Cui Zengqi: Yunnan Tour (2)

Cui Zengqi: Yunnan Tour (2) In Yunnan in late November, the sun shines brightly, making you feel warm from the sun. This place is located on a low-latitude plateau, and the ultraviolet rays of the sun are particularly strong...

In Yunnan in late November, the sun was shining brightly, making me feel warm from the sun. This place is located on a low-latitude plateau, and the ultraviolet rays of the sun are particularly strong, giving you a slightly stinging feeling on your face. In the evening, a breeze blows from time to time, bringing a bit of coolness. These days, it has rained in other provinces in China, but only Yunnan has blue sky and white clouds. This is God's favor for us, and it is also a testimony that Kunming is like spring all year round. The seven-day tour arranged by a travel agency excludes the first day of airport pick-up and the last day of airport drop-off, so there is really only five days of travel. In addition, it takes about two days at the shopping mall, including the car trip, and only three days are used for travel. Thinking about it this way, it is really not worthwhile to travel thousands of miles from the United States for such a short trip. Fortunately, I arranged a three-day roots-seeking trip outside the itinerary, which made this trip very meaningful. The first day of the trip started from the World Dinosaur Valley in Chuxiong. Hundreds of fossils of Kongosaurus are displayed here, some lying in the red strata, and some restored and standing there by archaeologists. The largest Konglong is more than 20 meters long, seven or eight meters high, and weighs nearly one hundred tons. These animals were the dominant creatures on Earth 160 million years ago. Fossils of dinosaurs have been found all over the world, confirming that the existence of Porosaurus at that time was as widespread as humans are today. But in the blink of an eye, such a powerful group of organisms disappeared completely from the earth. Whether it was the impact of alien stars or the eruption of magma, in short, it was the power of a super creature that caused the extinction of Konglong. There is an eternal law in nature, everything will come and go. The same is true for human beings. The end of the world will eventually come, but we don’t know when it will be. This is especially true for any political party or individual. It is impossible to have long live, long live, or eternal life. It is just a lie that humans deceive themselves and others. No one can change the laws of nature. Life is short, why should we live together? In my own opinion, the most important thing is to be optimistic about life and live happily. Especially the elderly of our generation who have lived in China have experienced war and poverty, endured great winds and waves, you have tasted the ups and downs of life, and you have seen all kinds of people. I have had the joy of success, but also experienced countless failures and setbacks. Everything that happens in the world is just a dream in the end. All human entanglements, mutual suspicions, right and wrong, and disputes over interests seem insignificant and meaningless compared with the power of nature. Stop looking for trouble. The sunshine smiles at everything, smiles at life, smiles at friends, and gives positive energy to the development of society.

Attached photos: Fossils of the giant Porosaurus and group photo with the small Porosaurus

It’s only a day’s journey to Lijiang. Unexpectedly, there is such a beautiful city in the mountains on the southwest border of the motherland. It has white walls and black tiles, dotted with brown-red colonnades, doors and windows, shady trees, and a gurgling stream in front of the door. It is a spring scene in the south of the Yangtze River. There are many shops on both sides of the street, and strings of red lanterns or various colorful decorations are hung in front of the shops to welcome customers. What's even more interesting is that there is a bar street. On both sides, there are places where young people drink, sing and have fun in the evening. There are many banners hanging in front of the door describing the love between men and women. Those words are very provocative. I asked them if this place was similar to a "red light district"? The answer is no. The most common place here is the "yellow light district". People can drink and sing to their heart's content, and boldly use words to pick fights to relieve the monotony and fatigue of the journey, but they can't do anything serious. This was the rule set by the caravans back then. When I saw the singing and laughing here was around 120 decibels, I was so scared that I didn’t dare to go there again. In the square of Sijiao Street, women wearing blue and white pleated skirts, colorful tops and shawls decorated with stars, moons and stars danced a joyful Naxi dance. Some friends from our tour group were also happy and couldn't help but join in the dance. Naxi women are good at and like to dance. In order to promote the development of tourism, the government provides local residents who come to dance with a subsidy of 15 yuan per person per day. This is a measure that complies with the public sentiment.

Photos: Beautiful streets in Lijiang City

The reason why Lijiang is so prosperous is that since ancient times, Lijiang has been an important distribution center on the Tea Horse Road from the mainland to Tibet and even India. Tea from Yunnan was transported to Tibet via horse caravans and returned in exchange for horses. Today, although the era of ringing caravans in the mountains has become a thing of the past, the culture and traditional customs formed by the caravans on this highest and most dangerous transportation line in the world, as well as their bold and tough style, are still passed down to the world. The caravan affects the lives of the Naxi people. They are proud to join the caravan and become horse pot heads. There is no city wall here like many cities in the north. The local tour guide explained that the leader of the Naxi people, whose surname is Mu, does not have a city wall because the character "wood" is surrounded by people. According to my observation, the famous houses here are also adjacent to each other, unlike the courtyard houses in the north where every house has a wall. From the perspective of architecture and historical development, the chieftains (chiefs) here have always advocated harmonious coexistence of the surrounding ethnic groups and no threat of war, and there is no need for the city to defend itself against foreign enemies. The residents' lives are stable, and every family relies on labor to make a living. The gap between the rich and the poor is not large, and the social security is good. There is no need for high walls and deep courtyards to prevent thieves. Lijiang is paradise on earth. Lijiang is the capital of the Naxi Autonomous Prefecture and still retains many characteristics of a matriarchal society. The main labor in the family is done by women. Two sentences in Lijiang's Eighteen Monsters are "women do business" and "women kill pigs faster than men", which is a portrayal of the division of labor between men and women here. The customs of the Naxi people believe that a man should not be burdened by household chores, and that women should take care of the housework, work in the fields, have children, and be proud of being able to endure hardship. They are even ashamed to ask men to interfere in housework. In the eyes of Naxi women, if their men are knowledgeable, social, and successful, they are the glory of their wives and children. The seven things a man should do are to play music, chess, calligraphy, painting, tobacco, wine, and tea. So the Naxi people raise their men to be fat. There is a fat Jin brother in the family who is worth eighty yaks. In a class society, economic status determines a person's family status. It is this division of labor that women's rights are greater than anything else in the family and society, but men need to strive for equal status. But status is not important. The men here really enjoy real happiness. They don't need struggle or revolution. Interestingly, some people here still retain the walking marriage system. The woman lives in her own home with her uncle and children. The man can only go to the woman's home at night and return to his home during the day the next day. When he went to the woman's house, he hung his hat at the door, indicating that the famous flower here had an owner. Men also have no responsibility for the upbringing of the children they give birth to, which also saves them a lot of trouble in the courts. Many lawsuits among Han families revolve around family and child custody issues.