During the Spring Festival holiday in 2022, I had nothing to do after visiting my relatives, so I wanted to go to the mountains to see the ice falls. After staying in the city for a long time, I want to visit the mountains, especially places with mountains and water.
After breakfast at 10 a.m., we packed up and drove off. The weather is sunny with some white clouds. It's not cold at all in the car with the sun shining on it. There were not many cars along the way, and the mountains on both sides of the highway were all visible, looking vast and beautiful. On the shady side of the mountain, there are still white snow scattered among the withered grass and branches, like an elegant ink painting.
After getting off the highway, we began to turn onto the asphalt road in the mountains. I remember that in the past few years, this road was not easy at all. Nowadays, not only the first half of the road has been replaced by a highway, but the asphalt road in the second half is also in excellent condition. The brand new asphalt road stretches along the river. One side of the asphalt road is close to the rocks, the other side is a guardrail, and below the guardrail is the river. There is not much water in the river, about a quarter compared to summer.
The river flows happily, appearing and disappearing. Sometimes the river water is completely covered by ice and snow, and suddenly it jumps out from another place and hits the stones, creating the sound of rushing water. There are many stones in the river, large and small, and most of them have smooth shapes. Sometimes there are fields on both sides of the river. They are built with stones one layer after another. They are not considered terraced fields. They usually disappear after two or three layers. I am used to staying in the plains, where there are endless flat farmlands as far as the eye can see. Looking at the fields in the mountains now, I can't see them. I have deep doubts that crops can grow in such fields. They will definitely not grow well and cannot be farmed mechanized. They can only be planted manually. But it is these mountains that raise the people in the mountains. I heard from villagers in the mountains that the quality of cultivated land in the mountains is measured by the thickness of the soil. Watering is based on canals stored in the mountains, which are small reservoirs. The larger ones can be called small reservoirs.
Driving on the asphalt road, from time to time I saw villagers wearing orange vests with the words "Forest Fire Prevention" printed on them. Some were leaning against the mountains by the roadside, basking in the winter sun. Sitting there blankly watching the passing vehicles, or looking down at the mobile phone, occasionally there are shepherds who are herding sheep wearing such vests.
Soon after, a guardrail appeared in front of the road. A long iron pipe was stretched across the road to block passing vehicles. Bricks were hung from one end of the iron pipe, which could be raised and lowered like a lever. The caregiver was always there. To check and question passing vehicles, you need to get off the vehicle and register. This is a COVID-19 inspection. Generally, every mountain village should have such a checkpoint. After registering, we continued to drive forward. When we drove to a small mountain village, this small mountain village was on both sides of the asphalt road. The left and right lanes of the asphalt road were full of cars, leaving only one lane in the middle for traffic, resulting in two directions of entry and exit. My car couldn't miss another one, it could only be stuck on the road and couldn't move. I couldn't help but sigh, I didn't expect that there were so many cars in a small mountain village, and there were even traffic jams. While driving slowly, I asked the villagers here and learned that there was an ice rink in this ravine, and everyone drove here from nearby to skate. After finally getting through the traffic jam, I parked the car on the front side of the asphalt road, got out of the car, and walked in the direction of the skating rink. There are many vendors selling snacks and fruits at the entrance of the ravine. There are banners hanging on the trees on both sides of the ravine with the words "Happy Winter Olympics" written on them. One of the banners also read, "Children from our village also participated in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games." At the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, there should be a program in which the children here participated. After a while, we arrived at the ice rink. The ice rink is right next to the river. It should be artificially diverting the river water to a higher slope, forming thick ice on a relatively open ground. There are also specially rented skating seats. chair. Everyone had a great time! I took a closer look at the ice rink. It was very ordinary, incomparable to the ice surface of the reservoir I saw in another place a few days ago. Maybe everyone comes here to skate for safety. After all, there are very few people who dare to skate on the reservoir. However, with the temperature in the mountains in winter, you can play on it as much as you want, and the ice will generally not break. But no one dares to take this risk. People's safety awareness is too high now. After wandering around for a while, I returned to the asphalt road and continued driving towards the icefall.
Continuing to observe the beautiful scenery outside the window, modern multi-story high-rise buildings come into view. They are very spectacular and majestic, and they look even more beautiful against the backdrop of the mountains. It is rare to have such a house in a mountain village. These newly built buildings should be new residential buildings funded by the government, which have greatly improved the lives of people in the mountains. It's hard to imagine seeing such changes in the mountains.
When we were about to reach the icefall, there was a thick layer of crushed snow on the asphalt road. If we walked further in, the road ahead would probably be covered with snow. There were several cars parked in front of me. I also parked the car on the side of the road and got out of the car. As soon as I got off the car, I immediately felt that it was much colder here than other places. I suddenly thought that maybe it was colder because of the high altitude. This should be a temperature dividing line. The snow on the road I had walked on had basically melted. But it can't be resolved here. In addition to the cold, the air here is also very special, filled with the smell of ice, snow and mountains. I walked over and chatted with the people in other cars for a while. Everyone thought it was too dangerous to continue. The roads are slippery and it's cold, so having something happen while driving is a real problem.
Although we were almost at the icefall, I didn’t have any snow driving experience on mountain roads, so I reluctantly gave up and continued on, admiring the mountain scenery alone.
The parking place was at the bend of the river. I climbed on the rocks beside the river and walked into the river, wanting to take a closer look. The rocks were covered with snow and a little slippery, and the terrain was downhill. Accidentally, my foot slipped and I slid down for several meters and suddenly reached the river. Fortunately, thick ice formed where I stepped and stopped, so I didn't fall into the water. His hand unconsciously pressed on the stone. The stone was covered with snow, and his whole palm suddenly felt cold. He quickly shook off the ice and snow on his hand. Looking further down, there is relatively fast water flowing out from under the thick ice layer. The slope here is a bit steep, and the upper reaches are covered with thick ice, which freezes the river. A place on one side of the river was also covered with thick ice. The ice in the river condenses in a very special way, it is very crystal clear. If you look closely, you can see that the ice crystals are superimposed layer by layer and woven into a network, as if the individual snowflakes are enlarged and then frozen together again. If you step on it hard, it can break. I didn't dare to use force, for fear of stepping on the ice and falling into the river. Because of the slope, it is very likely that I will continue to slide down, and if I slide again, I may actually fall into the water. I didn't care about the ice and snow on the stone. I put my fingers directly on the stone and walked upstream on the ice crystals. The ice crystals were also very smooth, but I didn't dare step on them hard, and my feet slipped involuntarily. I was really panicked for a while. Fortunately, I saw sparse reeds exposed on the ice. I grabbed them with my hands and they were still very strong. So I pulled the reeds and slowly walked up again.
Although I was in North China, I finally experienced the feeling of the mountains and rivers melting. Ice, water, and snow are all intertwined in the river. After thousands of years of erosion, the river has become a naturally formed water channel, winding and flowing downstream. A deep pool of spring water forms in a place with a large drop, which makes people marvel at the miraculous craftsmanship of nature. After that, I picked up a few rocks I liked in the gentle river and knocked the frozen ice cubes with wood. Watching the children playing in the river, I couldn't help but think of my own childhood and wanted to break all the ice.
After playing, I looked at the snow-covered road ahead and stopped moving forward. I gave up the idea of ??exploring the ice waterfall and turned around and started walking back. After walking down for a while, I found a fork leading into the mountains. It was a cement road that also zigzagged into the river. As soon as the next lane could pass, I followed this small river and headed into the mountains. The water in this river eventually flows into the larger river. After walking not far, I was stopped by a villager wearing a "Forest Fire Prevention" costume. After registering, I continued on. The changes in the scenery in the mountains feel more advanced than the scenery on the road. It has a cool, quiet and undisturbed outdoor paradise-like feeling. The ice and snow in the river are also ever-changing, forming various postures and displaying before your eyes. From time to time, there are icicles formed by spring water flowing down the hillside, which is very strange. When I walked to a dike blocking the river and stopped the car, I was attracted by the thick layer of frozen ice. There are many stones standing on the dam. There is a lot of water accumulated upstream of the dam, but it is all frozen. The ice layer is very thick, about twenty centimeters. The ice in the middle collapsed, and broken ice layers were exposed from both sides, about twenty centimeters thick. After the collapse in the middle, it began to freeze again, mixed with water, making it appear unfathomable. The ice layer is white in one place and green in another. Under the green part is ice water, and under the white part is still ice. There are many intricate cracks formed. Downstream of the dam is thick ice flowing down. Spring water from deep mountains gushes out from the bottom. Seeing this scene, the poem "The vast sea is covered with hundreds of feet of ice" can't help but appear in my mind. Although this is not a desert.
I continued walking along the road, crossed a small bridge, and saw an empty village without a single soul. The houses had been almost demolished, and a sign of "Demolished Preserved Village" was conspicuously erected. On the roadside. It is estimated that all the villagers have moved to new buildings next to the avenue. Continuing walking further in, suddenly a group of beautiful new houses appeared in front of us. They were all brand-new bungalows built in a unified manner, light yellow, and there was a small courtyard. The roofs were herringbone-shaped and covered with tiles. There are two two-story buildings built in front of the entire house, one is made of glass and the other is made of wood, both of which are very beautiful. There are several cars parked in the small square on the roadside of the village, probably here for fun. A suspension bridge was built on both sides of the river, and several children kept jumping and running around on it, having a great time. I stood on the suspension bridge and looked at the icy water in the river and the mountains in the distance, and I couldn't help but feel relaxed and happy. After staying on the suspension bridge for a while, I walked around the village again. In the middle of the two-story building built with civil engineering, there are "Qinglan Water Stream" and a regular script character "Su" in the middle. Is this an accommodation for tourists? There are only twenty or thirty households in the whole village, and many of them have their doors locked. After walking around for a while, I returned to the village square and saw several villagers who looked like locals. Almost all of them were very old. They were sitting there resting and basking in the sun. They were all wearing yellow uniforms with the words "Forest Fire Prevention" on them. vest. I also went over to find a rock to sit down and chat with them.
Through chatting, I learned that the river here has water all year round and never stops flowing. The new house I live in now is not all paid for by myself, but only part of it. It seems that this place will also be built as a tourist scenic spot in the future.
They used to be a poverty alleviation village, but now they are a poverty alleviation village. People in the village usually have nothing to do, and all their land has been transferred. All the young people in the village have gone to work outside the mountains, leaving only some old people. They are responsible for forest fire prevention and receive a salary of 8,000 yuan per year. The new house is heated by electricity, which costs about two yuan per hour. I asked them if they were drinking water from the river, and they said no. Now they have dug wells and are drinking groundwater. In the past, they were drinking water from the river, and the water cost was 2.5 yuan per ton. At this time, a middle-aged woman began to speak. She was considered a young person here. She said that none of them knew how to access the Internet. They gave me the money. I paid their water bills and I paid them using my mobile phone. I asked, do you have internet here, and do you have all the TV channels? She said that she has everything. There is Internet and TV at home. When she leaves home, she uses the Internet that comes with her mobile phone. She also said that she often buys things online and rarely goes out of town. I asked if you rarely go to the city. They all said that you rarely go, not more than a few times a year. The middle-aged woman added that she didn't need to go to the city. She could buy everything online, and the express delivery would be delivered to her doorstep. She could also buy rice, flour, oil, soy sauce and vinegar. She said with a very proud expression in her eyes. I was stunned immediately, "Ah, China's express delivery has really developed to the extreme. It can be delivered to the doorstep of such a remote mountain." I couldn't believe it in my heart. Another elderly person said that when we buy things, we call in advance and someone comes to sell them. If we don’t call, they won’t come. I chatted with them about some past events from my youth. They said that they had been living in this mountain. When they were young, they went up the mountain to collect firewood and walked to Shanxi. From here they walked straight into the mountain, and then climbed over the mountain to reach the boundary of Shanxi. Now that all the young people have gone out, only a few of us old people are left. We no longer plant the land, so we usually just rest here. Generally no one dares to set fire on the mountain, if found, they will be sentenced. If we see a fire, we will report it immediately, but there has never been a fire on the mountain. When it comes to the current national support policies, the old people say that they are content to have someone take care of them even when they are old. I asked if we go further, are there any villages inside? They said that in another village, everyone has moved to a newly built building on the roadside. Only two households have not yet moved. One household still raises sheep, and the situation of the other household is not clear. It’s impossible to grow corn now because wild boars come out to eat it, so it’s generally impossible to grow corn. There are now leopards and roe deer in the mountains, and the ecology of the mountains has begun to recover again.
After chatting for a while, I drove into the mountains again to see what the deepest village looked like. The further you go, the more winding the mountain road becomes. Halfway through, I saw the shepherd, watching a group of goats grazing on the hillside. There were several simple sheds set up on the roadside, and there was also a dog. There is also a shed that seems to house bees. After walking a few miles further, a primitive village appeared in front of us. I was immediately stunned by the sight in front of me: a mountain village, a mountain village, a real small mountain village. It's so primitive and shabby. Earth-colored low houses, gray tiles, walls made of stones of different sizes, sheds made of pure wood, and messy withered grass and trees dotted among them, it was obvious that no one had lived there in the past year. I have never seen such a small mountain village anywhere. There are almost no new houses. The houses are all made of stone and earth. They are still the kind of small mud houses many years ago. There are about twenty houses scattered on this hillside. Several houses have holes in them, and they have obviously not been inhabited for a long time. All of these have experienced the baptism of many years. The wooden shed was used for storing firewood, and it looked even more experienced under the sunlight, and the wood had begun to turn black. You can also see a telephone pole in the center of the village with several large speakers on it. The only sign of modernity is a white solar lamp, which stands in a very conspicuous position in the village. There is also a sign on the roadside - Village to be retained for demolition. This village may disappear within a year or two. Going further, there is no cement road. It is a pure earth and stone road. If you want to go in again, you can only walk. This too has come to an end, there will be no more villages.
I stayed in the village for a while and found a road down to the river that seemed to have been walked countless times before. I walked to the river, took the empty bucket I brought from the car, and swam in a pool of clear river water. The front is filled with mountain spring water. The water in the river is still so clear, but no one may come here again in the future.
I turned the car around and started walking back. Looking at the road I had walked just now, I felt that I had only walked it once. Thinking of the generations of people who once lived here, they must have walked through it countless times. The scenery in the mountain village is beautiful, but who is willing to live here for a long time? Nowadays, there are almost no people around. Is it because of my deep attachment to this mountain that I am willing to stay here until the end? It is estimated that this small mountain village may be demolished in the near future. Whether it will be built next or disappear forever depends on what opportunities this era gives it!
After leaving the mountains and setting foot on the asphalt road again, looking at the newly built residential buildings, I can’t help but feel that this is really an era full of changes. At the gate of the community, there were many elderly people. They were not playing chess or cards. They were just sitting on the bench and talking about something. The asphalt road is next to the side of the mountain. From time to time, I see a "forest fire prevention" person, sitting on a broken sofa or sitting on a stone, silently facing the mountain that has always raised me, thinking deeply about something... Occasionally I see a young person, probably holding a mobile phone and observing another world.
Although I have never lived in this land, seeing this scene, there are too many things I want to say...
Written on the night of February 8, 2022