find a place to hang out on the way back! As soon as I left the gas station, I noticed two big signs on the roadside!

Instead of running around, it’s better to be it! Drive directly into the village! Drive along the road into the village on the right until you reach Dragon King Temple Mountain and stop! First, we visited the Dragon King Temple and the ancient well in front of the temple. According to the villagers, this well has never dried up no matter how droughty it is, and it is enough for the whole village's people and animals to drink!

After visiting the Dragon King Temple, turn the car around, follow the highest road on the right, drive to a village parking lot in front of the mountain on the north side of the village, and park the car!

The car was parked on the roadside on the north side of the house

I walked back and forth twice along the mountain road on the north side. I had a rough look at the whole village. I was a little surprised. How many of them did this village actually have? Ten sets of traditional slate houses in western Beijing! The core area is within a 100-meter-diameter semicircle centered on my parking spot!

Parking is at the opening of the orange circle, between the words "life".

What attracted me the most was the small second floor and the courtyards in front of it on the left and right. I thought this should be the house of the landlord of this village in the past! The following visit proved my judgment!

The old man in the red vest in the picture is Brother Liu, the current director of the East Branch of the Landlord Hospital.

This is the author, Brother Liu and his twin grandsons!

According to Brother Liu, Yuanyang Water Village, formerly known as Yuanyang Water Village, is the first village in the mountains in Shijiaying Township, Fangshan District. It is 6 kilometers east of Jiayukou (National Highway 108) and 1 kilometer northwest of Liulin Water Village. , 5 kilometers away from Shenglian Mountain, it is a Beijing municipal folk tourism village! Shilong Mountain in the east of the village is like a giant dragon winding from the north to the Dayan River. The longan is located in a pair of caves, and a pair of mandarin ducks live in the caves. Later, people from the south came to hold treasures and wanted to catch them, so they came from the east. The side hole flew away (it is also said that the cannons were set off to scare the Yuanyang away because of the construction of the mountain and road construction), so the village was named Yuanyangshui Village, later abbreviated to Yuanyangshui.

Yuanyangshui Village is where the Liu family lives, and most of the villagers have the surname Liu! In the second year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, the ancestors of the Liu family moved from Hongdong, Shanxi to Zhaitangchuan at the foot of Baihua Mountain in western Beijing. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the ancestor of the Liu family, Liu Wanhua, crossed Baihua Mountain and settled in Shuihou Ridge, Xianzi, Shannan, where they opened up wasteland, dug wells and built terraces. Marrying his wife Yang gave birth to three sons: Dayin, Dayin, and Dayuan, which have lasted for 16 generations and formed three major branches: Daliu Shuxia, West Gate, and East Gate! Brother Liu is born in Tianzi generation, and his grandson is born in Yuanzi generation!

Liu Yongjin was a landlord in Yuanyang Water Village and had three sons (whose descendants are now living in Beijing, Tianjin, and Zhangjiakou). The son in Tianjin is said to have been a lawyer during the Republic of China. In 1948, Liu Yongjin was criticized by the Poverty Association and was beaten to death on Xihetan!

Brother Liu’s current residence is the east courtyard of the third entrance courtyard, which is the most intact one of the original landowner’s courtyard.

Most of the houses in the landlord's courtyard were destroyed by the Japanese. The guerrillas hung mines in the gatehouse at the front of the landlord's courtyard and injured the Japanese. The Japanese retaliated wildly and burned more than 180 rooms in Yuanyangshui Village! However, the basic layout of the Landlord Courtyard is still there. Currently, the east and west courtyards of the Sanjin Courtyard are well preserved. The gate tower, murals, pillar-supported stone gates, slate houses, flower-edge windows, mosaic corridors, etc. are well preserved!

I thanked Brother Liu and took a rough look around, looking at a few courtyards. Although they are located in remote areas, they have unique characteristics of residential buildings in western Beijing!

In the village, we only went around the landlord's courtyard. We quickly drove out of the village and came to the foot of Shilong Mountain to explore the "Dragon Eye" cave where mandarin ducks once lived. It took a lot of effort and hard work to get to the entrance of the cave. Feeling that there is a danger of collapse at any time, you quickly exit and climb up the mountain, where you can take a panoramic view of the village! Time flies, the sun is setting, and my stomach is growling! Still not satisfied?

This is a living village with a story, so clean that you can see the whole thing at a glance, but also mysterious and unfathomable! The strange small second floor, the Yuanyang terraces with large slopes and high heights (of course it cannot be compared with the Yuanyang terraces), reluctantly drove away, thinking to myself, come back in a few days! (To be continued)

2022.5.7 in West Beijing