It takes about an hour and a half to drive from Wenzhou to Xichuan Village. On the way, we saw many red persimmon trees. These persimmon trees are found in fields, mountains, and in front of people’s houses. They are red and look festive. We arrived at Xichuan Village around 9:30.
At the end of the village, we first saw a corridor similar to the architectural style of the Potala Palace. The main color of the corridor is mainly red, which is eye-catching. In front of the corridor is a large fish pond, which should be an artificially cultured fish pond. The water in the fish pond is grey-green and looks dirty. There are many white-turned dead fish floating on it, which makes people feel pity. Entering the corridor, there is a school in front. There is a plant with yellow fruits growing on the roadside of the village to the left of the school, a bit like a small tomato, which makes people like it. On the right side of the school is the Xichuan Cultural Auditorium. This auditorium was originally the Teng family ancestral hall. It has been for some time and the bricks and tiles are dilapidated. It is now being renovated. If you look up along the village road next to the cultural hall, you can see the TV tower at the top of Cangshan Mountain.
The top of Cangshan Mountain is about 900 meters above sea level and is the first famous religious mountain in Yongjia. There are Cangfeng Palace, Cangfeng Subduing Dragon Palace, Tai Palace, Cangfeng Dragon Palace and Cangfeng Harem on the mountain. Therefore, the top of Cangshan Mountain is not only a climbing route for people to keep fit, but also a holy place for pilgrims to worship. The top of Cangshan Mountain is 600 meters away from Xichuan Village. You can’t really tell that it is 600 meters high from below, but it is still very strenuous to walk on the ancient road. However, the cement road leading to the top of Cangshan Mountain is leading up from the village below, but it has not been completed yet.
The ancient road has not been taken care of for a long time, so the thatch grows vigorously on both sides, and some sections of the road are completely submerged by thatch. These thatches grow taller than people, and they are particularly difficult to cut with your hands. To move forward, you must use trekking poles or branches picked up from the roadside to ward them off. If not, just use your arms to ward them off. Use your hands to block it. If you are not wearing long sleeves, the exposed skin will be easily cut. Even if you are careful, you will still get cut. Sometimes the cement road cuts off the ancient road, and we have to find the interface of the cut off ancient road. The most uncomfortable thing is that there is no wind on the mountain, and it is extremely hot and strenuous to walk.
While walking, you can also encounter a large field of wild strawberries. These wild strawberries are small in size, taste a little sweet and sour, and have a not very good taste. Occasionally, I looked up and saw the red leaves of a small maple tree. Not far from it, you can see a more exciting piece of red. Set against the blue sky and white clouds, and under the sunlight, these red maples look particularly bright and beautiful, which is eye-catching. These red maples have undoubtedly become the most beautiful scenery on the ancient road. And a lush tree popped out of the boulder beside the ancient road, which made people feel interesting and curious. They thought: How did the tree grow without the nutrients of soil? As we get to the top, the ancient road begins to become clearer, and there are no longer so many thatches blocking the road.
There is a pavilion, Yixiang Pavilion, built on the hillside of the ancient road. A couplet "The pavilion is cool and quiet when the sun shines, and the flowers and trees are beautiful and fresh when it rains" are written on two pillars, which is particularly eye-catching. In the pavilion, there is a sign indicating that Zhou Longan came to Cangfeng Palace to help build roads, recording in detail the list of people who donated money to build roads. Looking at these lists, they are all from Yueqing and other places. People from Yueqing are also the main pilgrims who come to the top of Cangshan Mountain to burn incense and worship gods, so every palace and temple in Cangfeng has a list of donations from Yueqing pilgrims. It’s a joke that tourists who come here for the first time mistakenly think that Cangshan Peak belongs to the Yueqing area.
Going up from Yixiang Pavilion is the first palace temple - Shengyan Palace. It is said to be the place where the true dragon was born, as evidenced by a pair of card couplets - "The true dragon was born deep in the white clouds, and the fruit of correction was in front of Cangyue Rock." There is a family living in this palace. To be precise, there should be a family that faithfully guards this palace and temple. We came here, a little confused, not knowing where to go up to the top of Cangshan Mountain. When we saw a 134-year-old girl in red clothes walking past us, we went up to ask for directions. The girl in the red dress was shy when she saw the stranger coming, so she ran away from the mountain road, as if she turned into a red ribbon and disappeared in front of our eyes. Before we had time to ask, the girl disappeared without a trace, which made people feel puzzled. The team leader is still waiting for the slow-walking team members below. Those of us who are leading the group can only find the way according to what the team leader said in advance. I heard from the leader that when we arrived at the Holy Rock Palace, we walked to the left. This road should be an ancient path of small roads, so we judge that it should be the road taken by the girl in red. Sure enough, the girl’s path is the ancient path we took to the top of the mountain.
We went up the ancient road, approached a forest, and arrived at a wide area. The road divides the land into two halves, one half is the pond and the other half is the vegetable garden. In front of the ground is the place where we rest for lunch - Cangfeng Palace. It was already 11:20 am when we arrived at Cangfeng Palace. Many people from behind haven’t come up yet, so I made an agreement with the person in charge of the temple and asked him to arrange the cooking.
Cangfeng Palace is known as "the tenth cave in the world". It is built in a courtyard style and is mainly made of wood, brick and stone. The front hall has five bays, and the back palace also has five bays. This palace has gone through many vicissitudes of life and has been renovated and expanded many times. It was first rebuilt in the 10th year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty and later expanded to an area of 1,200 square meters. In 1984, it was listed as the second batch of cultural relic units in Yongjia by the Yongjia government. When we arrived, the palace was still under renovation. Regarding the origin of Cangfeng Palace, there is an inscription in front of the Cangfeng Palace that records the brief history of Cangfeng in detail, so I won’t go into details here.
That day, several pilgrims came one after another to light incense and worship the Virgin, praying for safe entry and exit, good weather and prosperous business. Most of these pilgrims are middle-aged women in their fifties or sixties. They were already there when we arrived. There are so many palaces and temples on Cangfeng that it will take a whole day to complete the worship.
Around 12 o'clock, the team members from behind also came up. There are only eight of us eating in the palace. Bring your own dry food for the rest. The dishes we eat are naturally mainly vegetarian, but the person in charge of the palace, in order to entertain us, also specially left the meat dishes for us to eat when entertaining the workers. These vegetarian dishes are not contaminated and are really fresh. The rice is also new and tastes particularly fragrant. Of course, we don’t eat for free. Each person donates 20 yuan after eating.
After eating, the tour leader left us half an hour for free activities. During this period, I went to Cangfeng Jianglong Palace, Tai Palace, Cangfeng Dragon Palace. Passing the road on the right side of Cangfeng Palace is Cangfeng Jianglong Palace, which leads to the top of Cangshan Mountain. Cangfeng Dragon Subduing Palace is located under the top of Cangshan Mountain. The palaces and temples open to the south and are lined up along the rocks. With a wide view, you can overlook the entire world south of the top of Cangshan Mountain, which makes people feel relaxed and happy. Straight up from the middle path of Cangfeng Palace is the Tai Palace. This palace is small, but there are still many pilgrims who come to burn incense. From the far left side of Cangfeng Palace, you can reach Cangfeng Dragon Palace, which is closest to the top of Cangshan Mountain. Seeing that the building is relatively new, this palace should have been built later. It does not have such a historical origin as Cangfeng Palace.
On our way down the mountain, we passed through Cangfeng Dragon Palace. There was a small temple on the way down. The pine branches beside the temple were covered with red wishing ribbons. Some aunties on the side folded their hands and chanted Buddha's name, some even greeted passers-by very enthusiastically, and there was also a monk in the temple who was concentrating on meditation. We didn't stay long at this temple and continued walking down. Not long after, we arrived at Cangfeng Harem. This temple seemed to be more lively than the palaces above. There was an endless stream of pilgrims coming to light incense. Most of them came from the direction of Yueqing. We were under the Cangfeng Harem, and we could see many pilgrims driving up from below, and they parked their cars in the parking lot on the mountainside. In front of Cangfeng Harem. That is to say, there is a Prince Pavilion built at the intersection of going down the mountain. This pavilion merges with the surrounding peaks and becomes a scenic spot in Cangfeng. At the three-way intersection below the pavilion, there is a stone tablet of Cangfeng. The top of the tablet is spherical and the bottom is square. The word Cangfeng is written on the front, which is particularly eye-catching.
The road down the mountain is full of wild chrysanthemums. These wild chrysanthemums are mainly yellow and white. They bloom brightly and beautifully. Wherever we go, they welcome us. Accompanied by these beautiful mountain chrysanthemums along the way, we walked easily. According to a team member, these wild chrysanthemums are very good when dried and made into tea, which can reduce internal heat. It turns out that these wild chrysanthemums are not only beautiful, but also have the effect of making tea to relieve internal heat. I have learned a lot.
The ancient road is covered with dead leaves, which make a rustling sound when you step on them. The dead leaves above the head are crumbling and will fall off at the slightest touch of a finger. Even if they don't fall off, the red pine leaves and gray-red maple leaves will fall off within a few days. Seeing this scene, I can deeply feel the urgency of late autumn and the strong autumn mood.
Down the ancient road is a relatively large village called Daegutian Village. Every house is next to each other and it’s so compact that I couldn’t get out even if I got down. After being pointed out by the villagers, I still went the wrong way, so I turned around inside the village before coming out. Coming out is the village office building of the village. The building has two floors with a flat roof and eight rooms in total. The two rooms on the east side are relatively shabby. To the east of the village office building is the cement building. When we came out, the team leader was still waiting for the team members behind. Some of these team members were new donkeys who had not been walking for long, and some were climbing mountains for the first time, so they walked very slowly. We waited outside for half an hour and still didn't come down. I had to tell the team leader to let us go first.
On the concrete road at the head of the village, some villagers are pounding sweet potatoes and making sweet potato flour. They use the first-floor frame and the first-floor frame to pour it into the machine, and the sweet potato chips come out there. Then the sweet potato chips are washed with water, and the precipitated sweet potato powder is made. This sweet potato flour production line is quite fast. When I was a child in the countryside, I saw fellow villagers do it. This is the first time I’ve seen their one-stop assembly line production, it’s fresh!
After the villagers showed us the way, we went down an ancient road at the head of the village. The ancient road was cut off by a cement road again, and then we were looking for the intersection of the ancient road going down the mountain. This time, there were many intersections going down the mountain, and we were a little confused. We didn’t know which way to go, so we took out our mobile phones to search. Finally, we followed the navigation in the direction closest to the ancient village. As we walked, the route deviated a bit, and the ancient trail could not be found. At the end, we actually crossed through the fields. We entered a small, dilapidated village with only a few households. These houses made of stone and tiles have been exposed to wind and rain for a long time. Some of the beams have collapsed and some of the stone walls have collapsed. There is only one family left living here, and they are all elderly.
We came down from the small road in the village to the cement road. This time the ancient road was completely missing, so we could only go down along the cement road. On the way down, we passed a small village. The hills and fields around this small village were covered with persimmons, hanging one by one. It was festive and exciting to look at. These persimmons were abandoned by the villagers and no one picked them, so there are so many red persimmons. I picked a bag of persimmons in this village, and it was not in vain. It is a joy to go outdoors and bring something home.
We continued walking down and after walking for a while, we arrived at another village called Longxiang Village. When we came out of Longxiang Village, we saw a lot of red persimmons in the fields. No one had picked these persimmons yet. However, I no longer have any greed for these persimmons, because I already have persimmons and can’t pick any more. There is still 2.5 kilometers away from Longxiang Village to Cangpo Ancient Village. Being so far away, those female donkeys who didn’t often walk started to bray: “Why haven’t we arrived yet?! When will we arrive? Ah!”.
After walking for 2.5 kilometers, we finally arrived at Cangpo Ancient Village, where we happened to meet up with the teammates led by the team leader behind us. The leader came from another shortcut, so they arrived at about the same time as us. Cangpo Ancient Village is laid out and built according to the "four rooms of the study" (pen, ink, paper, inkstone), which is quite unique. There is a relatively famous Li family ancestral hall in this ancient village. We walked around the ancient village scenic area and came out. When we came out, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon, and this trip was over.
