This city is very quiet, but it has the most perfect urban feng shui in Lingnan

Go northwest along the highway network of the Pearl River Delta, crossing dense waterways and continuous towns. When you see a mountain range crossing the north of the highway, it means Zhaoqing is approaching.

This is a city that is easily overlooked. Compared with the bustling and bustling Pearl River Delta, Zhaoqing, located on the bank of the Xijiang River in northwest Guangdong, seems very quiet. The quiet Xijiang River flows through the south of the city, and together with the Beiling Mountains that cross it to the north, it surrounds Zhaoqing City. To the north of the city is Xinghu, which accounts for nearly one-third of the city area, and the famous Qixingyan is located in it; to the south is the thousand-year-old Duanzhou City protected by the Xijiang River and Xinghu.

Duanzhou is the ancient name of Zhaoqing. It was established in the ninth year of Kaihuang in the Sui Dynasty (AD 589). It is now Duanzhou District of Zhaoqing City. The old town of Zhaoqing is very small. Get off at the bus station and go south along Tianning North Road south of Qixingyan Square to reach the edge of the old town.

I thought that this city would be like other cities with rich history in Guangdong that I have visited, with vibrant old communities, where the elderly were basking in the sun and reading newspapers in front of the door, and children were sitting on the corners of the lanes. Chasing and fighting, sheets full of sunshine fragrance are drying above the head, and the elderly chef under the faded signboard is quickly preparing the fragrant rice rolls. For example, Guangzhou, Chaozhou, and Xinhui.

However, no.

Zhaoqing is a very quiet city, as quiet as a cat taking a nap in the summer sun. There are not many people in the old city, it can even be called lifeless. An inadvertent slope leads directly over the old city wall. There are no city gates or towers, so you just go over it. Walking along the left side of the top of the slope, the characters "Zhaoqing City Wall, National Cultural Relics Protection Unit" stand abruptly on the roadside.

There is really nothing in the old city, and the whole place is very desolate. Everyone must have moved to the new area. Li Qiao Tower, the only one that seemed to have any strength, was also full of decadence. On the contrary, the Yuejiang Tower, Mei'an, Confucius Temple, Zhaoqing Four Pagodas and Xinghu outside the old city are more aura.

Yuejiang Tower was first built in the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty and has been repaired in the past dynasties. It was originally an academy, and later served as the headquarters of the Ye Ting Independent Regiment. Putting aside the long history, just mention the name of this building and repeat it silently, and you will feel more and more that the word "Yuejiang" is used extremely well.

In Chengdu, there is a Wangjiang Tower. The first couplet of a famous couplet once wrote: "Wangjiang Tower, Wangjiang Flow, Wangjiang Tower Wangjiang Flow," chanted repeatedly, a kind of Inexplicable feelings of separation and helplessness penetrated my whole body as the mist on the Jinjiang River soaked into my body. The river was flowing, and I was looking at it. It was a feeling of sadness.

Looking at Yuejiang Tower again, my eyes are as bright as blazing flames, and the surging river is waiting for me to inspect, and I feel a sense of confidence that I am in control of the country and the country. After checking the information, I found that there is also a Yuejiang Tower in Nanjing and Xi'an. Among them, the Yuejiang Tower that was rebuilt on the top of Lion Mountain in Nanjing has an even more imperial air because of the "Yuejiang Tower" written by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Range Rover, extraordinary momentum.

To the south of Yuejiang Tower is the broad Xijiang River. Not far from the upper and lower reaches of Zhaoqing, the Xijiang River appears narrow due to the canyon landform. Only in the south of Zhaoqing city, it makes a wide arc, like a grinning face. There are two upper and lower teeth embedded in this smile.

These are the Four Pagodas in Zhaoqing. There are Chongxi Pagoda and Yuankui Pagoda on the north bank, and there are Wenming Pagoda and Xunfeng Pagoda on the south bank. The four towers facing each other across the river were built in the Ming Dynasty and guard Zhaoqing's Feng Shui. The Yuankui Tower is unguarded, but it cannot be climbed. The Civilization Tower and the Xunfeng Tower have not been visited because they are on the south bank of the Xijiang River, but just the Chongxi Tower alone has impressed me.

The Chongxi Tower has an octagonal plane, with 17 floors inside the 9-story exterior, and a height of 57.5 meters. For every two floors, you need to go around the outside platform of the tower to another entrance and then go up the steps inside the tower to the top. The top floor was so weak that I could only stick to the wall. God knows whether the wooden railings of this ancient Ming Dynasty pagoda, which was rebuilt in 1983, had decayed to the point of breaking at the touch of a finger, causing me to fall straight into the Xijiang River without any precautions.

Chongxi Pagoda is said to be the earliest of the four towers. It was built by Wang Pan to build the tower to gather energy and control the water of the Xijiang River. Yuankui Pagoda and Xunfeng Pagoda were built for the purpose of seeking titles for the gold medal list, while Civilization Pagoda was built for the promotion of literary style.

Leaving Chongxi Pagoda and walking along the lazy streets to Qixingyan Square, we finally came to a tourist attraction. But I didn’t plan to enter Qixingyan Scenic Area.

Follow the Xinghu Greenway through Archway Park to the Central Embankment. This is the Xinghu for Zhaoqing people. A professional jogger wearing a wristband, a photographer who makes a porcupine sound in order to make a child laugh, a mother riding a bicycle with a little girl and towing a stroller. The lakes and mountains are the most beautiful in Zhaoqing. The sun slanted on the water from the west, breaking into pieces of light spots. In the flickering light spots, the kayaker cut through the water like an arrow, raised his knife and dropped it, startling a group of white cranes.

After two days of sightseeing, Zhaoqing is not as interesting as expected. As the third batch of historical and cultural cities, although it has national-level cultural relics protection units such as Mei'an, Qixingyan, Deqing Academy, and Ancient City Wall , but each scenic spot is lonely and scattered, and there is a sense of separation from the urban culture.

But from a historical and overall perspective, Zhaoqing is also a blessed place for Feng Shui. The harmony of Yin and Yang Feng Shui in Zhaoqing is unique in Lingnan. The yin and yang of Beiling Mountain and Xijiang are harmonious, and the yin and yang of Xinghu and the old city are harmonious. In Star Lake, there is also the yin and yang of the lake and Qixingyan. In addition, the canyons on the east and west sides protect the mouth of the water, and the four towers on both sides of the Xijiang River echo each other, which will give people in the city a sense of fresh air. No wonder so many famous people from all over the world have met here.

Regarding eating, I didn’t find anything particularly eye-catching in the end. There were only the following two pictures, which can be regarded as an explanation.

This article about Zhaoqing has actually been put on hold for a long time, mainly because for a walking enthusiast, Zhaoqing only has scattered scenic spots and no continuous interesting urban areas, so I can only write about the scenic spots, but I didn’t want to write a traditional introduction to scenic spots, so it became such a strange thing.

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