When traveling, in addition to looking at the scenery and tasting food, you also need to understand the local culture and customs. There are two best ways to understand the culture of a place. One is to go to the local museum and read the pictures and texts systematically compiled by local experts. The other is to visit the local market and go among the local people to understand their real life.
On the second morning when I arrived in Heshun Ancient Town, Tengchong, I got up early and walked through many bluestone-paved old lanes in the ancient town. With many years of history, it is one of the important places where local people live.
In the early morning, the ancient town faded away from the hustle and bustle of the day, and it looked very quiet. Occasionally, I saw a few pedestrians, either hurrying passers-by, or old people who got up early for a walk. Their figures were very harmonious in the old alleys of the ancient town, and at the same time It seemed very lonely.
After walking for about ten minutes, we finally came to this lively old market. This market is different from the markets in many other places. The alley is not wider than other alleyways, so it looks extremely crowded from a distance.
Here, there seems to be no fixed stalls, all of which are temporary stalls set up by local people in the morning, and the products they sell are basically grown or made by themselves.
After a hundred years of wind and rain, this old market is still lively and full of fireworks, which is in stark contrast to those commercialized ancient towns.
Most of the market sells some vegetables, fruits, meat, special products, handicrafts, flowers, and there are also some shops selling snacks and breakfast. The sound of yelling and bargaining is one after another. Listening to these noisy voices, I realized that this may be This is the real look of the ancient town.
Yufan roughly looked at the prices of the commodities on the market, and found that many of them were cheaper than what we usually see in supermarkets. For example, some ordinary people just picked vegetables from the field with dewdrops on them, but the price was one or two dollars. Yuan per catty, the same dish in urban supermarkets is estimated to cost several times, and it is not so fresh and healthy. The bowl of thin bean flour in the picture above is only 3 yuan, which is part of our breakfast that day.
We bought some snacks, found a smoky small shop and ordered a bowl of noodles, which was our breakfast. After eating, we left the market and prepared to return to the hotel. On the way, we saw some pictures of the daily life of the locals. For example, the aunt who does laundry, there is a special place for laundry in the local area, called a laundry kiosk, with stone strips paved in the middle, which can be regarded as a unique local building.
Inside the laundry kiosk, an uncle was humming a tune while feeding his two big white geese.
Stagger tourists, the ancient town in the morning is the most authentic ancient town, especially those old markets that have not been polluted by commercialization, where you can see the real life of the local people. For us, perhaps this kind of fireworks is the real ancient town. Charm.