Border town slogan

In the spring of March, I asked for leave and went to the border town.

Half an hour's drive from Xiushan County, Chongqing, get off at "Hong 'an" of Yuxiang Expressway and drive into National Highway 3 19. A few kilometers later, we arrived at the ancient town of Hong 'an.

Hong 'an ancient town is the intersection of Sichuan, Guizhou and Hunan provinces. The ancient town is famous all over the world because of Mr. Shen Congwen's Border Town, which brings the land of "stepping on three provinces and my body" into people's field of vision and "beautiful love story" into people's hearts.

The stone bridge on Qingshui River, a tributary of Youshui River, was built across the river. The stone bridge is antique and old, and it has been some years. Cirrus clouds are carved on the bluestone railing, and Longmen Square stands at the bridge head, which reads the words "the first gate in southeast Sichuan". Time mottled handwriting is faintly discernible. When Sichuan crosses the bridge and enters Hunan, it can be said that "the rain on the Shu Road blows Guizhou, and it rolls three Xiangyun clouds".

The intersection of Hunan, Chu, Sichuan and Guizhou is a border town. Border Town, formerly known as Tea Cave, belongs to Huayuan County, Hunan Province. The ancient town is built near Qingshui River. On the other side of the river is Hong 'an Ancient Town in Xiushan County, Sichuan Province (now under Chongqing), and on the south is Mijia Town in Guizhou.

Take the pier of the ancient town in the border town. Border town just woke up from a deep sleep. The Qingshui River on both sides of the Qingshan River is still early in the morning, and the faint mist on the river seems to be gone, shyly unwilling to lift her charming veil. In the mist, the ringing knock on the door of the early morning girl beating her clothes on the ancient pier of Chadong, accompanied by the laughter of children playing in the water, filled the whole Qingshui River.

Wu Peng fishing boats lined up on the edge of the dock are moored by the Qingshui River, and the river gently beats the boat and gently swings. The fishermen got up early to go to the market, so they had to go to the market early to cash in the fish and shrimp harvested last night.

Suddenly, I heard a boatman banging on an unfinished Wu Peng wooden boat not far away. The banging echoed on the river, whirled in the quiet morning light, and floated along the Qingshui River to a far, far place.

That sunny morning? The border town of China is like a beautiful woman who just woke up from her sleep and didn't have time to dress up. She sat shyly and quietly by the Qingshui River, staring at the spring water that took away her endless thoughts.

The weeping willows along the Qingshui River are green and fresh. The newly-built antique promenade with red columns and green tiles and the pavilion on the balcony set each other off with the hanging feet of the old bamboo building. During the walk, it is really a place to explore the past.

Overlooking the Qingshui River-the tall white marble statue "Cui Cui" on the artificial island is graceful, and Cui Cui looks at and misses her border town and her "Du Lala" with a faint dawn.

Climbing up the stairs from the ancient pier of Chadong is the old border town street. The town is small and the roads are not wide. Tujia, Miao and Han people who live together are tolerant and assimilated in the long river of time. The townspeople who are used to a leisurely life lazily clean up the garbage in front of their houses. All kinds of bamboo buildings with hanging feet, the old quadrangles are patchwork, seemingly messy but harmonious.

Walking along the bluestone path to the entrance of Du Lala, I looked up and saw the huge "border town" carved on the high edge of the cliff near the river bank. The scarlet color seems to be fresh and conspicuous.

The ferry still retains the old look of "Du Lala" written by Mr. Shen Congwen. A steel cable connects Sichuan and Sichuan. The old man sits leisurely on the wooden platform in the boat, uses a two-foot log with a slot as a hinge, gets stuck on the steel cable crossing the river, drags the boat to the other side bit by bit, and the ferry moves gently on the green water. People who want to cross the river for money must throw themselves into wooden boxes and keep the price of one yuan unchanged for many years. This is the only way to cross the river in the market at present. Different from Xiao Cui's "Du Lala" at that time, people crossing the river must consciously put on "life jackets" to ensure safety. During the conversation, the old man told me that the ferry is public welfare, and his salary is paid by the town government, not by "crossing the river", which is different from the statue of Cui Cui who ferried to the artificial island in the middle of the river not far away, and the ferryman charged you 20 yuan.

The ferry docked at the pier of the ancient town of Hong 'an opposite, and a small stone with the word "Du Lala" engraved on it stood on the shore. The lighthouse-like building at the Ferry is suspected to be an old thing during the Cultural Revolution, and the Bordeaux Tower is covered with old slogans such as "Long live" and "Great".

On the bank of Du Lala, walk up the stone steps and reach the ancient town of Hong 'an.

For the protection of the ancient town, vehicles need to stop outside the town, and the town takes the initiative, so there is no noise. Different from the border town across the river, there are few diaojiao buildings in the ancient town of Hong 'an, and the pavement paved with granite strips is much more spacious and quiet than the streets in the border town. Next to the two streets are courtyards, large and small. The walls of the courtyards are made of bluestone, and houses are built in the courtyards. On the road, I suddenly saw a white western-style building, and the black traditional Chinese character "Fuxing Bank" on the lintel was particularly conspicuous, knowing that it was a legacy of the Republic of China. It has become a memorial hall for the Second Field Army. During the civil war, the headquarters of the Second Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was located here. At that time, Liu Deng's army marched from Hong 'an to the southwest and advanced into Sanxiang, which opened the prelude to the liberation of Jiangnan.

There is a must-see place in the ancient town, which is "three no matter the island". There is an island in Qingshui River called "Sanbuli Island". According to legend, in the old society, those who committed rape were caught, but people living on this island didn't, so Shimakawa, Hunan and Guizhou had no jurisdiction, so it became a "vacuum" place. Now the ancient town and the island have been connected by a long corridor, which has become a place for leisure and health, and you can board the island without wading. Going to the island and looking at Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou can be said to be a fork in the road, "one rooster crows three provinces." Shiqiao and Du Lala connect Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou.

Over the years, the border people in the three places have created a unique food-"tofu horn fish", that is, "three provinces cook in one pot".

The "hornfish" in Sanxiang Dongting Lake, together with pickled vegetables unique to the ancient town of Hong 'an (now Chongqing) in Sichuan, tofu and tomatoes in Guizhou, combined the ingredients of the three provinces to make a unique food "Tofu Hornfish". This special dish has now formed a food street, and shops are scrambling to win the business of passers-by with "authentic" signs.

The sun is setting in the west, and I don't want to go home. Hong and Anbian Town in the garage are drifting away.

Farewell to the green Qingshui River and the dream "Du Lala".

Farewell, trav in my heart.