Travel prose "You Chao Di"

Travel prose "Traveling in Chaoti"

(1) The ancient town of Chaoti

On May 29, the sun was scorching and the sky was clear. A group of more than ten people, including Zhang Xianchun, Cuifeng and Xiongguan Mandao from the Zhongdingshan Literature and Art Network in Dejiang County, went to Chaodi to collect folk art at the invitation of An Xiaomi, and I was fortunate to accompany them.

As I approached Wujiang River and walked into Chaodi, I got to know Chaodi better. Not far downstream of Chaotitan Beach, because the river surface suddenly opened up, the sediment on the riverside accumulated over time to form a large sandbar. It is said that the market town formed by the settlement on the sandbar has a history of thousands of years, and Chaodi Town is located here. On the small sandbank.

In history, Tidal Beach was closed to navigation for many years. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country gradually began to pay attention to the shipping industry. In the late 1950s, the shipping department began to regulate the tidal flats of Wujiang River. It was not until the early 1970s that the navigation conditions in the Chaodi section of the lower reaches of the Wujiang River were improved, making the small town of Chaodi once a major merchant town.

Chaoti Town is 30 kilometers southeast of Dejiang County, adjacent to Fengxiangxi Town in Dejiang County to the east, Parrot Creek Town of Sinan County to the south, the rolling Wujiang River to the west, and Changbao Township to the north. There are famous attractions such as "The Pillar in Central Guizhou", the Sleeping Buddha on the Wujiang River, the Old Man Stargazing, and the Cliff Zen Room.

Walking on the streets of Chaodi Town, not far ahead is the Chaodi Rapids, with the mighty Wujiang River rolling by. Although it is located on the bank of the rolling Wujiang River, the town gives me the feeling of being quiet and peaceful, without any impetuousness of the river.

The serene Xiaozheng watched the Wujiang River quietly, and watched the fishermen, cultivators, merchants, gourmets, and civil servants coming and going on the Wujiang River...quietly watching the water of the Wujiang River pass by. Chaodi Beach flows calmly through Chaoti Ancient Town and towards Changbao downstream. The river flows through the deep canyon, singing a happy but bitter, ancient and young song all the way, witnessing the ups and downs and vicissitudes of Chaoti ancient town on the edge of Wujiang River.

(2) Xinzhen Xinqiao

With the construction of Shatuo Power Station, the last power station in the cascade development of the lower reaches of Wujiang River, the resettlement project in the reservoir area has also started. After the Shatuo Hydropower Station impounds water, Chaodi streets will be flooded. The Chaodi Town Government, Chaodi Middle School and the market town will all be relocated to the bank of the creek.

The Xiaoxi River is a tributary of the Wujiang River in Dejiang County. It merges into the Wujiang River not far downstream from Chaodi Ferry. The new location for the overall relocation of Chaodi Town is just downstream of Xiaoxi River, not far from the confluence of Xiaoxi River and Wujiang River. From the car, you can see from a distance that the overall relocation project of Chaodi Town has begun, and the machinery for preliminary operations has entered the site and begun construction.

The Xiaoxi River Bridge, a supporting project for the overall relocation of Chaodi Town, is nearing completion. The bridge spans the creek and is nearly 100 meters long. The newly built bridge overlooks the never-awakening dream of the "Sleeping Buddha" not far away, recording the process of the relocation of the Chaodi Town Government and the town as a whole, and will together with the relocated Chaodi New Market Town, witness the tide together. To improve the people's future happiness and hope.

(3) Qianzhong Pillar

Qianzhong Pillar is the stone handwriting left by Tian Qiu, a pioneer in education in Guizhou in the Ming Dynasty, on the beach of Chaodi.

In the past, Chaoditan and Xintan in Dejiang County and Gongtan in Yanhe County were dangerous shoals in the lower reaches of Wujiang River. During the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, Tian Qiu, a son of Sinan who had served as the chief envoy to Guangdong and made outstanding contributions to Guizhou education at that time, felt the thrill of Chaotitan when passing by Chaotitan and wrote "Qiandi". He ordered people to carve them on the huge rocks in the riverside canyon. His handwriting is still clearly visible today. Tian Qiu's "The Pillar of Central Guizhou" stone carving has been designated as a key protected cultural relic by the provincial government.

When you arrive at Chaodi, if you don’t go to see Chaodi Beach and the “Maintain of Central Guizhou”, it means you haven’t been to Chaodi.

Standing next to the ferry, looking far upstream, I felt the compelling momentum of the river swirling and rushing from the upstream. After stopping for a while at the ferry, we then headed straight to the "Maintain of Central Guizhou" along the ancient road on the right bank of the Wujiang River.

After a while, I saw the famous "pillar in central Guizhou" with my own eyes. The four big characters of "Zhong Guizhou" are written in Yin characters in horizontal scripts read from right to left. There are small characters inscriptions in vertical scripts on the left and right. The first paragraph is "Jia Shen Sui Meng Chun Yue Ji Dan", and the inscription is "Xi Lu Tian Qiu Ti". The perimeter is engraved with a rectangular single-line border. The four characters "the mainstay of central Guizhou" have simple, square, strong and powerful fonts.

The boulder where the "Mainstream of Guizhou" stone carving is located is not in the river, but on the side of the ancient road more than ten meters high from the river. The boulder itself does not give people the feeling of "mainstay". Why did Tian Qiu think of the "mainstay" back then? Perhaps it was because it was very difficult to pull a boat upstream from Chaotitan at that time, so we often tied ropes to the boulder. But why is it the "mainstay" of "central Guizhou" and not the "mainstay" of other places? Dejiang, Chaotitan, is located in northeastern Guizhou? Perhaps, the "middle" here does not refer to the direction of "southeast, northwest, middle", but "Qianzhong" is simply "Qiandi", right? What exactly is the reason is unknown.

After the Shatuo Power Station is impounded, the "Maintain of Central Guizhou" will be submerged. The stone carving of "Maintain of Central Guizhou" is the ink mark of "Tian Qiu, who has made outstanding contributions to Guizhou education." It is said that the relevant departments have determined A plan was made to preserve it after cutting in order to preserve the precious cultural relic "the mainstay of central Guizhou".

(4) The long ancient road

Carved on the edge of the "Maintain Pillar of Central Guizhou" stone

After observing it and sighing several times, I stayed alone. Take a group photo together. After that, everyone is free to move around. Together with Yu Hai and Xiao Tingjun, I continued to move upstream along the ancient road.

The ancient road was dug on the steep slope of the left bank ranging from ten to tens of meters away from the river surface. In the ancient times when the economy was underdeveloped and technology was backward, people spent a lot of effort and cost to build the bumpy pure stone pavement!

Beside the road, the dense bushes are dotted with wild bamboos as thin as a finger; above the head, there is a thin line of sky similar to the Three Gorges "Zifei Pavilion at midnight, no sun and moon can be seen"; ahead, in the bushes, Wide and sometimes narrow, sometimes hidden and sometimes visible, the endless ancient road extends upstream; by the riverside, rocks are pierced through the sky, and the river water stirs up waves rolling down. Although it was a hot summer day and I was covered in sweat, I could clearly feel the chill coming from the surging river water and the cliffs on the other side.

This is the Wujiang Gorge, this is the Chaodi Ancient Road, and this is the Chaodi Rapids.

On a prominent rock corner above the ancient road, there is a broken hut with no one inside. Who was the owner of the cabin back then? Who has rested, drank tea, and taken shelter from the wind and rain in the hut?

The canyon is silent, the cliffs are silent, and the hut is silent; the path must be known, and the hut must be aware of it. I have no idea.

(5) Wujiang Strange Stones

I have heard about the famous Wujiang Strange Stones for a long time, and people call Dejiang the hometown of strange stones. There is a strange stone street in Zhonghuan Community of the county. I often go to the shops there to look at or touch the Wujiang strange stones that are hard, warm in color and have strange shapes. How many times have I thought about going to the Wujiang River to pick up a piece myself and have a look.

Once the Shatuo Power Station in the lower reaches of the Wujiang River is impounded and put into use, the Wujiang strange rocks that have not been excavated will be submerged in the river water. I was lucky enough to come to the Wujiang River in Chaodi today, but I heard that Changbao Township is the most famous Wujiang stone in Dejiang County. There is no Wujiang stone in Chaodi, which makes me feel a little regretful.

The hometown of strange stones, Chaodi Town, which does not produce Wujiang strange stones on the riverside, can still see Wujiang stones everywhere in the streets and alleys and even in government compounds. Some houses along the street have Wujiang stones piled up on both sides of the door or even in front of it.

With An Xiaomi as a guide, a group of more than ten people including Zhang Xianchun, Cuifeng, and Xiongguan Mandao from the Zhongdingshan Literary and Art Network in Dejiang County had just arrived in Chaoti, and they could not wait to come to the Wujiang River. The river rolled away. Apart from the huge rocks and cliffs on the river bank, there was only a small beach at the ferry. The sand on the beach was even and fine, and did not contain a little bit of mud. There is not even a big pebble on the riverside, let alone the strange rocks of Wujiang River.

When I left the riverside, other literary friends were walking in front. I always felt that there were some flaws and I still hoped to bring back a piece of Wujiang’s rare stone as a souvenir. It happened that there was a small house on the roadside by the river, and there were people living in it. The ground next to the house was filled with Wujiang stones. These Wujiang stones should have been excavated and sorted by the owner of the hut from Changbao or other places in Wujiang at great expense, and then transported by ship. Although you can ask the owner for a piece or buy a piece of Wujiang stone, what I hope most is to pick the Wujiang stone myself, which is more interesting. Next to the piles of Wujiang stones, there are piles of sand for construction, waiting for trucks to be shipped. This sand was also collected by the owner of the hut from the shore of the Wujiang River and shipped here.

I asked the owner: "I want to search in the sand to see if there is Wujiang Stone, is it okay?"

I didn't expect the owner to readily agree and said: "Yes. Yeah, it’s just that there are no good stones in it.”

Although I was sweating profusely from digging in the sand, it was true that there was no Wujiang stone as the owner of the hut said. In the hill-like sand pile, except for the sand, it is still sand, and there are not even larger ordinary pebbles. I randomly found one or two pebbles and was about to take them back as a souvenir. Suddenly, I dug out a larger stone weighing more than ten kilograms in the sand. I wiped the fine sand on the surface with my hand and saw that it was not a rock or an ordinary pebble. I hurriedly took the stone to the free running water provided by the owner of the hut and washed the stone.

The true face of the stone in Lushan appeared: the stone is green, as moist as jasper; the top of the stone has an approximately oval egg-yellow pattern, surrounded by strange band-like wavy patterns; the whole body of the stone is very smooth, Like jasper. Isn't this the Wujiang stone that I have longed for? Perhaps, it is just a very ordinary Wujiang stone and cannot be called a "Wujiang strange stone", but in my eyes, it is my own "Wujiang strange stone".

After a trip to Chaodian, I arrived at the Wujiang River. I also looked at the Guizhou provincial cultural relics with my friends from the Zhongdingshan Literature and Art Network - the authentic stone carvings of Tian Qiu's "Qianzhong Resistance"; I saw the steep riverside In the canyon, trackers or others walked along the ancient path along the river in the long ago; I saw the ruins of the noose pulling the boat when the upstream boat came to the beach in the long ago; I also found a strange Wujiang stone, which was really fruitful!

Thank you to Tian Qiu for leaving the stone carvings, thank you to the owner of the hut by the ferry, thank you to the guide Xiaomi, and thank you to the flowing Wujiang River.

After leaving the hut, I silently thought and felt grateful in my heart. The summer sun slanted down over the cliff opposite, and the river surface was sparkling.

The river rushed forward, and I began to catch up with my friends who were walking in front.

Holding the heavy strange stone, although I was sweating profusely, I couldn't help humming the song sung by the students at the school's red song party not long ago: "Let us swing the oars, and the boat will push away the waves..."