Utopia Yangbao Cave
Utopia Yangbao Cave
Yu Yonggang
On a bright spring morning, I accompanied several archaeological and tourism research friends from various places to Gulin, Sichuan Province. Explore the ancient times in Yangbao Cave, Zantai Village, Dancun Town, County. When driving through the entrance of Xiongjiawan, you will see a three-meter-wide sidewalk hanging on the cliff, with the cliffs on both sides being chopped like a knife and an axe. Everyone exclaimed, "What a risk! What a disaster!"
As we drove past the cliff, we saw two or three stone hills covered with thorny grass, buds and clusters, interspersed with brilliant wild flowers, as if giving us a huge flower basket. On the muddy ground between the hills, there are green grass and flowers as companions, blinking and emitting bursts of fragrance. A few oxen and a group of black goats were busy grazing, or lying down and basking in the sun, leisurely.
After crossing a small mountain ridge, I saw a few scattered farmhouses of different heights, scattered among the shades of green leaves. From time to time, I heard the barking of dogs and the crow of cocks. Under the road, there is a wooden structure with three-head roof tiles. The tiles are covered with vines, with only vine leaves and few tiles visible. The yard was overgrown with weeds and the steps were covered with thick moss. It seemed that no one had lived there for many years. Moving forward, on the hillside, there is another three-headed tile-roofed house, newly renovated, with bright windows and bright tiles, and the steps of the courtyard have been cleaned cleanly. Although the door is closed, it can be seen that there is always someone taking care of it.
Standing in front of the courtyard dam, I looked down and saw a small basin in front of me. At the foot of the mountain, a winding river flows slowly. On both sides of the river, there are criss-crossing streets. The green ones in the fields are silkworm seedlings and the yellow ones are rapeseed flowers. They are mixed and long, like two flower carpets, spread among the green mountains and green waters. Cabbage, green vegetables are crowded in the corners of the field, one plant in a ball.
There are beehives lined up along the side of the small road. The beekeepers command thousands of troops to fly in the mountains and fields, sucking the sweetness and harvesting the harvest.
The sound of "Jigu, Chigu." attracted me. Following the sound, I saw a middle-aged peasant woman carrying two dung buckets walking towards us. She straightened her back, sweating, and flashed the shoulder pole. She was picking up farmyard manure to water the vegetables and water the spring.
Looking around, there are high mountains to the northeast, and all kinds of trees on the mountains are lush and green. To the southwest are two high rocks, like two giant dragons descending from the mountain, with their heads meeting at the southwest corner. It is true that "the deep mountains and cliffs are the valleys, and the road to the canyon is absolutely accessible". There is only a faint horizontal line on the southern rock, passing through the upper half of the rock. After inquiring, it turned out to be a ditch weir for a power station.
Climbing and walking on the narrow mountain road, we came to the foot of the west rock. Looking up, we saw a huge lava hanging in the air on the cliff. The entrance of the cave was engraved with three characters "Yangbao Cave" , simple and vigorous. We used the telescopic aluminum alloy ladder that came with us to carefully climb into the cave. There are traces of human life in the cave. According to the guide mountain people, this was a place where ancient people used to hide from soldiers and bandits, and the rock and soil in the cave could be used to burn saltpeter to make gunpowder. When I picked up some soil and tried it, it smelled a little salty. A friend knocked it with a hammer and said it was limestone. The cave was formed about 400 million years ago. There are two caves around which we cannot climb. Then climb a few dozen meters to the west and come to Handpa Rock. The smooth stone walls here were formed by people climbing and touching them with their hands over thousands of years. Across the cliff, there is a rock ditch with several wooden poles. To go to Xiongjiawan behind the rock, you have to cross this danger and drill through the pig-drilled cave in front of it before you can go up to the rock. Looking at the few wooden "bridges" built in front of me of unknown age and month, and then looking at the steep and slippery pig drill holes with black drums, my eyes are dazzled, my heart is panicked, my feet are shaking, and my head is sweating. Only crawling backwards.
Arriving at the river where the two rocks meet, a small snow-white waterfall splashes among the huge rocks in the canyon, stirring up layers of waves. Several beautiful kingfishers sometimes flew lightly across the water, sometimes pecked in the green grass, and sometimes sang long and short songs on the horizontal branches. The fish swimming in the shallow water are clearly visible, and I reach out to catch one or two for fun. Unexpectedly, it dropped its tail and splashed water on my face.
Either treading water or climbing rocks, walking down the river, you suddenly see a black pool, bottomless, cold, eerie and terrifying. Looking up at the sky, the two rocks are as sharp as a knife. The top of the rock is not visible, only a line of blue sky. In the sky, a goshawk flew past. There is also a water hole nearby, which is dark and humid, with unknown depth. This is what the locals call the corner of Heitang.
Walking uphill along the rock, you can see a stone path hanging diagonally on the rock crevice.
In the late Qing Dynasty, nearby mountain people made a passage on the Sandun Rock with hammers and drills to avoid the dangerous drilling by hand-climbing rock pigs. It was named Xinlu. Another legend is that the Xu family in Xiongjiawan on the other side of the rock has controlled the local government for a long time and colluded with bandit bullies to harm one side. Because the mountain looks like a lion descending from the mountain, they are fierce and cruel. Only by breaking the lion's left front leg and destroying its feng shui can they be stopped. So the Wang surname of Xiyangbaodong united the people from all over the country to invest money and efforts to open up the cliff and create a new path from the natural danger. Unfortunately, the stone path in this rock has long been blocked by flowstones due to the construction of a road on the rock.
We had a light meal at the farmhouse. Steamed multigrain rice with wooden steamer, old bacon, fried native chicken, cold side ears root, rice, bean and pickled cabbage soup... The mouth is full of fragrance, and the head is hot and sweaty. Friends who have lived in the city for a long time, looked at the beautiful scenery, tasted the delicious food, clapped their hands and exclaimed, "This trip is worth it!"