Zhao Yi once used the word giant spirits to open up wasteland and carve up the world to describe which mountain

Gaoligong Mountain.

I once wrote this in an article: When you stand at the water divide of Gaoligong Mountain, take a step east, and you will step onto the Eurasian continent; take a step west, and you will reach the Eurasian continent. Set foot on the Indian subcontinent.

Billions of years ago, there was once a vast ocean here, between the Eurasian Plate and the Indian Plate. Scientists call it the "Tengchong Ancient Sea." In the Miocene, the two continents drifted toward each other, collided and squeezed, and the Gaoligong Mountains rose from the sea floor, forming a mountain range that emerged from the sky.

It originates from the Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains, runs from north to south, stretches for more than 600 kilometers, spans 5 latitudes, and becomes the sky barrier of the southwest plateau. To the east of Gaoligong Mountain is the Nujiang Grand Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world.

To the west of Gaoligong Mountain, a branch branches off from the south of Pianma Pass, called Sister Mountain. The large and small mountain ranges originating from the Sister Mountains run through the entire territory of Tengchong and reach directly to Lianghe, Longchuan, Yingjiang, Ruili and other places in Dehong Prefecture, thus forming three major water systems: Longchuan River, Quanyingting, and Binlang River.

The huge barrier of Gaoligong Mountain blocks the wind, rain and clouds of the Indian Ocean and nourishes this paradise. As far back as the Neolithic Age, our ancestors cultivated this beautiful land with stone knives and axes. Later, an ancient group of Pu people, the "Pu Man", entered Gaoligong Mountain and made it their home for recuperation.

On the east side of Gaoligong Mountain, the place name Pumanmanshao still remains, which is the imprint left by the Pu people thousands of years ago. The De'ang people are a branch of the Pu people. To the south of Pumanshao, there is the ruins of a Deang village and a large tea forest covered with moss. Among them, the oldest tea king tree is over a thousand years old.

The name "Gaoligong" only appeared when a powerful Jingpo people, descendants of the Qiang people, arrived in the wind and snow and made this place their territory. "Gaoligong" is a place name in Jingpo language. "Gaoli", also known as "Gaori", is a surname of the Jingpo people, and the Chinese surname is "Pai". "Gong" is also called "***", which means "mountain". "Gaoligong" is the mountain where the Gaori family lives.

More than two thousand years ago, the opening of the Southern Silk Road left the footprints of civilization in Gaoligong Mountain. Because of its steepness and magic, it has left a lingering impression in people's minds.

There is such a record in "Manshu": Gaoligong Mountain is in the west of Yongchang. It is adjacent to the Nu River below and flat rivers to the left and right. It is called Qiongtang and Tanglang. It is also where Jiameng lives. The vegetation is not withered but there is miasma. From Yongchang to Yuezhen (Tengchong), passing through this mountain, one post is halfway up the mountain and the other is on the top of the mountain. Climb the Nu River in the morning and reach the top of the mountain in the evening.

In mid-winter the mountains are covered with snow and bitterly cold, in autumn and summer it is bitter and hot. The guests from Hezhu were looking for those who had left and returned, and told them a rumor: "If you want to come back in winter, it will be snowing in Gaoligong. If you want to return in autumn and summer, there will be no heat in the sky. If you want to return in spring, it will be smooth in the middle." Absolutely.

To this day, the ancient Southern Silk Road is still entangled between the cliffs and ancient cang trees of Gaoligong Mountain. The ruins of the ancient post station still record the distant and incomplete memories of this trade route. Walking on the ancient road, I felt as if I was walking with a bare-chested man from western Yunnan. He was carrying a heavy burden and singing the ancient "Gaoligong Ballad". The rough and desolate song came from time and space.

In the Tang Dynasty, Geluofeng, the king of Nanzhao, "opened to the west to find his way to the west", crossed the Gaoligong Mountains, and conquered large areas including Tengchong, Dehong, Myanmar and other places. Geluofeng's grandson Yimouxun. After succeeding to the throne, in the first year of Xingyuan (784), he followed the example of the Central Plains Dynasty and named "Five Mountains" and "Four Mountains". Among them, Gaoligong Mountain was named "Xiyue" and Nujiang River was named one of the "Four Mountains".

On Gaoligong Mountain, the most complete beacon tower is preserved, telling the story of the war. Gaoligong Mountain, a natural barrier standing in southwest China, is closely related to the route of the Yuan Dynasty's conquest of Burma. This is evidenced by the "Reconstruction of the Gaolungang Stele".

During the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, more than 100,000 troops in the "Three Expeditions to Luchuan" passed through here, and there is a poem "Gaoligong Mountain" written by the Minister of War. Evidence: "The flowers on the Gaoligong Mountain are in full bloom, and thousands of them are in the mist..." During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the counter-rebellion armies of Liu Wei and Deng Zilong passed by here, and Deng Zilong's poem "Crossing the Watershed" serves as evidence of "Stop the Bastion" The watershed is filled with clouds and trees as low as the mountains. The wild ape drums its horn in sorrow, and the mountain ghost hates the flag. ”

The last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youlang, the Yongli King of Nanming, passed here. The last battle of the Ming and Qing Dynasties took place at Mopanshi on the east side of Gaoligong Mountain, which marked the end of the small court of Nanming. Come to an end.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Fu Heng, a university student, led tens of thousands of troops to conquer Burma and passed here. Zhao Yi, the great poet who accompanied the army on the expedition, wrote in the poem "Gaoligong Mountain": "The giant spirits opened up wasteland and carved out the world, and the strange mountains drove out the Central Plains."

During the Second World War, the expeditionary force No. The 60,000 troops of the 20th Group Army counterattacked Tengchong and fought a desperate decisive battle in Gaoligong Mountain with the Japanese invaders who clung to the natural dangers.

This was the highest-altitude battlefield during World War II. On Gaoligong Mountain, green grass covers the battle bones, flowers surround the trenches, and ivy climbs the fortress. Walking on the ancient road of Gaoligong Mountain, I seem to see the ethereal battle flag and hear the historical echo of the gold and iron horses.

Gaoligong Mountain is the only area on our planet that has preserved a large area of ​​transition from moist tropical forest to temperate forest. It is an area with outstanding diversity of rare species in the world. Nature has given birth to the miracle of life in this unique land. More than 4,800 species of plants are in bloom, and more than 2,300 species of animals thrive.

As a result, Gaoligong Mountain has been dubbed various titles and honorary titles: North-South Corridor of Biology, Life Channel, Refuge of Rare Animals and Plants, Species Gene Bank, Kingdom of Animals and Plants, National Nature Reserve, etc. It is listed as a Class A nature reserve by the World Wildlife Fund and accepted as a member of the Biosphere Reserve Network by UNESCO.

With the magnanimity and demeanor of a king, Gaoligong Mountain holds a sky garden that makes people look up between the blue sky and white clouds. One writer called it the "Garden of God".

There was once a popular saying in European horticultural circles: "Without Yunnan Rhododendron, European gardens would be eclipsed." At the beginning of the 20th century, British biologist George Forrester (1904-1932) He went to western Yunnan to engage in collecting activities, which lasted 28 years. In January 1932, he died of a heart attack in Tengchong and was buried in the "Foreigner Tomb" cemetery on Laifeng Mountain.

He collected more than 100,000 animal and plant specimens and a large number of plant seeds for the Royal Botanic Gardens, calling Gaoligong Mountain "the kingdom of rhododendrons" and "the paradise of birds." It was awarded the first certificate for transporting back a 280-year-old specimen of the King Rhododendron tree. The Royal Botanic Gardens in Attenborough shocked the world by saying "we now have the best species in the world."

However, the British did not expect that the real king of cuckoos in the world was still standing on Gaoligong Mountain. More than 60 years later, Chinese scientific workers made several in-depth investigations into the hinterland of Gaoligong Mountain, and in April 1982 discovered a rhododendron community of large trees that is rare in the world.

In an area of ​​0.25 square kilometers, there are more than 40 huge rhododendron trees. The largest one has a base diameter of 3.07 meters, a height of 28 meters, a crown of 61 square meters, and is more than 500 years old.

The famous botanist Feng Guomei entered the deep mountains and dense forests for the second time. After going through many hardships, he finally met this king suddenly. With gray hair on his temples and nearly eighty years old, he was the first to rush to the big tree Rhododendron, caressing and hugging the huge torso that had gone through many vicissitudes of life and was covered with moss. He couldn't help but burst into tears and be filled with emotion. Gaoligong Mountain is lucky that the real king has been preserved!

The big tree Rhododendron King holds up more than 40,000 fiery flowers, lighting up the vast sky, showing the king's elegance to the world. "Guangming Daily" published a long reportage by the famous writer Gao Ying about the search for the big tree cuckoo king, which caused a sensation across the country. Subsequently, reports and pictures about the big tree cuckoo king appeared in major newspapers and television screens. The whole world watched and marveled.

The big rhododendron tree is a creation of nature, while the rooftop bald cedar forest in Gaoligong Mountain is a man-made miracle. The bald cedar on the rooftop also dominates the forest of plants with its majestic majesty. Next to Yanzhi Creek in Tiantai Mountain, you can see the "living fossils" that are green all year round. This bald fir forest covers an area of ​​33 hectares and has a storage capacity of 1,154 cubic meters of living trees per acre. It has the largest storage capacity of living trees per unit area in the world. Artificial bald cedar forest.

This world miracle was created by Taoist priests who lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests. The descendants of Tiantai Mountain Taoist Temple have passed down the tradition of planting bald cedars from generation to generation, allowing this ancient species from the dinosaur age to flourish in this geomantic treasure land.

Gaoligong Mountain is the birthplace of camellia in Yunnan. The corresponding original varieties of any artificially cultivated camellia can be found here.

About the Yunnan camellia in the upper reaches of the Longchuan River, George Forrester described it this way: "In a range of 30 to 40 miles, these shrubs are the most conspicuous, mile by mile in the valley. The ground is covered with patches of Yunnan Camellia, ranging from 2 to 3 feet tall to 10 to 20 feet tall. The blooming flowers range from the lightest shell pink, almost white, to the deepest rose color. The flower buds are almost dark red."

Today it is difficult for us to verify the location of the camellia that George Forrester saw. There is no doubt that Gaoligong Mountain is the kingdom of camellia in Yunnan.

Gaoligong Mountain is the birthplace of cherry blossoms in Yunnan. In the famous eco-tourism scenic spot Sakura Valley, there are many types of original cherry blossoms that bloom in different seasons.

In 1992, botanist Feng Guomei visited Tengchong again. Based on the results of his many years of inspection of Gaoligong Mountain, he wrote an inscription: "Tengchong bald cedar, yew, safflower camellia, tree radish, and big rhododendron are the best in the world." Perhaps, Gaoligong Mountain has not only produced the best in the world These. In this mysterious and vast biological corridor, there are many mysteries of nature and life waiting for us to explore and interpret.

On this planet, Gaoligong Mountain shows the world a magnificent picture of the unity of humanity and nature. She is the cradle of life, our paradise home, and the king of the world. In front of this mountain of kings, we, like all creatures here, are her subjects and will always worship her.