Xishuangbanna

In Jinghong, the day of suing Zhuang begins at six or seven in the evening. As night fell, the roads and inns hidden under palm trees began to stir up, and the roadside stalls were filled with all kinds of goods. When people drifted to the bottom of the Shwedagon Pagoda, everything was quiet. When you go around to the other side of the Shwedagon Pagoda, everything suddenly becomes clear again. There is a sunken square near the tower, and thousands of stalls extend from the square to the river. Standing on the tower and looking out, it is like seeing the magnificent scene of stars all over the sky, so it is also called "Starlight Night Market".

A Ying's booth is on the steps of the Shwedagon Pagoda, which is the best location for the night market. Two months ago, with the encouragement of Wenzhou villagers, A Ying came here alone. The "more people and more money" in the mouth of the fellow villagers only found out that she was "fooled" after she came. "There are many tourists, but there are also many sellers. The competition is too great to do. " Nevertheless, A Ying has won the central position, and with her taste and affinity for clothes, her business is still higher than other peers.

There are thousands of stalls in the night market in Gaozhuang, most of which are run by foreigners, some in the northeast, some in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and a few local people. Yuxiang is an authentic Dai girl. After working in Lijiang for several months, she finally decided to go back to her hometown Xishuangbanna and work in a tambourine shop run by a foreign boss. She said that local young people rarely go out, and even if they do, they will eventually come back because they are used to the local slow life and can't adapt to the rhythm outside.

It's like a different kind of Fortress Besieged. People in the city don't want to go out, but people outside the city want to come in. In addition to China people, the night market attracts vendors from Thailand, Laos, Viet Nam, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, and even young people from Europe and the United States.

For Raphael and Gaby, a student couple from Venezuela, the reason for coming to Xishuangbanna is simpler. The climate here is very warm. They studied Mandarin in Dali for a year, but the cold winter in Dali made the two South Americans run away.

Apart from some simple figures, these foreign youths can hardly speak Chinese. I asked them how to communicate with the guests, so they posed with their mobile phones and showed me the translation APP inside.

In Gaozhuang Night Market, thousands of stalls may have thousands of different wishes, urging people from all over the world to gather here. It's like a small United Nations. People all over the world have found their ideal life here, whether it is market potential, natural environment or warm climate.

At 6:5438+00 pm, the chanting of the Shwedagon Pagoda resounded throughout the square. Like a convention, the night market is over. Secular noise and peaceful faith have maintained a delicate balance for thousands of years, or a tacit understanding of wisdom.

Some people choose to leave, while others will stay. Among the people who stayed, the Frenchman Gray was the most localized. He often pretends to be Jinghong, and he can successfully persuade his fellow travelers to go to xishuangbanna tourism and sit in his coffee shop. He introduced Banna as if he were introducing his hometown. Not only did he regard himself as a local, but he also "married" a girl from A Dai. According to Dai tradition, men and women marry women and women marry men.

Gray, who is in his fifties, was born in Senegal, Africa, grew up in Cameroon, worked in all parts of Southeast Asia, once opened a restaurant in the Philippines and worked as a chef in Cambodia ... This once cosmopolitan senior traveler became attached to Xishuangbanna because of a "passing by" five years ago.

In 2004, Gray passed through Xishuangbanna on his way from Kunming to Laos. He was attracted by the rich folk customs and diverse cultures here and could not extricate himself. Gray is good at humanistic photography. After he was used to wandering in the flashy world, Banna still maintained the original ecological villages and folk customs, which fascinated him. This time he passed by and finally settled down. He stayed in Xishuangbanna for several years, during which he went deep into Banna and took many folk photos of Dai, Bulang and Hani.

At the beginning of 2007, the girl Duan returned to her hometown because of a Sino-German cooperation project, and they met at the present "Meigong Coffee". Duan likes outdoor sports, while Gray likes photography. Similar hobbies brought them together slowly. Later, they traveled to Thailand by motorcycle for a month, then got married, had children and opened a shop. For love, Li Juan smiled happily. She and Gray didn't fall in love at first sight, but met the right person at the right time.

Gray has been to the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, but he still likes Xishuangbanna best. He thinks that China culture is very similar to French culture, and China is to Asia what France is to Europe. Both China and France love food and wine and are very hospitable. He compared it to his hometown. "I think I prefer to call Xishuangbanna my' first hometown' and this is my home."

Gray is obsessed with the minority culture in China and often visits villages by car or on foot. "It is not easy to shoot portraits of people in ethnic minority areas. You must make friends with those villagers first. Generally, tourists are taken to buy their tea, and they are familiar with it more often. Every time I used to have tea and chat with them, I gradually became their friend. The villagers also invited me to attend the wedding, saying no, and then ignored me. "

Duan said that if we look at how many places we have been, gray may be more local than many Xishuangbanna locals. He traveled all over Xishuangbanna with his feet. In a few years, his lens almost swept Xishuangbanna, including a large number of mountain villages with inconvenient transportation. The simple brown mountain people, the traditional Lahu girls, the most national dry fence buildings and the rare mountain village festival scenes are all included in the lens. Gray's works are usually handy, and the composition is simple and direct, but they have the literary style in the French bones. Some of his works hang in his bar, and every wall has his interpretation of Xishuangbanna.

Leave Jinghong and go southwest, with open flat dams along the way. After Menghai County, Dai women can be seen collectively farming from time to time, and all kinds of tube skirts are dotted among rice fields, which is the largest dam in Xishuangbanna. From Mengzhe to the south is the Rhoda port on the border between China and Myanmar. The Rhoda River runs through the Rhoda Dam from east to west, bordering Myanmar in the west and Mengjinglai, known as the "first village in China and Myanmar" in the east. The locals joked that "going abroad is easier than going out of the county". When the water level is low, you can go abroad in a few steps.

In Dai language, "Meng" is generally used to address places larger than stockaded villages, such as Menghai and Mengla at county level and Han Meng and Menglun at township level. Usually, the village can only be called "people", but its status can be seen by naming it "Meng" here. According to local people, this may be related to a legend.

Legend has it that the leader of the ancient Dai people came here after chasing the land while hunting, and found the shadow of a dragon, so he ordered people to wait here for the real dragon to appear, but after a long time, there was no trace, so he simply built a village here and settled down, named it "Jinglai", which means "the shadow of the dragon".

In the legends of the Dai people, there is always a shadow. Now, a woman from Jiangsu and Zhejiang started her life journey along this road of chasing Jin Lu. Dai people like to live by water and by lotus. As an important sacred object of Buddhism, lotus also has an indispensable position in the hearts of Dai people who believe in Buddhism. There are 1700 mu of paddy fields in Xiang Lian near Mengjinglai stockade, but the growth process of these lotus flowers is not easy.

In 2009, after failing to plant in Chongqing, Hainan, Fujian and other places, Zhang finally found his beloved lotus in Mengjinglai. There is no cold in winter, no heat in summer, abundant rainfall, and the rain and heat are the same. It sounds like heaven, and the climatic conditions have become the best environment for lotus growth.

However, when Zhang came with lotus seeds, he found that the land was seriously sandy and leaking due to long-term cultivation of bananas and rubber. Planting lotus requires land rotation to restore fertility, which is a very long process. One year, Zhang planted rape flowers, and some tourists came to visit and said, your place is really interesting. People are thin, and the flowers they grow are also "thin".

Zhang Ai Furong even gave up his achievements in the real estate and financial industries for many years. After years of melee in shopping malls, she has seen more intrigue and bloody capital. She feels that Lotus is like a ship, taking her from one side of a bloody battle to the other side of stability and peace.

Zhang once had the idea of immigrating to the United States and did put it into action, but in the third year of going to the United States, the sunshine brought her back to Xishuangbanna. "The sunshine here, everything here has settled my heart." This is the other side of Zhang.

After several years of repeated rotation, Xiang Lian finally blossomed with colorful flowers. Zhang imitated the traditional houses of Dai people in the stockade, and designed and built the "Xiang Lian Principal House". Living in it, you can see the lotus flowers through the window, the wind brings fragrant rice, frogs croak and birds sing, which makes people fall asleep, as if they had returned to the pastoral time of childhood in an instant.

"High tide and low tide, people have to go through many things in their lives, but they will eventually return to the countryside and return to places without pollution. This is the lifestyle we have dreamed of all our lives. " Zhang said that this is the correct attitude towards life that she learned from the life of the Dai people.