Go to the border between Hunan and Jiangxi and see the autumn meadows at Hunan’s own Wugong Mountain
When Jiangxi’s Wugong Mountain becomes popular all over the Internet this October, Geography Guy plans to take a look at our own Wugong Mountain in Hunan.
Located southeast of Changsha, Hunan’s Wugong Mountain lies quietly in the embrace of Chaling and You County in eastern Hunan.
In Hunan, in the mouths and hearts of people in Chaling and Youxian counties, the mountain at the southwest end of Wugong Mountain is not called Wugong Mountain. They gave it another name, Tai (Tai) and Xian. .
As soon as the name was changed, it was like a hermit. No matter how beautiful the birds, animals, grass, trees, mud and rocks were, it was not ostentatious. Year after year, the four seasons alternate, and time has caused a lot of joy and sorrow in the world inside and outside the mountains, but it still maintains its silence. Perhaps, in its eyes, the clouds rolling and relaxing are the clouds' business, and the flowers blooming and falling are also the flowers' business, even if the clouds and flowers are most beautiful when they are in its arms.
Fairy. Picture/Ouyang Lin
Choose the route with the least charges to see the unfamiliar scenery in Jiangxi
Starting from Changsha to Taihexian, the navigation software has planned three options, the highway charges the least, The shortest way is through the newly opened Shanglian Expressway (Shangli to Lianhua in Jiangxi). Thanks to the regional cooperation between Hunan and Jiangxi that has been promoted in recent years, this shortcut is more convenient for entering and exiting the border between the two provinces.
The geographical gentleman chose the least charged option, which was to transfer to the Changliu Expressway from the Ring Expressway, then to Changzhu Expressway, Shanghai-Kunming Expressway, and then to Shanglian and Quannan. Choosing this route not only costs less, but also allows you to see the unfamiliar scenery in Jiangxi.
Facts have proved that this is a good choice. The place name Anyuan that only appeared in textbooks or red stories before was actually seen and passed by shortly after entering the Shanglian Expressway. .
I obviously made a detour in Jiangxi, and when I exited the Quannan Expressway at Guangming Expressway in Chaling, the toll was less than 100 yuan. This feeling of getting a big deal made the originally cloudy sky clear. got up.
It takes nearly 30 minutes to get off the expressway to Wolong Village at the foot of Taihexian. In the nearby fields, the unharvested late rice showed a familiar and friendly golden color to Mr. Ge. In the distance, the Wugong Mountains where Taihexian is located drew a soft and slender skyline.
As the road approached Wolong Village, it gradually narrowed. The mountains that were in the distance were suddenly nearby, and the skyline had to be looked up to see. However, the mood was still pleasant, because I saw the sunshine scattering pieces of gold in the creek on the roadside.
At the foot of the mountain is a very small Hakka mountain village
Wolong Village is a very small Hakka mountain village. Originally, most of the villagers in Wolong Village lived on Taihe Fairy Mountain. Since 2006, cement roads have been built into the village, and villagers living on the mountain have moved down the mountain and resettled next to the stream in the village. Yin and Zhou are the common surnames in this village. Most families with the surname Yin live on the right bank of the stream, while most families with the surname Zhou live on the left bank of the stream. On both sides of the stream, beauty-loving villagers built flower galleries.
The originally appointed guide was temporarily unavailable, so he suggested that Geography Jun take a rest in Wolong Village first and then go up the mountain the next day. Seeing that the weather was fine, Mr. Ge couldn't wait any longer. Hearing from the guide that there was only one way up to Taihexian, he decided to go up the mountain first.
Most of the villagers in Wolong Village believe in the immortals enshrined on the top of the Taihe Fairy Mountain. Some people burn incense on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, and some people even dance dragon lanterns to pay New Year greetings to the immortals in the first month of every year. In order to make it easier to "come to the immortal", the villagers of Wolong Village tried to raise some money and built a road leading to the mountainside of Taihe Immortal Main Peak.
At noon on the 19th, eating with Mr. Ge at the Yongzai Chaihuo Farmhouse in Wolong Village were several staff members from the Zhuzhou Survey and Design Institute. They had climbed to the top of Taihexian in the first half of the year.
"Don't worry, it's just one road. The car will stop at the end of the cement road. After walking down for less than an hour, you will reach the top of the mountain."
After hearing what the design institute said, As soon as he said that, he became more determined to go up the mountain first. There is indeed only one road to the top of Taihe Fairy Mountain, but Geography Jun drove to the inner part of Wolong Village. After only two or three minutes of entering, he was led to a fork in the road by a hard gravel road that looked like a rotten cement road.
Before 2014, there was a very small lead-zinc mine in Dazhushan in Taihexian. What led Geography Jun to a fork in the road was the very simple road leading to and from this lead-zinc mine in Dazhushan. path. This path full of hard rocks led Mr. Geography to a dry waterfall and stopped.
Even though we took a side road and delayed our summit that day, Geography Jun didn’t feel disappointed. The wild pears, wild osmanthus, small red berries of eldergrass and sweet wild strawberries on the roadside, this is Taihe. The best gift from the fairy to Mr. Geography.
Mao Li.
There are muntjacs, bison, and many wild chestnut trees on the mountain.
Mr. Ge’s China Unicom mobile phone has no signal in Wolong Village. During dinner, the party secretary of Wolong Village told Mr. Ge Ge that at 6:30 the next morning, the guide would take Mr. Ge Ge up the mountain.
Because the weather forecast showed that Chaling, where Wolong Village is located, will rain from light to moderate rain, I have been worried. I woke up in the middle of the night and connected to the Wi-Fi of the small hotel to check my phone several times. The weather forecast showed that it will be rainy recently. The most recent rain is 52 kilometers to the west, and the latest rain is 80 kilometers to the north. By 6 a.m., the weather forecast showed no rain in the past two hours, and the nearest rainband was 60 kilometers away to the north. So we went downstairs to eat rice noodles and wait for the guide to arrive.
The guide’s name is Zhou Shuangyuan. He has served as a soldier and the village militia battalion commander. At 64 years old, he still looks very strong. He was carrying a black leather bag, with a handful of incense peeking out of it.
"Don't worry, it won't rain." Zhou said.
Asked him why he was so sure, he said that he prayed to Taihe Fairy in his heart before going out. Taihe Fairy was very effective and he would not let Taihe Fairy rain.
During dinner the day before, Chen Qiang, the party secretary of Wolong Village, also said that the immortals in Taihexian were very spiritual. He said that a few years ago, he went to the top of Taihexian Mountain to take pictures with a leader of the Provincial Photography Association. The clouds were covering the fog and the visibility was no more than 5 meters. The person in charge of the Photography Association was very frustrated that he could not take pictures, but Chen Qiang said to him with certainty: "Don't worry, the clouds and fog will definitely disperse." After saying that, he went into the temple to ask for help. After arriving in Xiaxian, less than five or six minutes after we came out, a gust of wind came and most of the clouds and fog dispersed. The person in charge of the Photography Association took a good picture.
Camellia oleifera.
"Is it really not going to rain?" Mr. Ge was doubtful. Before setting off, he went to the hotel proprietress with the guide on his back and asked for two umbrellas.
In Taihexian in the early morning of autumn, the skylight is soft and clear, and the vegetation, flowers and fruits are trembling with crystal dew. The thrushes and bamboo chickens hiding in unknown places say hello to the strange visitors in the mountains.
Sitting on the mountain and eating the mountain, Zhou Shuangyuan was once a very powerful hunter. With each bird call, he could determine the type, size, and location of the bird.
"There are muntjacs and bison on the mountain. The bison has a short tail. It can jump three or four meters away." Zhou Shuangyuan told Geography Jun.
After walking for a while, he said that thirty or forty years ago, there were still tigers and leopards in the mountains, and rabbits seemed to be easy prey for him, and he could catch them with a clip anywhere.
Among all the wild animals, the one he hates the most is the wild boar. “The wild boar’s nose is so clever. When the winter bamboo shoots come out, before we dig them up, it smells them through the soil and sniffs them.” I scooped up a large piece of winter bamboo shoots and ate them.”
Fortunately, there are many bamboos from the foot of Taihe Fairy Mountain to the mountainside, and no matter how many wild boars there are, the villagers at the foot of the mountain can still dig out a lot of winter bamboo shoots from under the wild boars’ mouths. Winter bamboo shoots are an important source of income for villagers in Wolong Village, Daying Village, Xiaoying Village and other villages at the foot of Taihe Fairy. In one winter, villagers at home in Wolong Village can earn 500,000 to 600,000 yuan from digging winter bamboo shoots.
Another large income Taihexian contributes to villagers in Wolong Village and other villages comes from wild chestnuts. The deliveryman Zhou said that he once picked up more than 2,000 kilograms of wild chestnuts one year. In order to pick up wild chestnuts, villagers in Daying Village and other remote villages often go into the mountains in the dark at four or five o'clock.
In the early morning of the 19th, Mr. Geography often saw wild chestnut trees standing tall on the roadside leading to the top of Taihe Fairy Mountain. Some of the chestnuts covered with thorns were still on the trees, and some fell off. On the road. The deliveryman said that there are more wild chestnut trees growing on the rock walls of Taihe Xiancaochong.
The mountain road and the old house. Picture/Wu Yuxin
With the clouds covering the fog and the fog surrounding it, Taihe Fairyland really looked like a fairyland
When we reached an altitude of about 1,200 meters above sea level, there was a thin drizzle. Come down. At this time, the road turned around, and the eyes were wide open. I saw the mountains one after another in the distance, and the mist rising and spreading between the mountains one after another, connecting with the clouds and mountains further away.
At this time, the weekly delivery boy was very sure that it would not rain. The raindrops floating on us were actually mist. He said that, but when he saw Geo-kun taking out his umbrella, he took it without hesitation.
The clouds and fog in the distance gradually approached. Within a few minutes, the fog began to climb up in the mountain forest we had just passed. It seemed that they were climbing slower than us, but we had not climbed up yet. At another corner of the mountain road, the fog reached our heads. At this time, the clouds cover the fog and Taihexian really looks like a fairyland. The alpine meadow that the geography king has been dreaming about has arrived at his feet before he knows it.
This is an autumn meadow. The autumn cold makes the meadow mottled. The meadows in Taihexian are the same as those in Wugong Mountain, mostly composed of Imperata grass. The flowers and stems of Imperata cogongrass in late autumn are withered and yellow, but the long, seemingly soft leaves are still reluctant to completely fade away their green. Before the fog thickened, I felt that the hilltops where the cogongrass spreads are covered with the continuous poetry they brew together with the wind and fog.
"They always build temples for gods to live on the top of rarely populated peaks//and then use the excuse that gods are too lonely/to occupy the entire mountaintop"
This is a short poem by the poet Fei Ma "Man and God". Many famous mountains have performed the stories in the poem. I was worried that Taihexian was like this, until I climbed to the top in the rain and saw the small temple with only three very simple houses, I breathed a sigh of relief for Taihexian and the earth gods believed in by the mountain people of Taihexian.
Clear springs in the mountains. Picture/Wu Yuxin
The mountain people of Taihexian, whether they are from Chaling in the south of the mountain or from You County in the north of the mountain, all believe in Taihexian. Interestingly, the immortal they believe in is not the same immortal. The immortal surnamed Yin believed in in Chaling is the immortal in Taihe who rides a white dog to the top. The people in You County believe in a female immortal named Hong, the Empress of the Hong family. The first place to worship the Empress of the Hong family was the Fengxian Temple.
The two legends share the same story: the rice fields at the foot of the mountain were once plagued by stink bugs (commonly known as stink bugs). Later, they went to the Taihe Immortal to seek immortality, and their immortals led the chun elephants to the top of the mountain. In the fairyland, the rice fields at the foot of the mountain no longer have any chrysanthemums. On the morning of October 19th, Mr. Ge Ge saw more than a dozen legendary stink bugs on the outer wall of the Immortal Temple on the top of the mountain, and finally understood why Mr. Zhou believed so much in the Taihe Immortal.
Legends are legends. Believe it or not, it will not affect the Taoist culture. The roots of Taoist culture are deeply rooted in Taihexian and its surroundings. So much so that the Taoist temple on the mountain was destroyed decades ago, and villagers from the two counties at the foot of Taihe Fairy Mountain pooled their money to build a simple Taoist temple in 2009. On the wall of the main hall of Xianguan, the names of donors from Chaling are recorded here, and the names of donors from You County are recorded there. The Immortal Temple is simple and crude, but the mountain people in the two counties at the foot of the mountain don't care: the immortal energy of Taihe Immortal has finally been restored.
Strategy
1. Climb to the top of Taihexian, in the direction of Chaling, walk toward the mountain from Wolong Village, Huotian Town, and encounter the "Liba Mountain Characteristic Chinese Medicinal Material Magnolia officinalis Planting Base" When you see the sign, go to the left to get on the bridge, and then go straight up the cement road. You can drive along the cement road to nearly halfway up the mountain, and then get off and go up the dirt road.
2. From the direction of You County, drive up the mountain from Ping Village, Luanshan Town. There is a cement road leading to the mountainside. When the weather is fine, if you drive an off-road vehicle and have good driving skills, you can drive along the dirt road. Only a few dozen meters away from the top of the mountain.
3. Wolong Village at the foot of Taihe Fairy Mountain was rated as "The Most Beautiful Leisure Village in the Country" in 2015 and has the ability to receive tourists. For example, the Yongzi Chaihuo Farmhouse where Mr. Ge lives has food and accommodation. Most of what I eat is local ingredients. If there are more than six or seven people traveling together, including accommodation, the average cost per person per day is 130 to 150, and you can have local chickens and ducks to eat.
4. Up and down Taihe Fairy Mountain, China Unicom mobile phones have no signal. It is best for China Unicom users to go up the mountain together with China Mobile or Telecom users, otherwise they will lose contact if they get lost.