preamble
there is nothing you can't step on
The roof of my house is your garden
nothing can't be given
The walls of my house are the walls of your house
nothing is forbidden
Cucumbers from my house grow under the eaves of your house
nothing is up for grabs
Here we have the sweetest rice wine
Wang Wei's paintings of green hills on four walls, Du Fu's poems of plum blossoms in clear snow
Chengzi Ancient Village, on the narrow door of a farmhouse
Hanging such a picture, I have a big heart
elegant couplet
—— Luxi Poet Hei Mou "Journey to Luxi"
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Luxi is a county belonging to Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, about 170 kilometers southeast of Kunming City. In Du Niang's words, Luxi is a bright pearl inlaid on the Yunling Plateau, with beautiful mountains and rivers and pleasant scenery. It not only has natural landscapes such as plateau lakes, karst wonders, canyons and waterfalls, but also has strong ethnic customs. Among them, the most famous ones are Alu Ancient Cave and Chengzi Ancient Village, which are the business cards of Luxi. The traffic in Luxi is relatively convenient. It is connected to Kunming by high-speed. It takes about 2-3 hours to drive on the high-speed, 200 kilometers. It is suitable for weekend trips.
Luxi has a long history. In the sixth year of Yuanding in the Western Han Dynasty (111 BC), a county was established, called Loujiang County. In the early Tang Dynasty, it was changed to Longdi County. In the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, it was upgraded to Guangxi Prefecture. In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), it was reduced to Guangxi County, and in the eighteenth year of the Republic of China (1929), it was renamed Luxi County. Since then, the name of Luxi has been used until today. The reason why I am interested in the history of Luxi is because Luxi was originally called "Guangxi" (Guangxi Autonomous Region is my hometown, so...), but this Guangxi is different from the current Guangxi, it is not the same thing at all!
In fact, I have been to Luxi long ago, but I just walked around casually at that time, without leaving any photos. I woke up one morning in November 2017, saw the weather was fine, and drove there on a whim. Anyway, one day back and forth is enough, convenient!
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The First Cave in Yunnan——Alu Ancient Cave
The first thing we came to was Alu Ancient Cave, also known as Luyuan Cave. This is the most famous scenic spot in Luxi, just on the edge of Luxi County, very close. It is a national-level scenic spot, a national geological park, and a national 4A-level scenic spot, known as "the first cave in Yunnan". Judging from this appellation, people in Luxi are quite simple. Compared with those who always claim to be number one in the world, number one in the world, and number one in China, people in Luxi honestly only dare to call themselves number one in Yunnan. In fact, in terms of karst caves, Alu Ancient Cave is indeed the number one in Yunnan.
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"Alu Ancient Cave" is Yi language, which means "a tiger cave with flat grass in front", and "Alu" means "a cave with mountains and water". This place is the cave settlement of the "Alu tribe", one of the "Thirty-seven Man tribes" in Yunnan during the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The Alu tribe is a tribe of the ancient Yi nationality in Yunnan.
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Entering the gate of Alu Ancient Cave Scenic Area, first of all, there is a very wide and green grassy garden square, called the solar calendar square. On the one hand, according to the Yi people, there is a "flat grassland" in front of the Alu ancient cave; on the other hand, the solar calendar is an ancient calendar believed by the Yi people since ancient times, also known as the "October solar calendar". You can often see the solar calendar square or park.
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The square is covered with green grass, verdant trees, and blooming flowers. In addition, the weather today is very good, with blue sky and white clouds, and the sun is shining brightly, which is very beautiful.
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During the 2017 National Day, Alu Ancient Cave held a "National Essence Cultural Festival", which is one of the exhibits. Still pretty.
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Butterflies and flowers are always connected together, or "butterflies and flowers match very well", so there is the name of "Butterfly Love Flower" which has been passed down for thousands of years. Butterflies have been favored by literati since ancient times, and butterflies are often mentioned in poems and lyrics. For example, Li Bai's "Butterflies are yellow in August, and the grass in the west garden is flying together", and Yu Xuanji's "Painting a boat in spring sleep is not enough, the dream is a butterfly and also seeks flowers", and so on. But what I remember the most is Li Shangyin's famous "Jinse", "Jinse has fifty strings for no reason, and one string and one column thinks about the year. Zhuang Shengxiao dreamed of butterflies, and Wangdichun's heart entrusted cuckoo. The moon and pearl in the sea have tears, and Lantian The sun is warm and the jade produces smoke. This feeling can be regarded as a memory, but at that time it was already lost." The story is full of joys and sorrows in the world, and the past is like smoke. However, I saw a song on Baidu just now, Li Yun's "Remnant Flower Tears", the lyrics are also very gorgeous and sad, "Flowers dance and flowers cry, flowers cry and petals fly, for whom the flowers bloom, and for whom the flowers fade Who is sad, the butterfly is drunk by the flower, but the flower flies with the wind... ".
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It's late autumn, the yellow of ginkgo and the red of maple leaves complement each other, shining extremely brightly under the blue sky. Luxi in autumn is mostly green, but there are also colorful autumn colors, permeating the publicity and magnificence of life!
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At the foot of the mountain at the end of the square, just in front of the entrance of Alu Ancient Cave, there is a small and simple temple called "Lingyuan Ancient Temple", also known as Luyuan Temple, which was built in the Ming Dynasty. Xu Xiake, a famous traveler in the Ming Dynasty, once left his footprints in this temple.
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The flying eaves are high, the wind chimes are ringing softly, and Zen is full of thoughts. Sitting is also Zen, walking is also Zen, worshiping the Buddha is the heart of worship, the heart does not move people and does not move rashly, follow the heart leisurely, follow the fate, the Buddha is in the heart...
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Yes, the famous Xu Xiake has been to Luxi and Alu Ancient Cave. On the 10th and 11th day of August in the 11th year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty, he visited Alu Ancient Cave twice for investigation, and wrote the magnificence of Alu Ancient Cave into "Xu Xiake's Travel Notes", leaving "the water of Luyuan gushes from the lower cave, and the water of Luyuan The source of the cave group in the cliff" sentence.
I really admire and envy Xu Xiake. In the era when transportation was basically relying on walking, he actually traveled to more than half of China (almost the whole country. The territory actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty was not as large as it is now), and traveled so many places. The famous rivers, mountains and scenic spots are really awesome. Suddenly I remembered Mao Zedong’s inscription to Xu Xiake at the Xu Xiake Memorial Hall at the foot of the West Mountain in Kunming: “I really want to learn from Xu Xiake.” hehe!
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Looking up, on the emerald green hills, there are five big red characters, "the first cave in Yunnan". Alu Ancient Cave is at the foot of this mountain.
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Well, before visiting the cave, take a look at the guide map. The tour of Alu Ancient Cave is mainly to visit several parts of Luyuan Cave, Yuzhu Cave, Yusun River and Biyu Cave.
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This is the entrance of Alu Ancient Cave, which looks quite ordinary. If it weren’t for the inscriptions on the stone wall above the entrance and the artificially made small waterfall, you might not have imagined that this is the famous Alu Ancient Cave.
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The first thing to enter is Luyuan Cave. This is the scene of entering the entrance of the cave for the first time, and it feels quite big.
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Like most caves, the scenery of the cave can only be highlighted by various lights to highlight its strangeness and magnificence. Walking into the cave, it seems that you have come to a colorful world, plus all kinds of strange shapes formed by stalactites and stalagmites for hundreds of millions of years. In the past, I always thought that caves should be like this, and each cave is basically the same (of course, it has its own characteristics). It wasn’t until I arrived at the Zhijin Cave in Guizhou that I realized that this was not always the case. The Zhijin Cave is not only large in scale and unique in shape, but more importantly, the Zhijin Cave does not have such heavy lights of various colors, which is relatively more natural. Of course it is The strength of Zhijin Cave does not need so many colors to set off.
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This scenic spot is called "Nuwa mending the sky", which is one of the few scenic spots that I can name. There are many scenic spots with nice names in Alu Ancient Cave, but whether they look like or not depends on "three points depend on image, seven points depend on imagination". However, I generally don’t read or remember the names of scenic spots. I only pay attention to whether they are good-looking or not, so I only care about taking pictures.
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This is a bit like sharpened pencils of various colors, which is nice, isn't it?
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This one isn't pretty, it's just that it's so red, it's quite eye-catching, haha.
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This scene is called "natural stage". I think this stone mantle is very beautiful! Half-rolled curtains and half-covered curtains, Nagato Yujie Jun sparse shadow!
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When you get here, Luyuan Cave comes to an end. Enter through the stone cave gate in front, and you will enter the second cave of Alu Ancient Cave, Yuzhu Cave.
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This is the "Tangxian Hall", which is the entrance connecting Yuzhu Cave and Yusun River.
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Looking down, it is the Yusun River, which is faintly blue and seems to be cool.
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A small cruise ship is returning to the pier.
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The Yusun River is quite long and wide, and the swimable part is about 800 meters long. The water is slow and clear, which can be described as crystal clear. This is different from other underground rivers in karst caves. Most of the underground rivers in caves I have seen are turbid.
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A stone pillar suddenly popped up in the middle of the river, and I don't know what it is on the surface of the water, like a mysterious fog of dry ice, which is quite strange.
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The reflection of the clear Yusun River is interesting, as if you have come to a symmetrical world, and with the blue lights, it is a psychedelic reverse world!
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After swimming in Yusun River, continue to visit Yuzhu Cave.
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This is a very beautiful scenic spot in Yuzhu Cave. I don't remember the name, but I call it "The River and Mountain Are So Enchanting", or "Great River and Mountain". It is really like a beautiful and majestic landscape painting!
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This is the landmark scenic spot of Yuzhu Cave, Optimus Yuzhu. It seems that many caves have such a scene.
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I'm a bit tired of looking at the end!
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Walking out of Yuzhu Cave, the sky is suddenly bright.
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From Yuzhu Cave, take the cable car to the next scenic spot, which is also a cave.
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In the valley on the right side of the cable car, there is a Yi village called "Alufa".
There is only a short section of the cable car. If you don't want to take the cable car, you can walk without any problem, but the cable car fee is already included in the ticket. After getting off the cable car, immediately enter the last scenic spot of Alu Ancient Cave, Biyu Cave. It's still a cave!
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Entering the Jasper Cave, I feel that the lighting of this cave is much more elegant. It is not as red, green and colorful as before, and it feels good.
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Ahead is an attraction, the Elephant Footprint.
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In Biyu Cave, there is a strange scene, which is also the magic of Alu Ancient Cave. You can hardly see it in other caves. It is called "Heavenly Made God". what is it Uh... see for yourself! The commentary said, "Women blush when they see it, and men see their heartbeat"!
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After visiting Biyu Cave, the tour of Alu Ancient Cave is over. I found a problem. It may be that the number of tourists has decreased in recent years. In order to reduce costs, the landscape lights in the cave are usually turned off, and the staff will turn them on wherever tourists go. The lights in one place turned off after the tourists left. Therefore, when entering the cave, the staff usually ask the tourists to wait a while, and gather more people to enter together. The cost is reduced, and it seems understandable to do so. However, each tourist has different points of interest and different time requirements. If you are short on time and just want to take a look at the flowers and leave the staff, you may not be able to find the landscape light switch. I can't appreciate it anymore!
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After coming out of the Jasper Cave, there is a karting field below. It may be that there are few tourists and no one is playing in the field.
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The final exit of Alu Ancient Cave is still a few kilometers away from the entrance of the scenic spot. It is not realistic to walk, so we can only return by battery car, but there is no need to pay the fee, which is already included in the ticket.
After visiting Alu Ancient Cave, it takes about two hours to see. Although there is no surprise after seeing too many caves, the Alu Ancient Cave is generally good, and it can be called "the first cave in Yunnan". If you haven't been there, it's worth a visit, after all, it's not too far away.
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Millennium Ancient Village——Chengzi Ancient Village
Leaving Alu Ancient Cave, we drove to another scenic spot in Luxi, Chengzi Ancient Village. Chengzi Ancient Village is located in Yongning Township in the south of Luxi County, about 30 kilometers away from Luxi County, and it takes more than 40 minutes to drive. The country road is narrow and has many bends, but it is not too difficult to drive.
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When we came to Chengzi Ancient Village, the sun was still shining brightly. Parked the car at the entrance of the village, a group of old mothers were sitting and chatting at the entrance of the village, very leisurely. But what surprised me was that, for some reason, there were no tickets this time. The last time I came here in 2012 seemed to cost 50 yuan per person.
Regarding the ancient village of Chengzi, Baidu introduced it like this: "The ancient village of Chengzi belongs to Yongning Township, Luxi County. It is located in two prefectures (Honghe, Wenshan) and three counties (Luxi, Mile, Qiubei). The most distinctive ancient village landscape combining Yi and Han, Tuzhangfang is huge in scale and has a long history, and it was one of the political, economic and cultural centers in southeastern Yunnan at that time."
The history of Chengzi Ancient Village can be traced back a thousand years ago. According to legend, this is the site of the ancient Dian "Ziqi Kingdom" thousands of years ago. In 1253, the Mongolian army conquered Yunnan, and Ziqi Kingdom surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty.
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Entering Chengzi Ancient Village, there are some low earth walls, stone walls and brick walls on both sides of the curving and rough stone road. The afternoon sun was very bright, and the two dogs lay lazily on the side of the road, lazily looking at the pedestrians...
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This is a farmhouse restaurant. Because it is relatively close to the entrance of the village, it is simply named "the first restaurant in Chengzi".
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The ancient village is extremely quiet, and it seems that no one can be seen. Chengzi Village is very remote, so there are very few tourists, but the villagers are also hard to see, maybe they are all working outside. Walking in this narrow and quiet village alley, it seems that you can only hear your own heartbeat and panting quietly. Yes, the dogs in the village don't seem to bark when they see strangers like us, maybe it's lazy, or maybe it's infected by the simple folk customs here. Most of the villagers are very friendly to tourists, and the villagers are also very harmonious with each other. The reason for saying this is because there are no people in many homes, but the doors are open and undefended! In today's materialistic society, such a scene is hard to see.
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This tall stone wall is called "Sister Wall". There is a legend here. It is said that a general in the village returned to his hometown to build a house on this uphill. Because of the steep terrain, the stone wall could not be built, so he had to advertise and recruit talents. It was a pair of sisters who unveiled the list. It was agreed to be completed in three days. There was no movement in the first two days. When they woke up on the third morning, the villagers suddenly found that the stone wall had been built, but the sisters were nowhere to be found. To commemorate the sisters, the village called this stone wall "Sister Wall". The legend is just a legend. In fact, such stone walls are very common in rural areas, and it is not difficult to say. It is said that I grew up in the countryside when I was a child, and my parents also moved stones to build walls, lifted earth to ram the walls, and the big house was never built, but the courtyard walls of my hometown were rammed by ourselves.
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Although the houses on the sister wall look old and dilapidated, they are still much taller than other houses in the village.
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Walking in and taking a look, you can see the tall gates and buildings scattered in layers, with carved beams and painted columns. Although rough, they are still very imposing. Take a closer look, "General's House", oh, it turns out that this is the residence of a general, no wonder!
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Suddenly I remembered a statue I saw just now in front of the sister wall, engraved with the words "Li Dekui, a celebrity in Chengzi". This "Li Dekui" is the owner of this general. Li Dekui was a general in the Xianfeng and Tongzhi years of the Qing Dynasty. Because of his outstanding military achievements, he was named "Ruiyong Batulu".
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Walking into the general building, the courtyard is quiet, and at the door of a room, a little boy is lying on the threshold doing homework. Seeing us coming in, the little boy just blinked his eyes, then lowered his head and continued to write his homework. If this boy is a descendant of General Li, then I feel that this family tradition has a long history, and this little boy will have a bright future. Hope so too!
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Walking on a country road, the sun is shining and the trees are green!
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Viewing Chengzi Ancient Village from a platform halfway up the mountain, you can clearly see the structure and characteristics of the Yi nationality's soil palm house in Chengzi Ancient Village. I saw adobe houses piled up layer by layer along the hillside, connecting up and down, and connecting left and right. "Your roof, my courtyard" is the biggest feature of Tuzhangfang in Chengzi Ancient Village. According to legend, the ancestors of the Baishao tribe of the ancient Yi nationality chose this place to build their own homes on this hillside, which has been handed down from generation to generation. These buildings have a history of more than 300 years. Three hundred years of ups and downs, the world has changed, one generation passed away, another generation grew up, and now the people living here are no longer Yi people, most of them are Han people, but these ancient soil palm houses have gone through hundreds of years of ups and downs. , still standing on this hillside, enduring!
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In fact, this kind of Tuzhangfang is not unique to Chengzi Village. It exists in many places in Honghe Prefecture and Chuxiong Prefecture, Yunnan, but none of them have the scale, distinctive features, and original ecology of Chengzi Village. This kind of large-scale ancient dwellings and ancient villages with ethnic characteristics is highly praised by photography enthusiasts and travel friends who love ancient times. Therefore, Chengzi Ancient Village has gradually become known to everyone in these years, and it has become the second business card of Luxi tourism (the first must be Alu Ancient Cave).
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On the top of Chengzi Ancient Village, which is almost the top of Feifeng Mountain where Chengzi Ancient Village is located, there is a relatively tall temple, Lingwei Temple. Under the warm sunshine in the autumn afternoon, it looks very imposing. In fact, it was originally a chieftain's mansion. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, Guigui, the legendary chieftain of the Yi nationality, built the chieftain's mansion here. Because it was very expensive and brutal, it was eventually wiped out by the Ming army, and the chieftain's mansion was destroyed in the flames of war. Later, the villagers built Guansheng Palace on the remains of Tusi Mansion, and finally evolved into the current Lingwei Temple.
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There is an expensive statue of Tusi in the front corner of the temple, a typical decorated head of the Yi people.
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There is a tall sycamore tree on the platform in front of the temple, with some withered and yellow branches and leaves trying to reach the bright autumn sky, as if it is still telling the stories that have been lost. Tusigui was exterminated, and the Qing Dynasty reformed the land return policy. The ancient village of Chengzi, which was originally a Yi village, was gradually occupied by Han people, and finally formed the current situation where Yi and Han people live together, but Han people are more.
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Go down from Lingwei Temple and walk into Chengzi Ancient Village. The sky is very blue, so transparent and pure. This is the sky of Yunling Plateau!
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City dwellings. The one next to it is being remodeled and might be thought of as an inn or restaurant. Alas, I don't know if it will be harmonious in the end!
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It is an old house full of simple rural life, with golden corn corn hanging under the eaves, and two large barrels (it seems to be called "bundle" is more accurate) of corn corn are piled up in the yard in front of the house.
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A big rooster flew up to the courtyard wall, squinted at us, and wobbled away...
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Appreciate the style and features of Chengzi Ancient Village from another angle. The ancient village of Chengzi surrounded by green trees, the autumn sun is warm, quiet and peaceful, it is really beautiful, like a secret place!
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Overlooking Chengzi Village, you can see corn piles piled up on many roofs (or in courtyards), which is a common way of storing grain in Chengzi Village. Far from the center of the village (Tuzhangfang), villagers began to build bungalows or small brick buildings that are common in modern rural areas. Times are changing, and many ancient traditions are quietly changing or even disappearing. I don't know if this ancient tradition of Chengzi Ancient Village can persist!
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Walking in the somewhat messy village, when I looked closely at the low and dilapidated adobe houses and the simple and poor life scenes, I felt a complex emotion in my heart. Chengzi Ancient Village is still very poor, and life is extremely simple and even primitive. This remote mountain village, which is almost isolated from the original ecology, has at least solved the problem of food and clothing, and is still far away from a well-off society. In recent years, the government has developed tourism in Chengzi Ancient Village, and also tried to preserve these ancient traditional Yi people's houses, which is very good. However, due to the scarcity of tourists, tourism has not brought any real benefits to the villagers. At the same time, in order to preserve the tradition, the government does not allow the villagers to renovate their dilapidated houses, and the living environment has not been improved. Perhaps, as tourists, we feel that the original state of such an ancient village is very beautiful and attractive, but for the villagers who live here all the year round, if they cannot get benefits in exchange, it will undoubtedly be a pain! This is the contradiction between primitive tradition and modern civilization!
As a person who came out of the countryside, I can understand the feelings of the villagers. Who would like to stick to this dilapidated old house and live a simple and primitive life! Sometimes, I enjoy the convenience of a modern and civilized life, but keep clamoring for others to keep the traditional city people, really a bit out of place! We hope that these traditions and ancient cultures can be passed on, but we also want to give people living in them a good life and enjoy the comfort brought by modern civilization!
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Alas, it's getting too far, let's enjoy the ancient village of Chengzi! Under the setting sun in autumn, the golden earth wall and the blue sky have an indescribable beauty!
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The most seen in Chengzi Village are these golden bracts, under the eaves, on the walls, on the roof, everywhere!
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In addition to hanging under the eaves, it is more of this way of stacking in bundles on the roof.
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Well, this is the most artistic way, ha ha!
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Chengzi Ancient Village is not big, if you don't look very carefully, you can finish it in an hour. Just turning around like this, I turned back to the entrance of the village. There is an old Guli restaurant at the entrance of the village, which is also an inn. In fact, this place used to be the village office, and the village office also contributed to the development of tourism.
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Like Chengzi Village
I like this ancient village like a secret place
The layers of ancient soil palm houses
The winding and rough stone road
and the quietness
Simple and honest rural life
I have no idea
how long can this last
I just try to remember her in the picture
keep in mind
...
postscript
Although Luxi is not too far from the provincial capital Kunming, and the high-speed transportation is convenient, it is not very convenient to go to Luxi to play, mainly because of the inconvenience of public transportation. Therefore, the best way to go to Luxi Alu Ancient Cave and Chengzi Ancient Village is by car. If you are a foreign tourist, you can consider renting a car. After all, it is more convenient to rent a car now. It takes about 200 kilometers to drive from Kunming to Luxi County (Alu Ancient Cave) by high-speed, and it takes 2 to 3 hours (if you get off the high-speed in Stone Forest, it is about 170 kilometers). If you go directly to Chengzi Ancient Village from Kunming, you don’t have to go to the county seat, get off the expressway at Nabao in advance, and then walk about 12 kilometers on the country road to reach Chengzi Ancient Village. If you go to Chengzi Ancient Village after visiting Alu Ancient Cave, you can also take the expressway at the county seat and walk for a short distance, get off at Nabao Expressway to Chengzi Ancient Village, and drive from the county seat to Chengzi Ancient Village for about 40 minutes.
If you want to go to Luxi by bus, you can take a bus to Luxi County at the Kunming East Passenger Station (you can take the subway to the East Passenger Station in Kunming City), about 3 hours to Luxi County, and then take a bus or taxi to go Alu Ancient Cave. Alu Ancient Cave is on the edge of the county town, very close.
Going to Chengzi Ancient Village is a bit more verbose. From Luxi County, take a small bus to Yongning Township, and then take a three-wheeled motorcycle to Chengzi Village after arriving in Yongning Township. Therefore, if you want to visit Chengzi Ancient Village, it is best to drive by yourself!
There are restaurants and inns for accommodation in Chengzi Ancient Village, but the conditions are not very good. It is recommended to live in the county town, where the conditions are better. In fact, Luxi is not far from Kunming. If you drive by yourself, one day is enough to go back and forth. There is no need to live in Luxi.