Go to Yangzhou to see the three bays of the canal

Known as the "natural oxygen bar", Yangzhou Canal Sanwan Scenic Area. Photo by Meng Delong (people's picture)

Living in the mountains, several main ponds in the village are as rare and hopeful as oases in the desert. I didn't see Xupu River, Yiyang River and Grand Canal until I was old. The winding river and the swift current enrich my imagination of the river. The same is true of the three bays of the canal.

In ancient Chinese, "three" is usually an imaginary number, which generally refers to a large number, but the "three" of the three bays of the canal should be an exact number and a real three bays.

From north to south, the water in the canal has surrounded many water bodies such as the Yellow River and Huaihe River. When passing through the Erli River in the south of Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, due to the narrow channel, the momentum is getting stronger and stronger, as if an eagle swooped down and suddenly lost its foothold, and the ships coming and going were in chaos, blocked or stranded.

To reduce the flow rate, the conventional practice is to build a dam to intercept, so that the river is blocked, the flow rate slows down, and "go their separate ways." Guo Guangfu, the magistrate of Yangzhou in the Ming Dynasty, didn't know whether it was an expert's advice or his brain was wide open. In the twenty-five years of Wanli, he led migrant workers from the south gate of Erli Bridge, making the canal turn left and right, such as snakes crawling and turning around, connecting the original rivers in Yaojiagou, forming a tortuous "three bays". After water injection, the still water is deep and the navigation is smooth.

After Dayu's water control, water control is generally dredging, and cutting corners to get straight is the usual method. However, the clever Yangzhou people did the opposite, giving up going straight and turning a corner, and blocking the water flow with the principle of "three bays reaching one dam". This canal is "swift and swift, if fierce wave rushes", but the enthusiastic Yangzhou people insist on winding the canal, lingering, "slow down, slow down".

Straightening into curves increases the length and tortuosity of rivers. This river, which was originally 100 meters long, was stretched to 1.7 kilometers like a pot with a big belly, a narrow mouth and a wide side, like the symbol "ω". The water level rose and the flow rate slowed down, and finally "saved the day". Since then, An Lan has been celebrating the New Year.

The water in Sanwan has slowed down, so literati, wealthy businessmen and monks often disembark here and enter Yangzhou with a spring breeze of ten miles and two distinct miles. Sanwan is lush with vegetation, and Yangzhou is full of talents.

Where there is water, there is a bridge, and the bridge in Sanwan is quite distinctive. Not to mention the winding waterfront trestle, nor the harp bridge and Jinse bridge that echo from afar. Just two iconic bridges, one in the south and the other in the north, are worth pondering. The silhouette bridge at the north end is a huge paper-cut with flowers, which shows the art of painting flowers through the air in Yangzhou's non-legacy paper-cut with modern science and technology. It is red and soft, real and vivid. Ling Bo Bridge in the south means "Lingbo Micro-step". The bridge is white and graceful, just like Changhong lying on the waves. Because the state boundary is full of water, the water makes waves, the name of Yangzhou is skillfully expressed, which conforms to the profound cultural connotation of Yangzhou's "water * * *".

The ancients said, "Listen to the sound of rain, and you will see clouds growing beside the mountain." In Sanwan, there are many wonderful places where people can watch the rain, the sky and the clouds.

The rain pavilion by the river is unique and novel with floating roof and wavy shape, and abandons the monotonous flat roof design. Being in it, listening to the drizzle and watching the running water is not interesting.

In Sanwan, Yufengtai, Jiulonggang and Jinshan are all good places to climb and look far. Yufengtai is full of buttonwood trees. Legend has it that the phoenix tree is the king of trees, and the phoenix does not live in the phoenix tree. I want to come to Yufengtai's phoenix tree, which not only means "planting phoenix tree", but also expresses the pride of changing the old appearance. "Jiulonggang and Jiulongtan are interdependent, which may be the wisdom hint of" Long Zaitian, hidden dragon in the deep ". Fate was not invented out of thin air, which was proved by Li Dou's Record of Yangzhou Paintings in Qing Dynasty. It was related to the story that Emperor Kangxi took refuge here during his southern tour. Jiulong Mountain is not lofty, but it is rich in vegetation, full of green. When you board it, you must be open-minded. Looking around, Jinshan combines the exquisite characteristics of Yangzhou gardens, and uses the art of "picking" and "floating" to pile more than 7,000 tons of lake stones into hills. Although the height is only 12 meters, the mountain looks steep. Climbing to the top of the mountain, overlooking the south of the Yangtze River, the distant mountains are close to the water, and the vision is sparse, which can best understand the artistic conception of "the green hills are covered by water".

Between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, the terrain is complex, which is as high as a hill, as flat as a polder, and as low as Lixia. Those who live in the mountains, like me, have always been full of yearning for rivers and lakes. Walking into Sanwan, it's like the northwest people coming to the southeast coast with warm climate. Rich river water is a luxury.

The canal is writing a new history every day. From then on, the three bays can be reached without thinking.