Yan Xiaoming's "Three Views of Crescent Moon Spring"

The National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival are celebrated together only four times in a century, and are called the "extra-long version" of the mini-long holiday by "travelers". Due to the long-term "retreat" due to the epidemic, some of the author's acquaintances have packed their bags and traveled around. Looking at their full sense of gain, happiness, and security, and thinking about some of my own experiences, I have to lament the rapid development of tourism culture...

In 1975, as a staff member of the Jiuquan Area Agricultural Reclamation Bureau , I accompanied the Tianjin Conservatory of Music performance troupe from my hometown to perform in various farms, pastures and mines for young people from Tianjin’s border areas. When passing through Dunhuang, I climbed Mingsha Mountain. It was my first sightseeing in Crescent Moon Spring. At that time, the Chinese people may not have the awareness of tourism. There are no traces of travel in the sand mountains, there are no tourists near the spring, and the buildings around Crescent Moon Spring have not yet been rebuilt. Perhaps, it is precisely because there is no artificial decoration or noise that I can truly appreciate the uncanny workmanship of nature. That day, standing on the top of the mountain and overlooking the green spring, the hook-shaped spring water was like a shining crescent moon marvelously embedded in the golden sand dunes. That day, I wrote such a limerick in my diary: "A crescent moon is embedded in the sand mountain, and a spring of clear water is rippling. The new moon and clear water are overlapped, both in the creation of heaven and earth. The traces of sand are singing the divine song, and the ancient desert is Wonderful strings. The waves of the spring reflect for thousands of years, the beautiful eyes of the Silk Road." Although she knew she didn't write well, she really imagined Crescent Spring as the "Eye of the Silk Road", and she always felt that she could see it. There are not only the innate Iron-backed Divine Fish and the Seven-Star Immortal Grass, but also the long-standing Wowa Ancient Pond and the Sky-traveling Pegasus, as well as the passage of time and anecdotes that happened on the ancient Silk Road. Of course, I also want to know, in our time, what new stories can this strange "Eye of the Silk Road" see?

What I have mixed feelings about is that when I went to Crescent Moon Spring to visit ancient times for the second time, what I saw through the "eyes of the Silk Road" was probably a scene that made her sad. In the early 1980s, tourism became increasingly popular in our country. I remember returning to Tianjin to visit relatives and visit my younger brother who is a biology teacher at the Experimental Middle School. Before I could sit down, his college classmates came to visit and asked, "Where should I go this summer?" I had forgotten the travel destination that my younger brother suggested. I only remembered The classmate said hurriedly: "Okay, I'll go hang out with a few more people and let's go together!" A few days later, when I was changing trains in Beijing, I had time to see my uncle and aunt, but unexpectedly they met. As soon as my sister saw me, she brought up the topic of traveling to the northwest: "Brother, is your place worth going?" "Is it worth it? You will regret not going! Snow mountains, Gobi, deserts, grasslands! Of course! There are also Mogao Grottoes and Maiji Mountain!" At that time, there were 121 trains to Lanzhou, and more than 30 hours of "hard seats" were not tiring, but a young man and woman without seats were "standing and happy." I gave up a corner of my seat to the young man, and I heard his Jiuquan accent during the conversation. It turned out that they were farmers in Qingshui Township, Jiuquan County. "Visiting relatives?" I asked. "No, travel." "Travel?" It's really weird. "Come out and have a look! Now that we have money, we plan to travel once a year!" I suddenly realized that with the progress of reform and opening up, the Chinese people's lifestyle has indeed undergone gratifying and profound changes. After returning to Lanzhou, I was assigned to shoot in the Hexi Corridor for the full-dome movie "Wonder of the West", which was my second visit to Crescent Moon Spring. At that time, there was a huge gap in development between the east and west. There were still few tourists on Mingsha Mountain, and there were no buildings near Crescent Moon Spring. Not long after the photographer and I climbed to the top of the mountain, two people carrying simple luggage also climbed up. Judging from their accents and conversations, they should be farmers from central Gansu who came to work in the Hexi Corridor. At that time, there were not many farmers in Gansu who dared to go out to work, and even fewer farmers in Gansu who were willing to use the opportunity of working to travel and broaden their horizons. Therefore, the appearance of these two farmers made me particularly excited and even extremely moved. Unexpectedly, there will be a big twist in the next plot - after finally climbing to the top of the mountain, they feel bored and disappointed with Crescent Moon Spring: "What is this?" "Is it a puddle?" "Like our family. Are the flood ponds the same? "Water ponds are small ponds built to store rainwater in arid and water-scarce areas of Gansu to solve the problem of water shortage for humans and animals. In fact, it is not uncommon in life to see the cultural phenomenon of "seeing the spring without seeing the crescent moon, and having no sense of beauty in the face of treasures". For example, some people with interesting sentiments may regard piggy banks as artistic ornaments, while pragmatic people only regard them as artistic ornaments. Value the money inside. However, I think that although Crescent Moon Spring will be sad because some tourists cannot appreciate its own aesthetic value, it can attract these tourists who come from "Longzhong, the most miserable place in the world", who have not studied for a few years, and who still have food, clothing and even water. The farmers who came here came here to see her, so she should feel a little warmth and relief.

In 1991, I was transferred back to my hometown where I had been away for 25 years. Soon after, it was discovered that rural areas and farmers themselves began to become important scenic spots and new forces in the development of tourism. Once I went to Jade Village in Ji County (today’s Jizhou District) to shoot the documentary "Soil·Life" by the sculptor Yu Qingcheng. The secretary of the party branch of the village actually commissioned me to write commentary for a series of tourism projects in the village. After his introduction, I found out Rural tourism really has great potential. China's tourism seems to have rapidly become popular in those few years.

In 1999, in order to film a TV series, as a producer of the "New Vision Studio" of Tianjin TV's TV series production center, I accompanied the crew to Dunhuang. I had my third visit to Crescent Spring. . What is completely different from the previous two times is that the overall environment of Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring has undergone tremendous changes. The scenic area has built walls and implemented a ticket system.

When you enter the gate of the scenic spot, you will see a long camel caravan carrying an endless stream of tourists, like a Great Wall slowly moving in the sand mountain, marching leisurely and calmly from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. Tourists are not afraid of the hardship of climbing the sand mountain, but they all want to gain a novel experience of riding the "Desert Boat". The ancient buildings beside the spring seem to have been rebuilt overnight. Buildings of various styles from past dynasties are gathered here. Our "Eye of the Silk Road" can once again feast our eyes on it for thousands of years.

Surprisingly, I met a farmer from Jiuquan County whom I knew in the past. His surname was Ba, and he was an early leader in the local area who got rich through hard work. I happily praised him: "It's great that you can travel across the three counties and cities of Jiayuguan, Yumen, and Anxi to Dunhuang! It's long past time to open the three-dimensional book of nature for yourself, open your horizons, and open your heart!" He still responded to me with a shy smile: "I have been traveling for a long time! Not as a tourist, but as the first private tourism company in Jiuquan County, specializing in the Jiuquan-Jiayuguan-Dunhuang route!"

I was stunned by his simple and low-key two sentences. I simply didn’t know how to answer. Looking at the happy people in the crisp autumn air, a line from Chairman Mao’s poem unexpectedly came out of my mouth inadvertently: "Desolate" The autumn wind is coming again today, and the world has changed.

”

“Hey! "The minibus, no, it must be the boss, patted me and asked, "What are you thinking about?" "

I told him about my previous two visits to Crescent Spring, about the two farmers from the arid area in central Gansu, and about my description of Crescent Spring as the "Eye of the Silk Road." ": "If she can really read for thousands of years, then what she sees now should be the most prosperous scene, right? "

Old Ba said: "That's right! Could it be that the two brothers you mentioned who have endured hardship (in the local dialect, meaning endured hardship) have also set up a travel company or a "farmhouse"? ”