I'm a newcomer to Qinghai
I'm from Baoji, and I've been away from home for 11 years. People often ask: Where are you from? "Shaanxi, I am from the northwest." If the other party stops asking questions, the conversation will be over here. I position myself in a place called Shaanxi in the northwest. In the first 26 years of growth experience, the northwest should be like Baoji and Xi' an, north of Qinling Mountain and west of Huashan Mountain.
It was not until 214 that I took the Qinghai-Tibet Highway to Tibet that I first saw another place in the northwest: Qinghai.
It starts from the mouth of Nyainqentanglha Mountain, where the snow is persistent all the year round at an altitude of 5,231 meters, and goes all the way to Qinghai. At first, it was "snow-capped mountains, green grass and beautiful Lama Temple", and then it was Hoh Xil, where Tibetan antelopes grazed comfortably. The water of Tuotuo River shimmered in the sun. Imagine that when the spotted geese flew by, there was also a vitality on the plateau. From journey to the south, Tuotuo River, through Hoh Xil with low vegetation, heading for Golmud, the destination.
Mom said, "When I wake up, I feel that the car hasn't moved." Because the desolate landscape outside the window has never changed, the height of plants growing sporadically on the endless yellow earth is only 2 cm, and the yellow of plants is even more than green. The road is straight and in good condition. I just look out of the window and feel sleepy. When I woke up, it was still a straight road, and I couldn't see the desolate yellow land at the end. "I think there is no hope here." I said this, and everything I saw in front of me was only desolation: "People living here never know what hope is ..." When I slept and woke up again, the landscape in front of me never changed. Occasionally, I saw a bird flying by, and the whole car cheered together, just like seeing an alien creature.
When the vehicle was approaching Golmud, a sudden gust of sandstorm caught the driver off guard. In an instant, the visibility was less than 2 meters, and even the sound of sandstorm hitting the window could be heard. They roared: Let me in, let me in!
We drove into Golmud when the sun was setting to the west. Even in the suburbs with few vehicles, I was inexplicably moved and excited to feel the breath of people. It suddenly occurred to me that in the movie Hoh Xil, some players often live alone in no man's land for a month or two, and I vaguely felt that kind of desperate death. The three bows when passing through the Sonandaje Monument in Hoh Xil are even more solemn and true at this moment.
The next day, it happened to be cloudy from Golmud to Heimahe scenic spot in Qinghai Lake, and Qinghai Lake was completely different from those photos on the Internet. The lake looks darker than the sky. When birds take off on the gray lake, the gloomy sky severely presses their flying height.
in the northwest, even birds are so depressed.
cultural attraction?
however, there is an inexplicable attraction in the northwest that attracts me to go again. Accompanied by the smell of Lamian Noodles, it entered Gansu in February and September, 216, from Gannan to the edge of ancient Lop Nur.
People who worship their ancestors in Fuxi Temple during the Spring Festival speak different languages. A boy climbing the ladder with his hands and feet on the Kongtong Mountain; The marvels in the Mogao Grottoes ... I have been thinking about why the desolate northwest can provide fertile soil for religious culture. Besides the famous Mogao Grottoes at home and abroad, the colorful Buddha statues on Maiji Mountain and the glory of the three religions on Kongtong Mountain are all proofs. Walking in the countryside of Gansu, there are temples and Taoist temples with flourishing incense in almost every village.
I don't want to discuss and analyze the origin of Buddhism prosperity in China from a historical perspective, but I think of a view of Mu Xin in Memoirs of Literature: "Religion is parents, and art is children. Art is born out of religion and independent of religion. " Located in the Mogao Grottoes in the middle of sandbars, a large number of exquisite and vivid paintings are the best proof. If there is any regret, it is the culture that values imperial power over individuals in the feudal history of China, and the long-term low social status of folk craftsmen, which leads to the failure of these artistic treasures to leave the author's name. As you can imagine, countless ordinary people in coarse linen and linen are here to dig caves and paint statues. The prosperity of culture and art is often not achieved by one or two famous artists, but by the whole people.
The prosperity of culture is not only in ancient times, but there are still a lot of old sayings in the northwest dialect. For example, people in Shaanxi still call "pig" "Kui"; Gansu people will say "Japanese" when they describe things as done. "Japanese" means smooth in the old saying, and "Ye" is a function word in classical Chinese. There are many such examples.
Looking back on the Yellow River
When I was standing on the Yellow River Railway Bridge in Lanzhou, the exquisite aftertaste of Lamian Noodles, an old brand of beef with Ma Youbu, was still in my mouth. What was ringing in my headphones was the Yellow River Ballad by a wild child:
The water of the Yellow River kept flowing through my home
My distant relatives in Lanzhou
Listen to me sing a yellow river ballad.
At the foot of Qilian Mountain, all the way to Yumenguan, the northernmost part of Hexi Corridor, the beacon tower left by the Great Wall of Han Dynasty looks lonely in this place where even the spring breeze is disdainful. In those days, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty listed four counties in two customs, and now there is not much left. In the era of long-term war and border turmoil between the Central Plains and Xiongnu, the soldiers at the border customs were stationed here, so the cold winter must be the most difficult, and even the birds refused to visit the Gobi desert. Holding a scepter, the image of Su Wu, who was sent to Xiongnu, became clear in front of my eyes. Although it has been thousands of years, I can see his back here.
Along the way, from the Great Wall of Han Dynasty to the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty, and from the next door to the desert, this frontier was once the Buddhist center and economic and trade center of the whole northwest, and it was also a military and political important place in the northwest. Wei Qing, Huo Qubing and Li Guang are fighting here, and the younger generation sitting in the study can never feel the tragic death of Ma Ge on the battlefield beyond the Great Wall. Only by standing here in person can you understand their lives and know why those frontier poets bring their own lofty sentiments in their poems.
at the end of the trip, I asked Harry: how is the northwest? She said, "Good! The beef in Lamian Noodles is delicious, the sand in Mingsha Mountain is good, and the barbecue is good. Cumin seems to be free. I also ate the sweetest cantaloupe I have ever eaten in my life. " She pointed to the sky: "The starry sky in Yangguan, the milky way like that, made me cry."