The beautiful place of Zhongling: Dajing Town

My hometown is in Tongshugou, Nanwan Village, Shijian, under the jurisdiction of the Dajing Town Government. I like Dajing Town, not just because there are authentic delicacies to eat on the streets, elegant Qin Opera to watch, and funny sideshows to amuse, but because it is a part of my hometown.

People in Shijian Village must go to Dajing when going to the market. The market in Dajing has a long history. The goods supplied are not many, they are just daily necessities and daily necessities. When did people develop the habit of shopping on the streets? I don’t want to find out. I only know that the villagers love Dajing as much as I do.

People who grew up in Dajing will never forget that Dajing is commonly known as "Daiji". I used to often hear people say, "Go to Daiji" and "My child is studying in Daiji." "The dragon lantern is being played on Daiji Street" "...". The villagers changed their name to Daiji as Dajing. Perhaps it was because the town government wanted to facilitate publicity and management, or perhaps it was in response to the superficial impression that "Daiji is full of thorns". So, I don't know in a certain year, Daiji became Dajing. Big Jing.

My impression of Dajing began with Qin Opera, which is the opera sung by the second aunt and father-in-law under the starry sky. At that time, I was about six or seven years old. At night, my father and mother took me to the stage in Mengcun, Dajing Town. When I arrived, I found that it was completely dark, and the people who came later could not squeeze in front of the stage.

The old man is dressed as a thousand-year-old man, wearing a golden crown and a python robe, and his every move is particularly majestic. As soon as he appeared on the stage, even if he didn't speak a word, the cheers from the audience were already deafening after he took just a few steps.

When I was young, I couldn’t understand the lyrics. I was only interested in their luxurious and elegant costumes. The stage is the fairy world, and the audience is the mortal world. The stage was filled with splendid brilliance. The brilliance was so dazzling that although it was close at hand, it forcibly separated the theatergoers.

I was fascinated by the brilliance of the fairy world. I always wanted to get closer to it, even closer, and keep those carefully painted faces in my heart.

In order to watch the show, many people climbed to the persimmon trees around the stage, some simply sat on the hills of wheat straw, children rode on the necks of adults, and some simply stood on the back of bicycles. Seat.

That show left an indelible impression on me. I even dreamed of watching the show.

Later, I don’t know which year, my mother took me to visit my second aunt’s house. When I see the old man who can sing Qin Opera again, I have an indescribable feeling of admiration. Without the costume, he is no different from ordinary people. The most extraordinary thing about him is that everyone who sees him will think that he is extraordinary.

The old man and his wife often sell Ma Tang (Mahua) on the street. The gravel road leading to Mengcun is wide but not very smooth. Dajing Street runs north-south and is just perpendicular to that road. The old man put the stall at the exit of the road. I remember it was a wooden board with a layer of cloth on it and supported by an iron barrel. The sesame candy was fried at home and left to cool down on the piece of linen cloth that was not too white but very clean.

The eyes of the old couple are like monitors installed on the street corner. All the excitement on the street cannot escape their eyes.

An old man who loves singing is selling sesame candy. This difference between heaven and earth is really more interesting than Qin Opera.

It was summer when my mother took me to visit my second aunt’s house. The weather was hot, and my aunt’s mother-in-law made a cake. I was young, so they still used the enamel bowls used by adults to serve me. When half the bowl was dipped in water, golden oil beads were rolling. The fried garlic sprouts are half-cooked, the garlic paste makes you salivate when you smell it, and the spicy oil makes you sweat.

Mixed dough is not like toad fish, it has to be eaten while it is hot. I didn't care about scalding it, so I used my chopsticks to dip a lump in some water and put it in my mouth.

In the afternoon, I ate noodles. The noodles are chewy and smooth, and it's so refreshing when fried with green chili peppers. After finishing the noodles, I began to doubt life and thought, how could I taste such delicious food in the world? The past few years must have been in vain.

The market in Dajing Town attracted me. The delicious and fun things were all on the street leading to Dajing Middle School. I pestered my mother to go to the street. She said it was hot and the journey was long, so just ask me for anything I wanted. She didn't let me go, so I acted like a dog (cheating) and followed her with my lips pouted and kept "humming". She was so annoyed by my "hum" that she finally relaxed. I watched her rummaging through boxes and cabinets to find clothes for me, which made me happy.

You have to dress decently when going out on the street. If you walk through the streets disheveled, you will be treated like a beggar (beggar). I was still young, and my mother was already thinking about my face. Seeing that I had put on my new clothes, she pulled me to braid my hair again. At that time, my mind was full of jelly noodles, sesame oil cakes, fried steamed buns and steamed buns.

My mother couldn’t ride a bicycle, so I could only follow her and walk towards Dajing Street. To the east of Dajing Street is Zhouling, to the west is Mengcun, and to the north is Houcun. My mother and I had to walk into Baozigou, climb over Baoziling, pass through Shangping Village and continue north to reach our destination.

There is a river in Dajing Town, which originates from the Qinling Mountains, runs through the entire Dajing from north to south, flows through Yanchuan, Liwan, and runs to Danjiang. When I followed my mother from Shangping Village, I had to take off my shoes to cross the river. The water in the river was neither deep nor shallow, and there were rocks in it.

My mother was worried about the gravel at the bottom of the river, or the shards of glass that would scratch my feet, so she had to step on the rocks to cross the river. How could I listen? After walking so much, I was already sweating profusely and thirsty.

The river water is clear and cold, and small fish are scurrying around in the water. I want to take a dip in the water to cool down my body. My mother couldn't control me, so she had to let me go.

Both sides of the Dajing River are covered with crops, and Bao Gu has already grown a beard. The mountains are green, the water is green, and the crop fields are also green. No matter how beautiful the flowers are, they can't stand the contrast. The dark green is like a wave, and every bit of beauty will be sucked into the green whirlpool and ignored.

My mother and I finally walked to the street and saw two old men selling sesame candy from a distance. We thought that my mother would come forward to say hello, but we didn’t know that her eyes were evasive. She speeded up while they were busy socializing. Walk past that intersection. My mother is not a heartless person. She just did it because she felt that if I came up to say hello, I would be given sesame candy and she would not be charged for it.

I passed by the same intersection several times. There were few people on the street, and my mother couldn't escape, so she had to urge me to continue walking north of the street, and she went up to greet the two elders. Naturally, the old man would let her eat sesame candy, and she repeatedly gave in, saying that she had just eaten when she came home and was not hungry. Of course the old man refused. It was such a long journey and he would have been hungry even after eating. After saying that, the five sesame candy had been wrapped in gray paper and tied with a thin hemp rope in the middle. The mother insisted on not wanting it, so the two elders forced it into their hands. The mother had no choice but to take the sesame candy, hurriedly took out three dollars from her pocket, threw it down and left. The old man refused to accept it, so he picked up the money and chased it. My mother was so worried that she quickly urged me, who was standing around the corner to peek, to run quickly. People setting up stalls on both sides of the street thought my mother had encountered a robber, so they stood up and watched. The thief who pretended to be shopping then stole socks, gloves, pants, or other items.

Although Dajing Street is just a small market, there are quite a few people from other provinces. People from Henan and Hebei, people from Hubei and Shanxi, people from Sichuan and Yunnan... some have settled here, some are renting shops on the street to do business, and some are passing through town to go to other places.

Beggars, hairdressers, knife sharpeners, shoe cobblers, rat poison sellers...

Carpenters, blacksmiths, silversmiths, barbers….

See a Chinese medicine doctor, a photographer, a bicycle repairman, a Yin-Yang man, a tailor...

In such a small town, there is actually a movie theater.

The tallest building in the town is just a two-story building with gray bricks, gray tiles, wooden floors and wooden stairs. The shops on both sides of the old street all have wooden facades and "herringbone"-shaped roofs. The houses in nearby villages also have "herringbone"-shaped roofs, and the walls are either mud walls or brick walls.

The things my mother bought on the street were either needles or threads, cotton or cloth. She will never buy anything that is not practical. After buying what needed to be bought, she took me to eat at street stalls. In winter, eat fried jelly and fried rice noodles. Eat jelly and cold noodles in summer. During festivals, dragon and lion dances and acrobatics were performed on the streets. I had to pester them to go to the streets, so she had no choice but to take them with her.

There are many kilns for making bricks and tiles in Dajing Town. My father told me there are also sugar factories. However, the former glory of Dajing Town no longer existed when I was that age. The cement road in the old street has long since cracked and fallen apart after being rolled over by tractors. The pavements on both sides are very dilapidated and the tiles are covered with weeds. The houses in the nearby villages also look like they are in their twilight years, showing their decadence.

Despite this, Dajing Street still lives up to its reputation, and the market three days a week resolutely demonstrates the prosperity and excitement of yesterday.

When I was in high school, a north-south railway was going to pass through the town. Large trucks carrying earth, rocks and materials, the engineering department stationed in the town, private cars from other places driving on the gravel road, and railway workers wearing safety helmets could be seen everywhere. All this vaguely indicates that Dajing, which has been decadent for a long time, will soon regain its former glory, and its future is beautiful and bright.

The prosperity that people are just around the corner will eventually become a reality with unremitting efforts. The country has not let down the people, and the people have not let themselves down.

Take a look at Dajing Town today. It has been more than ten years since the railway was completed and opened to traffic. Who would have thought that the urban scene of low-rise buildings and high-rise buildings would appear in this little-known town.

The great initiatives of the Western Development and the Belt and Road Initiative have made people’s dream of pursuing happiness finally become a reality.

Walking on this old street again, my mood is extremely complicated. The roads in the old street have been renovated, and the shops on both sides of the old street are not as dilapidated as they once were. Supermarkets, express delivery transfer points, beauty salons, health care centers, maternal and infant shops, home appliance shops, ceramic tile stores... These emerging service industries have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. When people have money in their pockets, they can also enjoy themselves secretly.

As a Dajing native, this earth-shaking change undoubtedly makes me feel proud. I believe that in the near future, my hometown Dajing will become even better. I am far away from home, I hope this day will come soon.

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Picture: from the Internet