Visiting the countryside during the New Year - Qingtian Chapter

Qingtian Village in Shunde is really not easy to describe. It has so many connotations.

Qingtian Village has a population of seven to eight hundred, and almost all of them have the surname Liu. A series of stories can be traced behind the character Liu. Villagers said they moved here from a nearby place called Dashe hundreds of years ago. Further on is Zhuji Lane in Nanxiong, and further on is a place called Pengcheng. The original gatehouse in the village had the words "Pengcheng" on it. As for what Pengcheng is, they don't know. Fortunately, the historical data clearly states that Pengcheng is the place where Liu Bang, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty, started his family, which is now the area of ??Peixian County, Jiangsu Province. All the Liu family in the world regard Pengcheng as their ancestral home.

The gate tower stone with the word "Pengcheng" has been blurred

The most eye-catching thing in Qingtian Village is the stone. The spacious Qingtian Street and the rows of stone slabs have left Qingtian people with memories.

The elders in the village recalled that the roads around the village used to be paved with two large stones, and the passages of every alley in the village still basically retain white stone roads.

The water in Qingtian Village also has a story. In the old days, Qingtian was surrounded by waterways, just like a small island. Only the single-plank suspension bridge at the entrance of the village connected the inside and outside. The pond facing the front street is as wide as the street. During the lotus season, it adds another beautiful sight to the village.

The most amazing thing is that there are deep ponds commonly known as "Luoyi" and "Luodu" at the east and west ends of the pond. The water is deep enough to be as tall as two people. The whole village is like a snail. Therefore, in the past, the houses in the village had earth floors, and it was said that only earth could survive snails.

The deep water pond commonly known as the "Luoyun"

The blockhouse is another landscape of Qingtian. In the small Qingtian Village, three gun towers were built in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and two of them still exist today. The locals call it the "watching tower", which is used to protect the village and watch the watch. It can be seen from this that Qingtian Village at that time was not only surrounded by a river to protect the village, but also protected by majestic gun towers. How tight the protection was. Or it can also be deduced that the people in Qingtian were very wealthy at that time.

In fact, what is more worthy of praise are the people of Qingtian Village today. They are kind and enthusiastic, and have long been open to the outside world. They treat foreign tourists like distinguished guests, willing to serve as guides and eager to explain. Their words revealed their deep affection for their hometown and their longing for the future development of Qingtian.

Villagers chatted with the author

Enthusiastic guide told the story of the blockhouse