Why Liuzhou is the most undervalued city in Guangxi?

Speaking of cities in Guangxi, apart from Guilin, which has a long reputation, and Nanning, the capital that has to be mentioned, the most important place that should not be ignored is the northern town of the autonomous region.

Liuzhou

Now many people know Liuzhou, but most of it is because of snail powder. However, if you have the opportunity to notice the imperceptible disdain of a Liuzhou person's facial muscles when others mention Guilin's landscape, when you associate Wuling car, double-sided needle toothpaste and Jinzizibao Ronaldo on TV with this small city that is neither the provincial capital nor the world's number one, you will realize:

This is really a city whose inner beauty is submerged in stereotypes. Although, even in Guangxi, where the sense of existence is already very low, Liuzhou has not gained any fame, its vigorous internal force and amazing peeling will definitely give those who only know that it has snail powder a strong cognitive impact.

In the name of Liu:

The indissoluble bond between Liuzhou and Liu

Liuzhou has a nice name. Willow is a kind of tender and affectionate wood. Among the stars in the sky, there are eight stars in the mouth of the southern rosefinch, which are arranged in a beautiful shape like willow leaves for willow trees to lodging. Some people think that Liu characters in Liujiang and Liuzhou originate from the correspondence between their geography and the stars.

The area where Liuzhou is located has spectacular karst landforms. The picture shows the karst mountain area in Luzhai County, Liuzhou.

It is also said that the Liujiang River is fast-flowing, which was called Liujiang in the Han Dynasty. Because of its indecency, it later became a willow. This kind of textual research naturally lacks a lot of romance. Fortunately, so far no one knows which statement is correct.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a man in the State of Lu who became the benchmark of male morality at that time with his open attitude. Because he lives in a city under a willow tree, people call him Liu's ancestor. His descendant, Liu Zongyuan, is a hall-level figure in the history of China literature. Due to a vigorous political reform in his youth, this great poet was relegated to the south for a long time. Liuzhou is the last stop of his life.

That year, the sad and sick poet was leading the local people to practice his agricultural reform plan by the Liujiang River. Seeing that the school was full of vitality and the situation was gratifying, he was in a happy mood and wrote a humorous poem. The first sentence was:

Liuzhou willow porcelain has a long history, and it is planted beside the willow river.

The four willow characters overlap together like this, which is the mystery of history. A year later, Liu Cishi died of illness in Liuzhou. His talent and fame grew bigger and bigger, and he was later honored as one of the eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties. Liuzhou, a place with hundreds of tattoos in this secretariat poem, has gradually merged into the cultural circle of China because of him.

It can be said that Liu Zongyuan's arrival is the first time that this Lingnan river is lucky, but it is by no means the last time.

Once the coffin city:

How does the river bless Liuzhou?

In the era of Liu Cishi, Liuzhou was undoubtedly wild. What really made this city stand out in history was the coffin.

It is said that when Liu Zongyuan's body was sent back to Shaanxi, the people in the Imperial Center first saw the unique quality and superb craftsmanship of Liuzhou's coffin, which was brought back by the late great writer. Liuzhou coffin became famous in World War I.

Needless to say, like Emperor Qianlong eating in the south of the Yangtze River, this story is probably fabricated by coffin merchants in later generations. But one fact is: since the Song Dynasty. Because of its absolutely reliable quality, Liuzhou coffin has become the most popular funeral appliance in China.

Nowadays, coffins have become the most popular cultural symbol in Liuzhou. A Liuzhou person who sincerely wishes you will even give you a coffin handicraft as a gift. A small and exquisite coffin, placed in the living room and in front of the car, promoted to a higher position and made a fortune, paving the way for the town house. No one will feel anything wrong. Influenced by the coffin culture for hundreds of years, Liuzhou people have learned to face the death mapped by this long and narrow wooden box with the most magnanimous attitude.

The reason why the coffins in Liuzhou are of high quality and exported to all parts of the world stems from the unique geographical location of the city.

Let's take a look at Liuzhou's position in the whole water transport system in Guangxi: within the territory of Liuzhou, Longjiang, Rongjiang and Luoqingjiang, three tributaries with abundant water, have successively merged into Liujiang, which means that Liuzhou is the place where the three rivers meet, so the water, people and things in the upper reaches of the three rivers will naturally meet in Liuzhou.

Let's take a look at the details of Liuzhou's urban geography: among the magnificent karst peaks in northern Guangxi, Liuzhou is located in the relatively flat eastern Guangxi basin. Liuzhou, like Guilin, is flat and wide as a whole, except for those beautiful stone peaks dotted in the city and used as natural public parks. In this case, Liujiang directly took a big bend close to 90 degrees. This winding river is a typical sentient water in feng shui, and the most important thing is to gather gas to support people.

The center of Liuzhou has hardly changed for thousands of years. It is because this pot city surrounded by Liujiang River is beautiful: it can keep people, collect goods, do business and raise prosperous clans.

Winding through the Liujiang River in Liuzhou City.

It is not difficult to infer that the first-class oil sands cedar harvested by villagers in the upper reaches of Liujiang River was delivered by merchant ships to Liuzhou City where Fengshen gathered gas. Businessmen and craftsmen handed down from generation to generation in the city set up workshops, processed and sold them, and gradually formed a coffin industry cluster.

Xijiang River Basin, which communicates with Liujiang River, is the most important (even the only important) waterway in Guangxi, which can directly reach Guangzhou Port in the south and communicate with Xiangjiang River and Yangtze River in the north through Lingqu. Materials come in, goods are sold, and a complete coffin industrial chain naturally forms.

Of course, this geographical advantage is not only cheaper than coffins. Liuzhou, as the most popular town on the whole Xijiang River route, has gradually become a veritable port city, and the famous port culture of Wuhan and Chongqing on the Yangtze River also exists in Liuzhou.

The wild learning in northern Hunan, coupled with merchants coming and going along the river, makes Liuzhou full of Chu style, although it is in Lingnan. You know, until now, people in Liuzhou and Guilin, which are located on the river surface of Guidong Basin, can communicate with many people in Hubei and Sichuan unimpeded.

Immigration has also brought about a change in taste. Many foreigners think that Guangxi people can eat spicy food, but the stereotype comes from Liuzhou snail powder. This really distorts many people in Guangxi. In fact, many places in Guangxi don't eat spicy food, especially in southeast Guangxi, where food is very rich and people's diet tastes light and elegant. Only people in Liuzhou and Guilin in the northeast of Guangxi, influenced by the invasion of Huxiang culture, turned back and brought a spicy reputation to a province.

More interestingly, Liuzhou can not only retain immigrants, but also export a large number of immigrants.

In the old town of Ganzhou, Jiangxi, which is 700 kilometers away and surrounded by Hakkas, people speak the same dialect as Liuzhou people. This is a linguistically famous Ganzhou dialect island, which is due to the immigrants from Liuzhou to Ganzhou in the Ming Dynasty. Now, probably because of its weak influence, Ganzhou dialect island is gradually eroded by surrounding dialects, showing a trend of extinction. More and more people who grew up in the old city of Ganzhou claim that only by traveling to Liuzhou can they get back the feeling of childhood.

In a word, the restless energy and things, such as the vertical and horizontal river network, numerous docks, bustling commercial ports and immigrants, make Liuzhou's amorous feelings inclusive and full of vitality. This open and free atmosphere has also cultivated a deep soil for the future industrial development of the city.

We make things that people need.

Modern industrial civilization is favored in Liuzhou. On the one hand, it began with the new Guangxi warlords investing and setting up factories here. On the other hand, it is also inseparable from the construction of railways. You know, like ancient rivers, modern railways have a special preference for this beautiful town in northern Guangxi.

Liujiang railway bridge.

During the Anti-Japanese War, engineers in Liuzhou pieced together Liujiang Railway Bridge under the condition of lack of materials, which made the Guizhou-Guangxi and Hunan-Guangxi railways meet here. This directly established Liuzhou's position as a transportation hub in Guangxi and even southwest China. After the founding of New China, Liuzhou became the starting point of Liujiao Line. These factors make Liuzhou Railway Bureau the only railway bureau in China that has been away from the provincial capital for a long time.

Since 1930s, with the double blessing of political power and transportation system, Liuzhou has entered the sturm und drang period of industrialization.

In 1950s, Chairman Mao made a personal decision, and a large number of factories and workers in Shanghai, Wuhan and other megacities moved to Liuzhou. This industrial migration has had a profound impact on Liuzhou. It is said that at least half of Liuzhou people are descendants of Shanghai workers.

Liuzhou has become an absolute factory city. Whether it is a hard-core heavy factory such as steel and machinery, or a large and small light industrial factory such as textiles and daily necessities, as long as you can think of the factory form, you can almost find it in Little Liuzhou that year.

The chimney of the factory, together with the karst peaks next to it, towering into the sky, and a large dormitory area is laid on both sides of the Liujiang River. The charming natural scenery mixed with the cold factory building with thick smoke made the most magical landscape in Guidong Basin that year.

In the 1980s, Liuzhou factory, which has accumulated profound internal strength in China's manufacturing industry, began to burst into great strength: from mechanical parts such as bearings and gears to daily necessities such as toothpaste, soap and electric fans, Liuzhou people did everything and made money. This small town in Guangxi is not only self-sufficient, but also sells well all over the country. The convenience and superiority of citizens' life are not lost to any traditional bustling city.

The biggest feature of these industries bred by Liuzhou terroir is that they are practical, smart and affordable. There is no doubt that the achievement of this concept is Liuzhou automobile industry, which calls for what the people need, and we will make it.

Liuzhou has a very long history of producing cars, which can be traced back to the warlord period. Liuzhou Machinery Factory and its derivative factories have successively produced charcoal trucks, airplanes, diesel engines, tractors and even sewing machines. Since the 1980s, Liuzhou Tractor Factory began to study family vans. Because the main object they imitated was Mitsubishi van in Japan, they got a bigger name than Mitsubishi: Wuling.

At the beginning of the century, Wuling, like many domestic automobile brands, encountered engine technical bottlenecks. After some weighing, Wuling decided to hand over most of its equity to foreign investors in exchange for core technology. The only condition is to leave all supporting manufacturers in Liuzhou.

The story behind it is well known. The van produced by SAIC-GM-Wuling perfectly inherits the essence of Liuzhou's industrial benefits and convenience. Wuling Hong Guang, known as a generation of magic cars, galloped around the world and became the most reliable partner for countless workers to get rich.

Today, Liuzhou, a so-called small and medium-sized city with a population of 4 million, has become one of the four major automobile cities in China and the only city in China that has four major automobile group production bases at the same time.

Walking on the streets of Liuzhou today, you will directly feel its unique landscape as a motor city: there are such small electric cars produced by Baojun or Wuling everywhere, and they are everywhere and numerous, which makes people wonder whether even primary school students hold driver's licenses in this city.

Small electric cars can be seen everywhere on the streets of Liuzhou.

If you immigrate to Liuzhou at present, the first thing to do is to spend 40 thousand yuan (including government subsidies) to buy such a car. It is convenient to charge, small and flexible, and most importantly, it enjoys a wonderful treatment that is almost utopian in this city. Everyone drives the same car, so there is no competition and no discrimination. You drive it across the bridge, taste the noodle shop and cross the banks of Liujiang River.

As a city in Guangxi, there are certainly many electric two-wheeled vehicles on the streets of Liuzhou.

In addition to Cyberpunk cars that can be seen everywhere, Liuzhou has many urban landscapes with the same industrial characteristics. For example, the trash can here is equipped with a solar charging board, which can make the butterfly pattern on the bucket glow at night. For another example, there are many high-rise buildings in Liuzhou, with more than 1.3 million high-rise buildings with more than 20 floors. Wang Di Tower in Liuzhou is 303 meters high and has 72 floors. It is the first 300+ high building in the capital of southwest Africa and the earliest tallest building in Guangxi. When a foreigner walks into the elevator, he often feels in a trance and can't help sighing. He couldn't think of Liuzhou, a small city with developed urban construction, even stronger than many provincial capitals.

Of course it's not just snail powder.

Liuzhou is not a typical tourist city. Even today, there are no bicycles in this city. But it exists in the collection list of many experienced travelers. You know, those sophisticated travelers don't just come for snail powder.

Don't forget that Guangxi is an autonomous region, and Liuzhou also has a large number of ethnic minorities living there.

First of all, if you want to see the unique cities in the world that have sprung up among karst peaks, Liuzhou is definitely worth seeing, except the most typical Guilin. It should be said that except Liuzhou, where there is no such godsend wonder as Guilin Elephant Trunk Mountain, the two cities do have their own advantages in average perception.

The problem of industrial pollution really troubled Liuzhou in the past, but after nearly 30 years of treatment, there is basically no pollution problem in this city now.

It is hard to imagine that such a city with heavy industry as its pillar has ranked first in the country in surface water quality for many years in a row. Every year, various world-class water sports competitions are held on Liujiang River. If you are an experienced swimmer, you can safely jump into Liujiang to swim.

It is said that there are more than 300,000 bauhinia plants in Liuzhou. Every April, fragrant flowers are full of trees and dazzling. When the flowers fall, the Liujiang River is choppy and the petals are flying. On the mountain peak, on the water bank, it is even more amazing. It can be said that the flower scenery in Liuzhou is as shocking as any city famous for flowers in China.

Of course, as a city famous for a bowl of snail powder, discussing Liuzhou, food is naturally an unavoidable topic.

As mentioned earlier, discussing food in Guangxi is a very complicated project, and it is not a typical province that can sum up a unified diet style. For Liuzhou, which is deeply influenced by Huxiang culture, the most important feature of the food here is fusion, because it has strong immigration and industrial attributes.

The birth of snail powder is the best example: office workers in Liuzhou from nine to five love to eat midnight snack. At the snack stand next to the factory dormitory, everyone was still not satisfied after eating the snail pot, so they simply asked the store to put some of the most common dried rice noodles in the bottom of the pot. This is the earliest snail powder.

Liuzhou people are broad-minded, open and peaceful. They won't tell you anything authentic, formal or authentic. Nothing is unacceptable as long as it is to your taste.

For example, if you come to Liuzhou to eat local snail powder and want to find the most authentic one, there is absolutely no such thing. Every family has different snail powder. Some people focus on the fragrance of snails, some people love thick bone soup, some people tend to use unusually spicy peppers, and some people fry duck feet tender and tender, and they can take off the bones in one bite. Even in the past two years, the best snail powder sold locally has changed from traditional soup powder to fried snail powder. In short, this young food is still in a state of rapid evolution in Liuzhou, and no one is there.

The snack culture in Liuzhou has flourished so far, and snails and duck feet are still essential foods in Liuzhou snack stalls. Sweet and glutinous Lipu taro and bean curd covered with soup give this pot of cooking a lingering cohesion. The night is deep and there are bursts of river winds. Three or five friends gathered in the alley, eating snail duck feet, baking a dozen oysters and frying bowls of snail powder. Light Tan Xing, carefree and scattered, is an ordinary summer night in Jiangcheng.

Living in a relatively hidden corner of the world all the year round, Liuzhou people are more emboldened to watch the tide coldly. Under the current situation, no one knows what surprises Gu Chenghui, surrounded by winding rivers, brings to this country.