Introduction: The four words "Jingxi Ancient Road" are certainly familiar to most of us, but do you know where the starting point of the "Jingxi Ancient Road" is? On the map of Mentougou, the gray part They are all mountains, covering almost 98.5% of the area here. Many of the red roads pass through the mountains. If you ask which one is the Beijing West Ancient Road, you have to start from Beijing City. Let’s talk about a city gate in the city.
There are nine city gates in the inner city of Beijing. In addition to protecting the capital, each gate has its own role. For example, Chongwenmen is a water gate that collects taxes, and Xizhimen is a water gate that transports water. Merchants once donated money to carve a plum blossom on the tower of Fuchengmen, which is a homonym for "coal". The reason is that this city gate welcomes people, many of whom are merchants transporting coal in Mentougou. It must be the starting point of the ancient road to the west of Beijing.
Then we go back and look at this map. They all start from Fuchengmen and go all the way west. So which one is the Beijing-West Ancient Road? In fact, they are all. In fact, after the ancients left Fuchengmen, although their destinations were always Mentougou in the west, everyone had different identities and took different roads. The army takes the military road, and the merchants take the business road. If they go to Miaofeng Mountain to pray for blessings and offer incense, they take the incense road. So we just walked out of a network of ancient roads in the west of Beijing.
Most of these roads were built by ordinary people and businessmen themselves, and some were even just passages stepped on. It is precisely because of this identity that there are many stories on this ancient road.
When walking on the ancient road, you should not just look at the scenery around you. The road under your feet is the oldest antique. The roads on the Lutan Ancient Road are all paved with stone slabs, but if we observe carefully, we will find that these stone slabs are larger and smaller. The slabs in the middle are larger, and the slabs become smaller towards both sides.
Like the ancient road at Niujiao Lingguan, the roads here are not paved with stone slabs, but are piled with stones and are uneven. Why are there such big differences in appearance between the same ancient roads? The reason is that the people walking on them are different. Some ancient roads use horses, mules, and donkeys, and some ancient roads are Shangxiang Road. In the past, when emperors came to Tanzhe Temple and Jietai Temple to offer incense, in order to show their rank, they would use large stones in the middle and smaller stones on both sides. It is precisely because the protagonists on the road are different that the Lutan Ancient Road, as a fragrant road, looks more orderly.
However, the trade routes for transporting coal have left us with many interesting historical traces. For example, in this section of Chengguan, the top is made of bricks and stones, but half of it is made of stones. Also on both sides of the road, phenomena like this are also very obvious. In fact, the earliest road surface was basically relatively high, but after a long time, the road surface became uneven, and after gradual repairs, it was no longer so high. Although the road has been repaired in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there are still many traces of ancient times on this ancient road that have not been erased.
There are fist-sized pits on some rocks, which have a scientific name called hoof pits. Since they are called hoof nests, these must be related to animals such as horses or donkeys, so these horses and donkeys stepped on them. Looking at these hoof sockets, we can also see a traffic rule at that time. That is to say, when these horses are walking forward, they must pull back when lifting their hoofs, so their front wall is relatively steep and the back wall is gentle. Looking at this hoof socket, we can actually analyze it. Is it going up or down?
The editor thinks that when we are under great pressure, or when we want to relax. You can get in your car and take a walk with your family on the West Beijing Ancient Road to feel the atmosphere of the ancients and take a look at the roads that have been traveled by people.