A Man's Ancient Town of Anchang

I was looking for Lu Xun's Lu Zhen, Anqiaotou Village, Shaoxing.

People are always looking for an unexplored "Xanadu", but they have never thought about how to adapt to such a place, a "stranger". Compared with the skillful smiling faces of local people (or just "businessmen") in mature tourist attractions, there are many friends who can easily form alliances, a lot of rich information, a systematic and complete logo and various tourist service facilities. Undeveloped or immature "over-commercialized" tourist destinations can sometimes be confusing: you can never be sure whether this road is right or not, but you have no choice but to ask the locals again and again. You are eager to find the place you want to go on this trip, but you are blocked by a cold face. You can't even find accommodation that follows the spirit of the contract. You must take some risks and ask the local people for charity. The trouble is that they probably don't understand you at all, and you can't understand them. Finally, I chose Anchang Ancient Town, Shaoxing, which has relatively more information on the Internet, hoping to imagine a fast-paced town-Road Town, rather than Anqiaotou Village, which is difficult to reach. This is, of course, a much easier destination than the little-known Anqiaotou Village, because it is clearly the "ancient town" of Shaoxing, and it is the first of the so-called four ancient towns in Shaoxing (the four ancient towns in Shaoxing are circulated on the Internet, but no one has ever made it clear. I guess this is another propaganda copy that the local tourism department thought of, but it gave up halfway in the face of the bleak reality, so that no one said it all in the end.

A destination that won't stay overnight.

I thought it would be a replica of Wuzhen Water Town in Xitang, but I didn't expect Anchang to be a relatively "rough" water town as someone described it on the Internet. There are some famous ancient towns in Jiangnan. Although Anchang has a complete tourist logo, found a selling point such as "Shaoxing's hometown" and set up some scenic spots, it is estimated that it is difficult to attract tourists from outside Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai except those in the surrounding areas who occasionally go to the countryside for an outing. Before leaving Shaoxing city in the afternoon, I heard that I was going to Anchang. Tricycle drivers and passers-by wonder why I have to go to Anchang so late. It turns out that Anchang is an overnight destination. So it doesn't have the waterfront inn I imagined. The locals also said that people who come here rarely spend the night, so there is no inn. After many twists and turns, it was too late to reach Anchang. After learning that there was no antique waterfront inn as expected, I had to live in the first North Shore Hotel on the Long Street with the words "Accommodation". So I lived in this small hotel similar to the 1980s, with mottled green paint at the bottom of the wall, cracked white paint falling silently from time to time on the roof, old doors and windows, and air leakage-a crooked chestnut artificial leather single person sofa was in it. Just unlike in the 1980s, the bathroom in the room was actually a sitting toilet (the bathroom was surprisingly large, and the boss said it was decorated by another one. Yes, how could the previous house have the concept of "standard room"). Fortunately, the boss has a good family and his old father is also very enthusiastic. I made various trivial requests again and again, and he was happy to get out of bed and help me solve them. There is also a daughter, who seems to be the kind of person who can easily become friends. She said, let me be wronged and experience the feeling of returning to nature. But I won't stay at Anchang Hotel. Later, I got up early the next morning and strolled around, only to find that Anchang Hotel is not far from where I live. Judging from the retro signs, it should also be a place full of "amorous feelings" of the last century (some people on the Internet say that Anchang Hotel has no hot water and wants to take a bath in the public bathroom. I don't know if it's true or not. Probably only these two places can stay by the water.

Towns in Peyo

After settling down, go out shopping. The drizzle makes this ancient town unique. At about eight o'clock, many shops are closed. Besides white sugar, sausages, sauced ducks, dried vegetables and other Anchang specialties, there are also various cotton shoes, felt hats, needlework and clips. After a tour, I didn't see any tourists except the locals who spoke the local dialect. Stop-and-go, bargaining and chatting with stall owners, listening to other conversations between buyers and sellers, and watching the first two old ladies of Anchang Supply and Marketing Cooperative chat after dinner all make me feel that time seems to stay in the last century. There is a grocery store that sells rubber bands, socks and daily necessities. Two women are choosing skin care products. They greeted the female shopkeeper, who dutifully introduced the day cream, night cream, eye cream and so on. "You are the boss, you don't have to do anything yourself. You have to use it beautifully before you can sell it. " The shopkeeper who never used cream smiled shyly. Finally, every customer bought a set. It can be seen that it is the first time that they plan to use such meticulous skin care products like townspeople. I glanced at the skin care products displayed in the glass cabinet. In addition to herbs, other brands, such as "Lanting", are quite local tyrants and have never heard of them.

Lin Bao restaurant has a good reputation. Wearing a felt hat and a robe, Lao Shen is also known as the "spokesman of Anchang". When I passed by, this "spokesperson" was playing cards with others. He is tall and smiling, but he keeps asking me if I want to eat. If I don't eat, he will cover his face with his hand and say that only his guests can take pictures, and he will choose the best angle for them. Fortunately, I didn't want to pat him, just patted the store sign. Shen is the kind of person who is "domesticated" in the scenic spot. There is nothing wrong with it (it is unreasonable for city people to ask each other to be "simple" when they go to the countryside), but I just don't like it. The ancient town of Ang has long been an unusually prosperous place, where cotton, cloth and rice are distributed in large quantities. It is an important city in North Vietnam. Now there are many shops here, from selling candy to making down jackets to hoop barrels. I think apart from the tourist season, it is more about doing business for local people. In this simple town, there is also the former site of "China Bank" in the Republic of China (white building, antique, one of the scenic spots), and you can also imagine its economic status in that year. Maybe it's a place like Zhaozhuang in the year of social drama. Children from neighboring villages like Brother Xun will come here to play wupeng boats and see all kinds of novelty. There are red lanterns hanging in the cloister of the ancient town, but there is no other "night scene project" except a string of intermittent colored light bulbs under the eaves. Also, since there are no tourists, there is no need for these things that deliberately create an atmosphere. It will always be a place where the flavor of life is far greater than that of tourism.

Bishui Guan Jie Qianwanju

At seven o'clock in the morning, the rain stopped last night and the ground was dry. It's a little cold in the morning in the ancient town, and I came out in a daze with the hand warmers pillow bought in Shaoxing. This is my first time to see the natural beauty of this town. Of course, compared with other water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, it is not particularly beautiful, but it has an elegant temperament, just like the girl who only wears vanishing cream. Chang's bridge culture is very famous, known as "clear water crossing the street, rainbow crossing the river 17 bridges". At this time, autumn is near winter, and the green climbing plants that originally covered the bridge are only dry and twisted vines and scattered red, yellow and yellow leaves, giving this ancient bridge a unique atmosphere. There are still no tourists in the town, and there is a little loneliness without the same kind. I walk and take photos on various bridges. In the waterway, workers in orange vests and felt hats are salvaging sundries in the water. They pull wormwood and occasionally greet villagers on the shore or colleagues in the water and shout slogans. On both sides of the strip, there are women chatting across the waterway just after breakfast. The river is not wide, so you can hear clearly without too much noise. They refused to spread out when they were talking. A neighbor came out to pour water, joined in, pulled a few words and left. An old man stood hunched by the river, slowly scrubbing a pair of black cloth shoes, carefully and calmly, as if to spend the rest of his life cleaning those shoes.

Like most rural areas in China, the residents of Anchang Ancient Town are mainly elderly people. Young people are rarely seen in town, so it is a problem to find someone who can take pictures. They often say they can't take pictures. Even older people can't understand my Mandarin, and I can't understand his local accent. A middle-aged man enthusiastically asked the administrator of the "China Bank" next door to take pictures for me; There is a young mother with a child who wants me to tell her how to shoot. What impressed me most was that I stopped a middle-aged woman in a hurry on the oldest "Temple Bridge" in town. She speaks clear Mandarin. At first, she said she wouldn't shoot. Then she asked me to teach her. She also took the initiative to stand by and watch the bridge as a model, asking me to adjust the focus and find a good angle. Then, I began to say, "Actually, I'm not from here. I am from Shanghai. " This is a Shanghai educated youth who came to Anchang from the countryside in 1969. She asked me again and again if I could understand 1969. I said yes, my dad is also an educated youth who jumped the queue. She was relieved and went on to say that when she was in the third grade that year, she came here to jump the queue because it was her parents' hometown. Later, he married a local and spent the rest of his life here. According to the policy, a person can move back, and she left her daughter's hukou in Shanghai. Now she lives with her youngest son, but his son is out. She takes care of her grandson, and now he can buy whatever toys he wants. She always holds the camera on an inclined plane, so the photos she takes are not good, but after repeating them twice, I told her that they are good. She is very happy. She was still saying, "Actually, I'm not from here either. I am from Shanghai. " In Anchang, the most distinctive thing is the sauce duck and sausage hanging in front of almost every household. Some are hung under the eaves, like curtains, and some are hung on low shelves, like quilts. This seems to be a small town to eat. Really, I have never seen so much delicious food in a place in front of my eyes. People air-dry and pickle all kinds of food, and display them, leaving oblique reflections at the water's edge and in the sun, swaying from side to side, telling the story of the richest people.

Tips: OK: There are 1 18 and 158 buses from Shaoxing downtown to Anchang Town. If the whole journey goes well, it will take about 50 minutes. It should be reminded that Shaoxing Passenger Transport Center does not have the 1 18 road mentioned by Baidu Encyclopedia. You can only go to Shaoxing Branch Station, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University Medical College, and take bus 158. If you want to take the 1 18 bus, you can take it at Luxun Middle School. As for the other stations of these two trains, you can check before departure and choose the nearest one. Moreover, Baidu Encyclopedia said that it is actually wrong to run every five minutes. According to practical experience, the bus to Anchang is not so good. On the other hand, from Anchang Passenger Transport Center to Anchang, we can probably talk about a trip to 60 yuan. After the bus arrived at the terminal Anchang No.2 Bridge, it got on an electric tricycle and other local operating tools, and 4 yuan went to the old street.

Food: I ate in Anchang all night, early in the morning. Dinner is bacon (20 yuan) and vegetables (10 yuan) with rice. The price is not low, but the weight is quite sufficient. Personally, I feel that bacon is salty, but the female shopkeeper seems to have been "insulted" and jumped up, saying that the saltiness of sausages in the whole town is uniform. How can it be salty? Don't you put salt in your rice? I have to be speechless. For breakfast, there seems to be only one long street. Near Lin Bao Hotel, men steam steamed buns and women make wonton. They bought a meat steamed stuffed bun (1 yuan), a delicious tea egg (1 yuan) and a bowl of wonton (3 yuan), and they were very full.

Buy: There are many flavors of Latin sugar in the town, such as original, blueberry, sesame, osmanthus and so on. Small package 1 yuan, medium package 2 yuan (3 packages of 5 yuan), but the white sugar in the town does not have the feeling of "pulling sugar like silk" produced in Lu Xun's hometown in the city, just like the rough and primitive candy eaten by ordinary children. Especially worth buying are delicious dried vegetables, such as dried round bamboo shoots, dried bamboo shoots, first and second half of the year, middle and edge bamboo shoots. In short, there are many grades, and the price ranges from a dozen yuan to a catty in 40 yuan. For laymen, you can only take a chance and weigh yourself. In addition, the same is true of sauced ducks. Depending on the size and sauce, there are 10 yuan and 100 yuan. As for sausages, it is more suitable for travelers to carry a bag of 8 small strips and half a catty in vacuum. The unified price of the whole town is in 35 yuan. I can only say that 30 yuan has a pack. In addition, there is Renchang Soy Sauce Garden, which is a representative time-honored brand of Anchang, appearing in large and small photographic works. I didn't buy it at last, because the glass bottle is not easy to carry. I think their cat peppermint oil (20 yuan) and rose vinegar (30 yuan) should be good. If you want to give it away, there are small bottle gift boxes suitable for carrying. In addition, there are two or three hoop barrels, which are said to be the representative inheritors of non-legacy log technology. The real hand-made tools are quite practical and beautiful. You can buy them if you need them.

Play: There are seven or eight scenic spots in the ancient town, including "Shaoxing Shi Ye Pavilion" and "China Bank". I bought another one for 5 yuan (Shi Ye Pavilion didn't ask if it would be more expensive), but I didn't go. First, it is not the purpose of my visit to see the exhibition of scenic spots; Secondly, these exhibition halls are semi-open because there are no tourists.