A vivid ancient city

Number of days: 26 days
Time: November
With whom: husband and wife
The author went to these places: Weishan Ancient City Weishan Star Arch Tower Gongchen Building Wenhua College Mengyang Park
Updated: 2021-01-17 10:45

ended my trip to the Nu River on December 6 and planned to leave at 7:10 on the morning of the 7th, and I was a few minutes late because I went to climb Lao Mu Mountain after the morning run. About 500 kilometers from Laomudeng to Dali Weishan Ancient City, it took 10 hours to make a short stop when passing through the service area, eat or rest, and arrived at 6 p.m. to reach the sunset, enter the main Menghua Hotel, put down the luggage, and began to hike the ancient city.

Weishan Ancient City is located at the foot of Ailao Mountain in western Yunnan, the source of the Red River, and is the birthplace of the Nanzhao Kingdom. Before the administrative division adjustment, it was called Menghua, so the ancient city of Weishan was also called Menghua City. According to historical records, in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, there were six larger tribes in the Erhai region of Yunnan, each independent and not subordinate to each other. One of the tribes called Mengshe Zhao is the strongest, and is called Nanzhao because it is located at the southernmost point of the six zhao. With the support of the Tang Dynasty, Nanzhao successively conquered the other five Zhao and established the Nanzhao regime.

Weishan Ancient City had a village in the early Tang Dynasty, and in the Yuan Dynasty, the Duan clan of Dali began to build an earthen city, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was rebuilt into a brick city, and now the style is still the same, relatively completely retaining the chessboard pattern when the city was founded more than 600 years ago, which is one of the best-preserved ancient buildings of the Ming and Qing dynasties in our country, and is also a famous Chinese historical and cultural city with strong local historical and cultural characteristics.

We entered Sifang City from Nanzhao West Road, and then along Nanzhao East Road and the routes of North Street, South Street, Risheng Street, Yuehua Street, and Wenming Street, from west to east, from north to south, and walked to see the flowers. The bluestone paved streets are spotless, the tiled houses standing on the street are simple and unpretentious, the ancient city is simple and natural, there is no hustle and bustle of cars and horses, no crowds, and there is no selling along the street.

The ancient city has city walls, four gates in the east, south, northwest, and northwest, and a star arch tower in the center of the city, which is shaped like a seal. After a walk, night has fallen. The moonlight shines down, covering everything like a light gauze, but the ancient city in the night is an out-and-out dream, either light sorrow or thin joy, or a sense of peace. came to a snack street, but there was no food stall, and there was no restaurant on Nanzhao West Road, where the hotel was located. It was late, and I was hungry, so I had to go back to the hotel to cook instant noodles.

The noodles were full of tea, and Meimei woke up at 5 a.m., drank a glass of water, and ran to the ancient city. The ancient city with a standard tic-tac-toe structure, with a total of 25 streets and 16 alleys with a total length of 14 kilometers, some alleys are broken roads, deducting repeated road sections, 10 kilometers down, at least 60% of the streets and alleys of the ancient city have been completed. While running, he memorized the directions of the main attractions of the ancient city, and accompanied his wife to visit directly after dawn.

Weishan Ancient City is a collection of cultural relics and monuments, with many scenic spots. Gongchen Building is located in the northern city, built in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, is an ancient building with five heavy eaves, with the south hanging of the "Kuixiong Six Edicts" and the north hanging of the "Ten Thousand Miles of Looking at the Sky" plaque, which is majestic. The Star Arch Tower, as the "seal handle" of the writing building, is located in the center of the ancient city, ill-fated, founded in the twenty-third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, restored in the tenth year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty after collapse, destroyed in 1857 by the soldiers, and now seen as the reconstruction of Ma Zhongguo, a major military officer of the Du Wenxiu rebel army in the Qing Dynasty. The city tower runs through in all directions, is the central intersection of the east, west, north and south streets, is the top of the mountain with heavy eaves, and the plaques of "Rui Ai Hua Feng", "Weixia Embracing Cranes", "Yuhuan Guapu" and "Cangying Panlong" are hung under the eaves on the southeast and northwest sides.

There are also many ancient buildings of the Ming and Qing dynasties in the city, such as Wenhua Academy, Chongzheng Academy, South Social School, North Social School, Jade Emperor Pavilion, Confucian Temple, Denjue Temple, Guandi Temple, City God Temple, Wanshou Palace, etc., these ancient buildings have their own styles, their shapes are beautiful and generous, the structure is reasonable and rigorous, the wings and horns are flying, the carved beams and painted beams are very exquisite, with high research value and economic value, is a rare treasure of people, so it is known as "Pingyao in the north, Weishan in the south".

Most of the houses in the ancient city are courtyard-style, preserving the characteristics of the Dali Bai people's green tile slope roof, "three squares and one wall", and "four in five courtyards" civil structure. The two layouts of the wealthy family are connected to form a walking attic, some are in the layout of "six contracts and spring", and some are connected by two courtyards and three parties and one wall. The gates of residential buildings are mostly single-eaves or double-eaves, with wooden frames and tile roofs, and out-of-pavilion racks. Potted flowers and trees have the praise of "the city is full of red orchids".

The ancient city has simple folk customs and profound cultural heritage. On the way to the Weishan Nanzhao Museum, I met a retired female teacher who took the initiative to lead us down the path when we were short on time. When we walked together, talking about the lives of residents, she also enthusiastically took us to the vegetable market for field visits and understanding the market. My wife bought some soba cakes, special snacks, tomatoes and cucumbers, and she took the initiative to take us all the way to our destination before leaving. Elegant speech and generous manners allow us to appreciate the spiritual outlook of the people of the ancient city.

Due to overdevelopment, the aborigines have moved out to live, the ancient buildings have been transformed, and the monuments rarely exist, although they are alive and dead. Some are called ancient cities, but in fact, they are only built in antiquity, and at most they are rebuilt on the original site, not only do they not have real ancient monuments, but also lack the charm of ancient cities. Weishan Ancient City not only completely preserves the original style, but also the aborigines have lived here for generations, the atmosphere of life is strong, and the houses basically retain the Chinese structure of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which is the perfect combination of modern life and ancient architecture, and is the real living ancient city.

(Winter Travel Yunnan Diary 8 2020.11.28-12.23 Tour 1.10 written in Zhuhai)