The Story of Qianpu Valley
In South Taihang, there is a popular place on the Internet, which is Qianpu Valley with its beautiful mountains and rivers.
Qianpu Valley is a small stream that twists and turns like a snake, more than ten miles away from Linzhou City. There are cliffs on both sides of the river, and the road winds along the river to the west. It stretches for more than ten miles, from the foot of the mountain to the cliff of Taihang. Of course, there are villages, terraced fields, and trees scattered on both sides of the road. Of course, if you get closer and closer, there will still be people, animals, dogs, and stone houses. There are also sophisticated people, countless tourists yearning for the mountains and rivers, spring flowers, autumn colors, and winter snow.
For the Taihang landscape, the beauty of Qianpu Valley is charming and delicate, and a combination of movement and stillness; but for me, Qianpu Valley is mine, and this is me. Because it is close to here, and because you can go there at any time, there is no time inconvenience; whether it is spring or winter, when the mountain peach blossoms have bloomed for the first time, or when there is thick snow in winter. Although the distance and poetry are the most beautiful, they are all scenery on the road, which requires time, sorting out the mood, and putting on makeup; and for me, the beauty of Qianpugou is undisciplined, unreserved, and without heavy makeup. . Sometimes I come here, either to watch the storm or to relax. During this endless wandering, the beauty of Qianpu Valley shows a different kind of beauty. It may be like the uneasy mood of a married girl, or the mood of waiting for her husband to return home, all of which are displayed.
I remember that in my memory, it was called Taoyuangligou. I don’t know the good guy named it Qianpugou. However, this is also the name in recent years. It's over. I remember one time a tourist from out of town kept asking me where Qianpu Valley was. I pointed to this small stream and said to him: The people in the mountains built rocks on this stream to store water, forming countless waterfalls. Are there thousands of them? I can’t tell.
When walking up Linzhou Avenue, you will see the archway of Taoyuan Village. Walking southward along the Hongyi Canal for a few hundred meters, you will see the Taoyuan Aqueduct. The throat project of the Hongqi Canal here is tens of meters high from the bottom of the river to the bank. To cross the water from the main canal to the south bank, the only way is to build a bridge. Under the conditions at that time, it could only be built up one by one with stones. A bridge pier made of stones was supported layer by layer to build a canal and a road on the canal. At that time, it was a man-made miracle that relied on people to carry it on their shoulders. I remember that when I was a boy, Vice Premier Li Xiannian accompanied an African president to visit here.
A dam locked the creek, blocking its flow. There is no scenic spot like the Grand Gorge and Pinghu Lake here. However, there are also ripples in the breeze, especially when the reservoir is full, there are also blue waves, and drizzle birds are skimming the water. Sometimes, there are also groups of fishermen spending time here. After passing the reservoir, there is the confluence of two streams, one coming down from Tianping Mountain and the other coming out from the west. This is what people call Qianpugou.
In recent years, the mountain people have built an archway at the entrance of the village. It is the kind carved with bluestone. Once you pass the stone archway, you feel like you are beginning to read Qianpugou. . The first thing that catches the eye is a place surrounded by green bamboos, several rooms built near the river, and several stone tables placed in the courtyard. In particular, there is a couplet posted on the chai door. The calligraphy is still very skillful. It tells the story of picking chrysanthemums under the east fence and leisurely seeing the Nanshan Mountain. It is very interesting to Tao Weng. There is a fork in the road at the entrance of the village, and through a small bridge, it leads to the gliding base. This was built in recent years. Some people who love flying can fly into the blue sky here. In countless days, I have stood on this small bridge many times, watching the stream flowing down from the upper reaches. The rushing stream hits the white rocks, and the layers of water seem to come from the sky. The water plants beside the stream , and unknown birds. Sometimes, just standing here, thinking about nothing, thinking about everything, the natural mountains and rivers moisten the soul, and what floats away with the water is the years and the nostalgia of generations. A river is a wordless poem, and in this poem, we are so insignificant, but on the contrary, people feel how great they are, magnifying their pain and tenderness.
The road is close to the village, and the river is close to the road. For rivers, rivers run from west to east, all the way to the distance. But I walked from east to west. After passing the village, the water in the river became bigger.
After passing Guojiayuan Village, a few hundred meters westward, there is a larger dam. Willow trees are planted around the pool, and there is a large stone on the south side of the pool. More than 20 years ago, the young people in the work unit came here to swim together after returning from the countryside. There were a lot of children in the mountains at that time. A group of naked little boys took off their penises and competed to jump from the big rock into the pool. That was the most beautiful time in the mountains. In the early 1990s, there was relatively more land in the mountains, and some uncultivated fields could be carved out at the corners of the mountains. There was also this small stream, which made it easy to water the fields. I had food in my hands and no worries.
Along the ordinary path, through Mochi Village, we walked to a pool. It was a small pool, like a large garden barrel, and it rained less now. Weather, the stream was weak and slowly flowed into this ordinary pool. Standing on the shore, I saw that the pool was bottomless and the water was so dark blue. However, the mountain people gave it a myth-like legend, saying that one of the Eight Immortals once washed ink here, so it was called Mochi, and the village next to it was named Mochi Village. On the shore, an ancient temple was built. When I walked into the temple, I realized that it had been rebuilt generation after generation for more than a thousand years. This is the culture in the mountains,
The end of the road is Xiaonian Village, and cars can only drive here. There is a parking lot here, and it turns out that the person who charges the fee is an old man. Maybe we are the first generation to come here for a picnic. One time, we forgot to bring a knife. I came to borrow the knife from the old man. However, what I was talking about was ten years ago. Last year I went to Xiaonian Village with a friend. This old man has passed away. In the vicissitudes of life, the old man's youngest son built a farmhouse in the old man's old house, and his son also took over the parking lot.
If you want to go up the creek, you can only walk. In the past few years, you just had to pass an iron gate. If you want to pass through this gate and leave money to buy the road, a person calls himself Haojiashan. The mountain is Haojiashan. There is a legend here. There was a group of soldiers who wanted to attack the mountain but could not do so for a long time. They posted slogans and asked for good advice. A sheep herder, the sheep knocked down the placard, the soldiers captured the sheep herder and asked him to provide good advice, otherwise he would be beheaded. The sheep herders didn't have any good ideas, so they had to go down the mountain to find an old man in Haojiashan. The old man came up with an idea. He found a group of sheep herders, tied torches to the horns of the sheep, and drove the sheep to pretend to attack in the dark. When the people on the mountain saw the mountain full of torches, they were frightened and ran away. Finally, this piece of mountain was given to the sheep herders, and the sheep herders also gave a part to the old man in Haojia Village. I don’t know whether this legend is true or not, but this place has always been called Haojiashan.
After passing Haojiashan, the population was sparse. In the past, there were only woodcutters and sheepherders walking up the stream. The stream comes from a cliff. I have only been up there once. I stepped on the stones in the river and used my hands and feet. The road in question is the river channel.
For Qianpu Valley, I am a passerby.
The owners here have lived here for generations and built terraced fields along the river. They diverted streams to irrigate the fields, built canals along the mountains, and built hydroelectric stations.
Of course, there are also the first generation of mountaineers. Their mountaineering photos explain the beauty of Qianpu Valley from different angles. Yes, for climbers, the mountains around Qianpugou are extremely challenging. I don’t remember anyone saying that the mountains are waiting for me there. Such a broad-minded sentence, as if a lover is waiting for the lovesick person. For mountaineers, this sentence may be the most sentimental.
Perhaps the best thing is spring. Spring is like a phoenix, growing in the cold wind. The best thing to experience the colors of spring in the mountains is the peach blossoms in the mountains. That year I wrote a short article about spring, "Looking for Spring", and it was published in the Hongqi Canal Newspaper. This was the first time it had been published in a local newspaper. The joy I felt was hard to describe in words.
Of course, I also rode a motorcycle and took my wife with me just to see a pot of flowers, just like the Shandandanhua in the picture, which the people in the mountains call Quandanhua. Just to see a pot of flowers, because my wife loves flowers. I saw this kind of flower in Xiaonian Village. The next spring, the villagers said that there were more flowers in another village, so the two of us walked to look for the flowers. I also walked along a mountain road, where there was only one old man still in the village. There were dandelions growing around the village. I just wanted to pick some dandelions, so I got to know this old man who lived alone. Maybe I thought the old man was lonely and had nothing to do. Sitting in someone's courtyard, chatting with the old man about things in the mountains. Sometimes, I would go along the canal in the village to see the apricot blossoms all over the mountain. The fields in the mountains were deserted, and it was a world of apricot blossoms, and bees gathering nectar. The wind, the fragrance of the flowers, and the feeling of letting go. Sometimes I think, I don’t know if the mountain remembers me, but I remember the mountain.
Qianpugou is also a place of nostalgia. My father broke his leg while pushing coal. I asked an old sheepherder from Guojiayuan Village to pick him up. The old man herded sheep all year round and was very skilled in leg-joining skills. He was also very enthusiastic. Later, when I had to change the dressing, I pushed the bicycle along the twelve branches of the canal at that time, step by step, to Guojiayuan Village in Qianpu Valley. of. More than twenty years later, I met people in the village and kept asking about this old man. Unfortunately, he was no longer there. The kindness of a drop of water is repaid by a spring of water, and as the descendants of my father, I can only use this short article to remember this old man.
Sometimes I think about it, there are more and more people visiting Qianpu Valley in recent years. I think there may be several factors. First, there are no tickets required here. Second, there are This stream. For me, when there are more people, there are more cars. I am a person who doesn’t like liveliness, so I won’t come to Qianpu Valley in the busiest summer and autumn. Winter is coming more and more, the snow is getting heavier, and people are thinking about Taihang more and more. The mountain roads in other places are rugged, and the car cannot go there, so I have to retreat. Walking on the cement road leading to the gliding base, you are exposed to the biting cold wind of winter, walking on the thick snow, looking at the distant Taihang peaks, especially in the morning, the winter sunshine is gentle, hitting the peaks. The scenery of Taihang at this time is the most beautiful, colorful and peaceful. It’s winter vacation, and it’s very easy to buy New Year’s goods in the city. There is very little time to prepare New Year’s goods, and then the New Year’s atmosphere is much less fun than when I was a teenager. And wandering in the mountains, watching how people kill pigs, starting from catching pigs in the pig pen, the neighbors in the village join forces, until the water is boiled, the hair is removed, and the pig is broken into two pieces. Sometimes I am so happy that I buy some for myself. The pigs raised by the people in the mountains do not use feed, and the meat is very fragrant. The ice hangings in Qianpu Valley are also particularly beautiful. The heavier the snow falls and the stronger the cold wind, the more beautiful the ice hangings become. At a mining site, small piles of ice formed by dripping water look like mushrooms, attracting people from thousands of miles away to watch.
For the aboriginal residents in the mountains, the first day of the Lunar New Year may be the most complete day. Cars one after another, carrying nostalgia, New Year flavor, customs, and filial piety, formed a mighty New Year greeting army from all directions. At this time, it was the happiest day for the old man who had stayed in the mountains. The preparations started from the night before. The lunch at noon was a family portrait.
Qianpu Valley is also a worldly place. There are more than a dozen villages scattered on both sides of the ditch, and the young people in the villages have all gone down the mountain. Especially the village on the top of the cliff is home to the earliest immigrant generation. There is a small village called Taoling. There is only one old man named Guo in the village. He is an enthusiastic person and once guided our mountaineering team. A few years ago, when Thuja was hot, I went up the mountain to collect Thuja and fell off the mountain. When I found him, he had been dead for several days. I said: He was eaten by Thuja. Human nature does not become pure and quiet just because this place is remote, and this is not a paradise, although countless people yearn for it and want to be secluded here to express their love for the mountains and rivers.
Of course, the beauty of Qianpu Valley is attractive. Some people build small villas here and want to live in an idyllic scenery. The construction of small villas one after another destroys the beauty of nature. Today I went to Qianpu Valley again in spring. I felt much happier when I saw that the small villa was demolished and the wild beauty of Qianpu Valley was restored. The world is like this. There is a kind of beauty that cannot be monopolized. To monopolize it is greed, which is not allowed by nature.
I write intermittently, based on my thoughts. I also know that this is unwritten, but the smoke and cloud in Qianpu Valley has been tormenting me. With this landscape, it seems that God has given me a place to heal my wounds. People are in the rivers and lakes, and they can't help themselves. Perhaps, in this landscape, you are no longer an actor, showing your true nature, your smile, your cry, your happiness, your sadness. It is not a history of changes in time. For example, all the young people in the village have left, and people from outside the mountains have come again.
I am a conservative person. Regarding the landscape of Qianpu Valley, I feel that this is mine in my soul. Because no matter when I feel happy, upset, or bored, even if spring comes or it snows in winter. Intentionally or unintentionally, you just walk around this landscape, just like going on a date with an old friend or a lover. Of course, I have only scratched the surface of the beauty, tranquility, depth and Zen of Qianpu Valley.