Jingxiang Travel Notes 021 | "Travel to the Northeast" Chapter 21: Daqinggou has a unique geography, but the style of Mongolian songs remains

Jingxiang’s Travel Notes Chapter 21丨"Travel to the Northeast" Chapter 21

Daqinggou has a unique geography, but the style of Mongolian songs remains the same

In Guangdong, I wore short sleeves yesterday, needless to say, I will wear short sleeves all day today. In the Northeast, dressing is a headache. I woke up around 7 in the morning and wore a short-sleeved shirt. At 9 o'clock, I found that the sunny weather yesterday was gone, and the cloudy weather had caused the temperature to drop a lot. Of course, cloudy days are not the main reason for the cooling. The key is that the wind is strong today, estimated to be level 3-4. Both wind and rain will cause the summer temperature in the Northeast to drop sharply. It wasn't enough for me to put on long sleeves, so I added a jacket to feel more secure. The weather here is really difficult to control. In some years, it can snow heavily during Qingming Festival, but in the previous few days, it felt like summer, with random changes between winter and summer. However, some people also wear short sleeves on the street today. It depends on your physical condition.

Today we are going to Daqinggou Scenic Area, which is nearly 100 kilometers away from Tongliao city. 9 We set off just after 9 o'clock, and we were accompanied by Professor Hai and several teachers from National University for Nationalities. I have to admire Principal Wang. She knows that a nerd like me must have a thorough understanding of Mongolian culture.

When it was nearly 11 o'clock, we entered the Daqinggou Scenic Area. The first thing we saw was a yurt-style restaurant. If these yurts were placed in Guangdong, they would definitely become a tourist spot, because we southerners Just looking at the yurt feels novel. The purpose of traveling is to broaden your knowledge, to see things that others may not find novel but that you may find novel.

These restaurants are different from our Guangdong food stalls, but they are not like a large hotel. They are divided into several large camps like the Mongolian army sets up camp (perhaps each large camp is equivalent to a hotel). There are several yurts arranged neatly in each large camp, and each yurt is a dining room. The passage is wide and clean. You can neither see sewage flowing across the street or waste paper towels on the floor like the food stalls, nor can you see the oil smoke filling the air. It's not like walking into a hotel, but like walking into a resort.

The wind was so strong that I unconsciously pulled the zipper of my jacket up to my neck. This feels like early winter in Guangdong. Perhaps it is a matter of physical fitness or habit, but Professor Hai and Mr. Huang still wear short-sleeved shirts.

When I walked into the reserved yurt, I immediately felt much warmer.

The interior is decorated according to the furnishing habits of herdsmen, and the portrait of Genghis Khan must be in the center. Milk tea was being boiled on the stove nearby, and a waiter in Mongolian costume scooped up bowls of steaming milk tea for us.

I thought the waiters were just wearing Mongolian clothes. In order to highlight the ethnic characteristics of many tourist attractions, all the waiters wear ethnic costumes that are no longer worn by local ethnic minorities, but perhaps none of them is from this ethnic group.

Professor Hai communicated with the waiter in Mongolian, probably asking questions related to catering. The waiter answered fluently in fluent Mongolian, and I finally believed that their clothes were not just props.

"I don't understand Mongolian, but I think it's almost the same as Japanese." I remember the female driver said on the way to Ewenki Banner: "Mongolian people are babbling in Mongolian as soon as they get on the bus." However, after all, Mongolian Does it sound like Japanese? have no idea. Since I didn’t understand either language, I asked Professor Hai for advice. Professor Hai answered cleverly: "It is particularly easy for Mongolian people to learn Japanese." Is this a polite response? Or is it really similar? Obviously I shouldn't ask any further. (Picture below: The seated woman is Principal Wang, and the fat man is Professor Hai)

On the table are the foods Mongolians use to drink milk tea, among which fried rice is indispensable. Eating this and milk tea will make you bloated and make you not feel hungry for a long time. Of course, there are also milk skins and snack foods, which are the brunch foods of Mongolian herdsmen. Although I was in a commercial restaurant, this time I really experienced the eating habits of herdsmen.

A few sips of hot milk tea removed the chill from the windy weather outside the door just now, and a few handfuls of fried rice gradually filled my stomach. Seeing that it was getting late, we started to enter Daqinggou.

For the southern hilly areas with abundant rainfall, landscapes like Daqinggou are not magical. Such ravines can be seen everywhere in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and other places. Daqinggou is famous because it is located in a peculiar geographical environment: this deep valley of broad-leaved forest with a total area of ​​12.5 acres is nothing peculiar. The reason why it is precious is that it crosses Lying on the wilderness in the southern part of the Zhelim League, it borders the Horqin Sand Belt, which is about 250 kilometers long. In other words, it is surrounded by desertified grassland. Daqinggou is in sharp contrast with the desertification phenomenon outside the ditch: the ditch is covered with various plants, whether they are trees or shrubs, they all grow vigorously, making People feel like they have arrived in a tropical rain forest. Of course, you cannot see jackfruit and rubber trees that can only grow in low dimensions - because these two plants are bounded by Yangjiang River and cannot survive to the north. The farther south they grow, the better.

When I was a child, I read the comic strip "Gada Merlin". At that time, I thought it was in the far north. The Mongolian national hero riding a horse and waving a saber is still imprinted in my mind. Unexpectedly, there is a Gada Meilin path in the ditch - legend has it that it was the escape path Gada Meilin used when he was besieged by officers and soldiers. However, there was no road back then, so Gadamelin's horse broke through the woods and led him to escape.

You can actually raft in Daqinggou! This is something difficult to imagine. But if you think about it carefully, it’s not difficult to explain: In a depression surrounded by desertification, it’s not the 24 km long ditch that has a large rain collection area (when it rains, all the raindrops are absorbed by the sand) , it cannot flow into the ditch), but the deepest depression of 100 meters collects the surrounding groundwater. The dense woods regulate the storage and flow of water well.

This is a ditch with a relatively gentle flow, making rafting easy and safe. The reason why it is said to be safe is that compared to those rafting areas with many curves, fast currents and large drops, here you can even lie down in the rubber boat and take a nap.

Principal Wang has already prepared rafting equipment - water guns and raincoats for water fights for us. But these gentle adult toys can only be considered child's play compared with those young people holding water ladles directly. I stopped in front of their crazy pouring. Those soaked bodies were full of youthful vitality - that was our past, a time we can't go back to again. However, the lost youth is exchanged for rich experience.

Dinner was still in the yurt at noon, including grilled lamb chops, beef jerky, hand-grilled mutton, eggplant, etc. I forgot the names of many of the dishes, but I found that the dishes I had yesterday would never be repeated, except of course Milk tea is not a dish, this is indispensable for every meal. It is just like the tea in our hotel – you have to admire Principal Wang’s hospitality.

Drinking is inevitable. The drink was also local wine, and the name of the wine was Qinggou wine.

Maybe it was because I was having fun, and I drank so much. Of course I would not miss the opportunity to appreciate Mongolian: "Why don't you ask Professor Hai to perform a song for us in Mongolian?"

Of course, this suggestion received an enthusiastic response. Teacher Hu, a psychological counselor, volunteered: "Professor Hai sings in Mongolian, and I sing in Chinese." Look, they are not only enthusiastic, but also very thoughtful - in case I don't understand, they will provide an on-site interpreter. .

They sang the grassland welcome song.

I have always had this understanding: the songs on the grassland are rough and heroic. The reason is simple: when calling someone on the vast grassland, not only does it have to be loud, but it also has to be made into a trumpet shape with both hands, and it also has to be in the wind. Otherwise, how can people thousands of meters away hear it? It is conceivable that if you sing "Will You Come Tonight" on the grassland, no one will know that you are singing. The previous part is not far away, even if you are standing next to the singer, you will not be able to hear him clearly. What is it? Only after raising eight degrees can I clearly hear the sentence "Will you come tonight?"

Several interludes in "People on the Grassland" are all bold and high-pitched songs. Needless to say, "Morning Song of the Grassland" is one of them. Even if it is a love song that contains delicate emotions like "Meeting in Obo", I really can't sing it if I don't have the strength. .

However, with the trend of Mongolian people migrating to cities, Mongolian songs have been changed by the influence of Han culture and changes in the production and living environment. Many emotional songs have softened the tone while maintaining the tone of Mongolian songs. This made "Horse Rod" popular all over the country.

I don’t know which song Professor Hai sang in the welcome song, but his singing style is an authentic Mongolian singing method. The prairie songs with softened tones still exude the charm of the prairie.

The Mongolian people are one of the few ethnic minorities who can pass down their own language and writing. However, the inheritance of Mongolian and Mongolian is not as good as that of the Korean people. Most Mongolian people can no longer read and understand Mongolian. Speak Mongolian. Although all public places in Inner Mongolia must have bilingual signs in Mongolian and Chinese, they are basically for the ears of the deaf – just for decoration. There are not many Inner Mongolians who can read Mongolian. There are probably not many teachers like Mr. Bai from Zhalantun who can teach in both Mongolian and Chinese languages. There are even fewer scholars like Professor Hai who specialize in Mongolian.

Many ethnic minorities today have neither their own language nor their own writing, their costumes have become Chinese, and their customs and habits are similar to those of the Han people. Such ethnic groups have actually disappeared. The only thing that can prove that their ethnic groups still exist is their identity. The ethnic category written on the certificate.

However, there are always traces of the culture of a place. Among these traces, some need to be found through cultural relics, archaeology and historical records, such as the Xianbei people. Some have not completely disappeared in ancient villages with a lower level of civilization, such as the Manchus. This nation, which prospered with the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, could not find talents to translate Manchu in just a hundred years, making it the fastest disappearing nation.

As far as Meng Ge is concerned, no matter how Chinese its style is, it still retains its indelible cultural traces.

If you want to know what happened after the funeral, please read the ending of Chapter 22: The sound of the horse-headed two-stringed harp is far away, and the friendship of the three-foot Hada is deep.