Study Travel Notes on a Journey to Guizhou: Zhaoxing Dong Village

August 11, the third day

We left Basha yesterday afternoon and arrived at Zhaoxing Dong Village. The facilities here are obviously more mature and complete, with neat streets and numerous shops, giving it a bit of a Lijiang feel.

Zhaoxing Dong Village is surrounded by mountains. The village is built in a basin in the mountains. Two streams merge into a small river that runs through the village. The Shui'an Zhaoxing where we live is built right by the river. When I open the window in my room, I can't help but feel relaxed and happy. The mountains, water, drum towers, green trees and green tiles on the opposite side come into view. It is so beautiful that there is no flaw in it. If there is any way, I can If you pack it up and take it away, I will definitely take it as ordered.

After admiring the scenery, we went to have dinner. It was a long table banquet!

When I arrived, I was a little disappointed. It was not like what I saw on TV, where a long gray table was set up next to a stilted building and bowls of food were served. The shiny rectangular tables and white tableware all remind me that this is a restaurant! However, the subsequent "High Mountains and Flowing Waters" still made us viewers and drinkers fully addicted to the national customs.

In the evening, the children went to geography class, and the adults strolled through the streets and admired the colorful night view of Dong Village.

Compared with the primitive Miao Village, it is more suitable to stay here for a few nights, savor the taste and enjoy life slowly. This is the first understanding of Zhaoxing.

Early the next morning, we went to watch the short welcome ceremony at the entrance of the village and began to visit Dong Village.

Zhaoxing Dong Village is all Dong ethnic group with the surname Lu. They are divided into five major Fang tribes and live in five natural areas, which are locally called "Tuan". It is divided into five groups: benevolent group, volunteer group, ritual group, intellectual group, and faith group.

Zhaoxing Dong Village is most famous for its Drum Tower Group. Its Drum Tower is the only one among Dong Villages in the country. It is included in the Guinness Book of World Records and is known as the "Hometown of Drum Tower Culture and Art". The fifth regiment in the village has five drum towers. The five drum towers have different appearances, heights, sizes and styles, making them a magnificent sight. This is the tallest Xintuan Drum Tower, with eleven floors and a height of 25.9 meters.

The Drum Tower built in the Dong Village is a symbol of good luck and a sign of prosperity. It was built with funds raised by the entire village. The Drum Tower is not only a symbol of the Dong village and the Dong people's surname, but also a place for Dong people to relax and for young people to socialize. It is also a place for receiving guests, gathering meetings, transmitting information and offering sacrifices.

The Drum Tower looks like a pagoda from the outside, with flying pavilions and double eaves, making it majestic. The whole building is a wooden structure building. Four large fir trees are used as the main pillars to reach the top floor. Additional auxiliary pillars are added with horizontal and vertical melons on them, extending to all sides, and are all connected with wooden tenons. The traditional structure is a Lei Gong pillar suspended in the center, four golden pillars as the main supporting pillars, and twelve eaves pillars around it, symbolizing the year, four seasons, and twelve months, and implying "eternal life".

It is said that Dong Village has the "Three Treasures", namely Drum Tower, Fengyu Bridge and Dong Song.

Fengyu Bridge is a symbol of the Dong people and a traditional transportation building. This bridge, also known as the "Flower Bridge", is named after its ability to shelter from wind and rain and is decorated with colorful paintings. It is a bridge building that integrates bridge, corridor and pavilion. It is the crystallization of Dong bridge architectural art.

This kind of bridge consists of lower, middle and upper parts. The lower part is the bridge pier, which is surrounded by large bluestones and filled with stone. It is a hexagonal column with sharp angles upstream and downstream to reduce the impact of floods. The middle part is the bridge deck, which is entirely made of wood and connected by tenons. The upper part is the bridge deck gallery pavilion, which is connected as a whole using a beam and column system combined with mortise and tenon joints. There are bench railings between the wooden columns of the pavilion, and a layer of weather eaves is projected outside the railings, which not only enhances the overall beauty of the bridge, but also protects the bridge deck and brackets. The bridge frame is placed on the bridge piers, and there are no riveting measures between the bridge piers and the bridge abutments. Only the bridge abutments and bridge piers act as an elevated platform. It reflects that the mechanical level of the Dong people has reached a very high level.

The Wind and Rain Bridge is beautiful and strong. It can be used for walking, shelter from wind and rain, and can also be used for people to rest or receive guests. In Zhaoxing Dong Village, there are 5 wind and rain bridges with different styles.

We didn’t have time to visit the Drum Tower and Fengyu Bridge one by one, so we rushed to the performance venue to watch the third treasure of the Dong Village - the Dong Song.

According to reports, the "Dong Song" originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and has a history of more than 2,500 years. It is a multi-part, non-conductor, unaccompanied, natural chorus song in the Dong area of ??China. folk chorus form. In 2009, Dong folk songs were included in the Representative List of Human Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Compared with the kind of "music that shines like a clear spring, a melody that flits on the edge of ancient dreams", I prefer these repertoires with scene presentation and lively forms, especially the songs of the four seasons, which Dong men will always Scenes of labor throughout the year are expressed with brisk movements and songs. Although I don’t understand the meaning of the lyrics, the rhythmic beauty of it makes people feel the happiness of workers. Obviously, compared to the roughness of the Miao compatriots, the Dong compatriots are both good at dancing and singing.

Cool. After admiring these "Three Treasures", it's time to get started. Next, the children went to experience batik, a national handicraft.

Batik is a traditional hand-made printing and dyeing technique that uses wax as a resist material for resist dyeing. The main method is to use a wax knife dipped in wax liquid to draw geometric patterns or patterns of flowers, birds, insects, fish, etc. on white cloth, then dip it into an indigo vat (mainly blue), and boil it in water to remove the wax to reveal the pattern. Those with good skills may be able to draw directly with wax, but children must first outline the draft with a pencil on a white cloth, and then cover the lines with wax.

After drawing the pattern, put the cloth into the dye vat for dyeing. In order to make it easier for the children to operate, a pot of dye is put out for use. The dye is indigo, which is made from indigo, a plant abundant in Guizhou, and fermented in pits.

After the fabric is dip-dyed several times in the dye vat, it is rinsed, and then boiled in water to remove the wax. After rinsing again, the cloth will show clear blue and white patterns. We breathed in the strong smell of dye (somewhat rancid) and soaked it once each. Then we handed it over to the mother-in-law in the store to handle it and picked it up the next day.

In the afternoon, the children will talk and remember what they saw and heard today in the geography class, which will also produce a new generation of academic champions. As the saying goes, "What you see on paper is only shallow, but you must do it in practice." I believe that after the on-site visit experience, the children must have their own understanding and feelings about the Dong Village, and I wish them the best.

After accepting so much information, your brain cells will be too tired. It’s time to have fun in the fields. We went to the rice fields to catch fish, let’s go!

Let’s talk about fish farming in rice fields first. It is reported that raising fish on the water surface of rice fields can not only obtain fish products, but also use fish to eat pests and weeds in the rice fields, excrete manure, turn over the soil to promote the decomposition of fertilizers, create good conditions for rice growth, and generally increase rice production by one year. It really kills two birds with one stone.

Since there are many benefits to raising fish, of course you won’t actually catch them in the rice fields, but in a large pond surrounded by cement walls.

The children first entered the water tentatively, and gradually became more courageous and could walk freely in the pool. However, despite searching, the fish was only found deep in the mud.

Finally, a young man succeeded, and he felt full of accomplishment with the fishing net in hand. Next, the fathers also helped out, and finally achieved something more.

However, whether there were too few fish or too cunning, the fish caught were far from enough for dinner (cruel). In order to prove the abundance of fish, the owner of the shop took the equipment to go fishing with water and electricity. Unexpectedly, there is such a new weapon, and the fish finally cannot escape the fate of being eaten.

After catching the fish, the children began to play in the water happily. The water gun prepared by Teacher Xiaoxiao came in handy, and the children had a great time.

During this period, a dark cloud slowly floated from the mountains in the distance. Suddenly, the sky and the earth were vast, and it started raining heavily. Some children were still staying in the water, enjoying the refreshing experience, and some of them turned into Clay figurines. . .

The children who were out of the water were busy cooking grilled fish. By the way, the grilled fish was really delicious. As soon as it was served at dinner, it was all eaten by the children!

Without dinner, come and enjoy the timeless moments captured by photographer Brother Zhang. They are so picturesque and beautiful beyond words.

On the way back, I continued to linger in the twilight. Even the sky seemed to be attached to this place, creating a magnificent scene. Those lights decorate the night and warm the hearts of tourists. The children are still busy playing in the river. Maybe one day when they come here again, they will have a different mood. Shui'an Zhaoxing, looking forward to seeing you again!