"Big Fish and Begonias"
All swimming through the gaps in dreams.”
E117°.35, N24°.52
F U key,China
- 1 -
Last weekend, I finally made amends.
To be honest, I was quite excited to watch the whole movie.
Not because the plot is so good, but because the prototype of their house in the underwater world is the Fujian Tulou I just visited, and thinking about it can spark my mood.
I thought the movie scenes were just for reference, but I didn’t expect the level of restoration to be so high. No wonder that in the Moments I posted at that time, a series of comments below were all "Big Fish and Begonia".
In order to find those familiar scenes, I stayed at home this weekend and watched the movie again.
I have to say that the animation scenes in this movie are beautiful. Although it looks a bit like Spirited Away at first glance, it also uses Chinese elements such as couplets, lanterns, and wooden antique furniture. Everything looks harmonious.
It is said that the director of this film also tried his best to find the mysterious and representative architecture of China, and finally decided to use the Hakka earth buildings in Fujian as the prototype.
The scene that appeared first was the Shengwu Tower located in Pinghe County, Zhangzhou, Fujian. The most recognizable thing about Shengwu Building is that unlike other traditional earth buildings, there is no ancestral hall in the center of the building, but an open courtyard.
This part of the movie is where the children in the underwater world (including the heroine Chun) turn into fish and travel to the human world for seven days during their 16-year-old coming-of-age ceremony. The scenes in the animation are also very majestic and magnificent.
The home of the heroine Chun, who has a high departure rate, is Chengqi Building in Yongding County. Known as the King of Earth Buildings, it is characterized by "four stories high, four circles of buildings, and 400 rooms above and below."
Counting carefully, it is indeed the case. With such a large scale and many layers of surroundings, it doesn't live up to its reputation.
The second male lead (I don’t know whether I should say the male lead or the second male lead) Qiu’s home lives in and Guilou . The prototype is located in the Yunshuiyao Scenic Area where I went this time, so I was lucky enough to go in and visit it in person.
Unlike many other round earth buildings, this one is square. As for its characteristics and specific original appearance, I will show it in the following paragraphs.
The Tianluokeng Tulou Group , which was only briefly shown in the movie, is exactly the scenery I most want to see during this trip. It's a pity that I didn't do my homework well. This "four dishes and one soup" scene is on another route.
Later I will write about the difference between the AB line of Fujian Tulou Tour, so that friends who have not been there yet will be as confused as me.
In addition, there is Chaoyuan Building where Grandpa Chun lives, where Chun goes to the Lingpo to exchange sushi for Kun's soul, such as Shenglou , and the celebration is a festive event Yanxiang Tower , all of them are real.
These enclosed buildings are similar, and they are located in Yongding County, Nanjing County, and Hua'an County in Fujian Province. What I mainly visited this time were the Huaiyuan Building and the Qiu Family Prototype and Gui Building which did not appear in the movie.
- 2 -
According to what I said in the Yunshui Yao article, after leaving the town, walk 1 kilometer upstream to reach Huaiyuan Tower. Because of the memory card in my camera, I came here once in the evening and once in the early morning.
When I first saw it , I wasn’t too shocked. I just feel that under the white clouds in Lantian, the wall made of cobblestones and loess and the only door are indeed somewhat mysterious.
A Chinese castle? I think that's it.
Including the external walls, Huaiyuan Building has a total of three rings from the outside to the inside.
The area between the first ring road and the second ring road is the "facade" of each household; the area between the second ring road and the third ring road is the living area. The center of the third ring is usually an ancestral hall, meeting hall or study room.
Entering from the gate, the first thing you see is the "Sishi Room" located in the center of Huaiyuan Building, where statues of gods are enshrined. I guess every household will come to pay homage on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month.
On the left and right sides are narrow circular walkways. No matter clockwise or counterclockwise, you can finally reach the starting point. There are no corners, and the four stairs from east to west, north and south are the only markings.
The current population living here is not large, most of them are old people and women, and there are no young men. It is estimated that there are too many tourists all year round, and most of the residents are not surprised and go about their own business.
Several families near the door set up stalls on the narrow road, selling jewelry, local cigarettes, tea, small ornaments, etc.
This makes the already narrow corridor even narrower, and people walking through it are afraid of knocking off their goods. Fortunately, the residents here don't have a sinister appearance, but they are not as enthusiastic as some official descriptions.
For them, tourists disrupt their lives and at the same time bring benefits to the regional economy. So, they just had no interaction or attention.
The items on sale didn't have much appeal.
These objects, which are commonplace every day and have even been eliminated in big cities, remain hanging all year round. I heard a girl next to me asking for some jewelry, and the price was within a reasonable range, without too much deliberateness.
I think the folk customs here should be fairly simple.
But soon, this idea was abandoned.
An older lady saw me looking like a tourist and asked if I wanted to go upstairs to have a look. The scenery upstairs was very beautiful. I thought it was a warm invitation and said yes.
Just as she was about to turn around and take a step forward, she said: Go upstairs and charge 5 yuan. It was then that I started to look at the "ticket salesperson".
There are neither work clothes nor work badges. She held a small stack of change in her hand, and was always ready to show me the payment QR code posted on the wall behind her when I ran out of cash.
I asked, is it 5 yuan per person?
She said yes.
But when she passed by a pair of girlfriends and tourists, she asked, "You two, please go up?" I'll just charge you two 5 yuan.
At that time, my question marks could already fill the circular sky in this building. I didn't argue with her anymore, just 5 yuan.
After going upstairs, I found that the 5 yuan was actually worth it.
When standing on the first floor, I felt a bit depressed. It's safe, but closed. And located low down, the view is also blocked by walls.
It wasn't until I climbed up to the second and third floors that I suddenly felt enlightened. The entire internal layout can be seen at a glance.
The lanterns and red couplets in front of each house make me feel that the clans who lived here in the past must be very lively during festivals. It's easy to visit every house, and you don't have to wear shoes.
It is easy for children to play with their friends. Not to mention the daily sitting and chatting of neighbors. If foreign enemies come to invade, you will be safe once the door is closed.
It’s just that this kind of living model will indeed be gradually eliminated as social security becomes more and more stable, the demand for living area becomes higher and higher, and the pursuit of privacy and convenience is pursued.
I walked around above the second floor.
Although there was no concierge who would allow me to visit, I discovered that one room was actually only about the size of a bedroom.
Nowadays, it would be extremely inconvenient to live alone, let alone a family of several.
In order to better realize the protective function, the windows are made smaller, which also causes lighting problems. There are piles of debris between the corridors, and the main material of the building itself is wood, which creates even more fire hazards.
All of this may be destined that these treasures will increasingly lose their practical value and remain as historical values that demonstrate past cultural patterns.
But here, there is still a sense of intimacy from my hometown.
The house in my hometown also has wooden stairs, which creak when you walk on them. The green tiles and loess walls are not unusual, and the shouts and Minnan accent are not unfamiliar at all.
The brilliance of the setting sun that shines through the window sill reminds me of my grandma calling me to go up to the third floor to water the flowers on the rooftop during summer vacation when I was a kid. At that time, I saw this kind of light every day.
What I find interesting is that the location of the stairs (the first ring) and the four doors on the inner ring are staggered.
So I simply took my mobile phone’s compass to survey the direction.
Later, it was concluded that the four staircases in a ring are in non-orthogonal directions such as southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwest. Because the Second Ring Road is a semi-open wall, there are only two doors due east and west due to the lack of multiple doors.
The third ring (that is, the inner ring, where the statue of the god is enshrined in the center) has four doors in the southeast, northwest, and east directions. The east direction is aligned with the staircase door to form a straight road. So as soon as I entered the door, I saw the altar directly.
Just like this, I took the compass and compared it in the old building, and I felt a little like Colonel Jin's performance in "Ghost Blowing the Lantern".
Maybe, there really is a treasure.
Although there are many commercial interventions inside the current building, the overall style will be greatly affected by the daily necessities and discarded debris hung by residents.
But standing on the highest floor, you can still feel that people in the past spent a stable and peaceful time here.
Before I left, I asked the security guard at the door if I could visit at night. The security guard said yes, but in the end I was immersed in the annoyance of not bringing a memory card and the anxiety of finding a new memory card, so I still didn't come.
I think if you come here at night, it should really be like in Big Fish and Begonia, where every house is lit up with red lanterns.
– 3 –
Compared with the ring-shaped building of Huaiyuan Building, the square Hegui Building is more like a courtyard house. Compared with the popularity of Huaiyuan Tower, this place seems a bit lonely.
There is a circle of bungalows surrounding the front of the building, and there is not even a sign at the door. It was almost dark when I came here for the first time, and I repeatedly wondered whether I had wandered into someone else's house by mistake.
There are always some aunts holding rice bowls at the door. Every tourist is asked to show their tickets when they pass by, otherwise they need to buy them again.
I was holding a sign from the Outdoor Alliance, but she didn’t believe it either. It wasn't until the security guard called over to express his approval that he reluctantly let me in.
After stepping through the door in the front yard, I suddenly saw the towering wall of Hegui Building . Precisely because of the fence of the bungalow, standing in a position where there is no way to retreat, it is impossible to capture the whole thing with a wide-angle 10MM lens.
The tour group standing next door secretly overheard the tour guide saying that there were two cracks in front of Guihe Building, and the junction had different textures and earth colors.
It is said that there was a fire decades ago, which caused some damage to the floor. Later re-patching resulted in these differences. But at first glance, it looks like a dangerous building, crumbling.
Just like Huaiyuan Building, the facades on the first floor are all set up as small vendors. It’s just that because it’s a square shape, there aren’t many inner rings. In comparison, the interior of Hegui Building is much more spacious.
I heard that the small square in the middle was a school, but I don’t know if it is still in use. But it feels like the school is right downstairs, so you don’t have to worry about being late because of the long distance, right?
Residents live here and do some small business. The cigarettes here are very interesting. They are all hand-rolled by the boss and then rolled carefully with cigarette paper.
The child is also very cute when he is placed in front of the door and eats cookies. I'm a little worried that if she is left like this, she will be abducted.
Later, I saw that her parents only entered temporarily and came out soon. But think about it, the neighbors living in the compound are all acquaintances or relatives, and they will help pay attention to anything unusual.
Help and protect each other internally, and unite to meet enemies externally. This is probably the original intention behind the design and establishment of earth buildings.
Similarly, there are people here who coax you to go up and have a look, saying that it is very beautiful up there. When you agree, I'll charge you another five dollars.
Because I visited both buildings twice, and different residents came to collect money. Obviously this fee is voluntarily levied by individual residents. I will not discuss this unknown fee.
What I find strange is that the money they collect will eventually be collected by themselves, or will it be paid and shared together?
If it is taken back into one's own home, then it is the chassis upstairs that is being visited, but the residents on the first floor are the ones collecting the money. Isn't there any dispute? In addition, there is also competition among households to take back their own homes. Wouldn't this cause conflicts?
If it is handed over and shared, there will also be issues of uneven division of labor and whether individual handovers have been audited or made transparent. Can these be ignored?
I'm really curious. But I am not sure that residents can understand my original intention. If I misinterpret the intention and cause unnecessary disputes, it will be troublesome. Let’s wait for the in-depth interview team to answer this question in the future.
Although the view upstairs is good, it is still slightly inferior to Huaiyuan Tower. Perhaps because it is a square-shaped house, the overall appearance looks similar to a common garden or building.
But there should be more existing residents here. I saw signs on some floors warning people to be quiet, indicating that there are people living and resting here.
Passing through a lighted entrance, you can still see a person wearing a vest playing computer games with his legs shaking. The modernization inside the house and the old-fashioned style outside give it a sense of time travel.
Although Heguilou doesn't seem to be outstanding, he still has several characteristics. One of the signs is that it is the tallest earth building currently existing in Nanjing County.
Secondly, it is said that the entire Hegui Tower was built on swamp land with more than 200 pine wood piles. If you stomp your feet hard in the patio, the entire pebbles in the patio will vibrate like ripples. This is the second wonder.
But I tried it and it didn't feel that way.
The third wonder is the two wells in the courtyard. The water in one is very filthy and cannot be used. The other area is crystal clear and is used by residents.
I didn't pay attention to whether this is true, but next to the well with pipes in the inner courtyard, there was a sign saying "This is drinking water, please do not insert coins" to prevent devout tourists from coming to make wishes. .
– 4 –
In addition to the earth buildings, I actually found that some other small scenes here are also similar to this place.
First, in the opening scene, Chun and Qiu ride horses to attend the coming-of-age ceremony. The cobblestone path along the river that they rode through was similar to the riverside path in Yunshuiyao Ancient Town.
The other is that the moon in the underwater world is very similar to the crescent moon in Yunshuiyao Ancient Town. The picture I took below happened to be at the beginning of the night when the sky was dark, and the twilight was not yet blue.
When I watched the movie after it was made, I discovered that it was so similar. I really think it's very subtle. The painter Xiangbi must have paid a lot of attention and observation.
Finally, about the AB line of Tulou in Nanjing County, Zhangzhou, Fujian is as follows: Line A is "four dishes and one soup" and other special earth buildings. The scenery of the snail shell is quite attractive to me, and I hope to go there again next time.
Line B is the Yunshuiyao route I walked this time. It is a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters, plus the two earth buildings mentioned above. Specifically, you can see: Zhangzhou, Fujian | Plank roads, old banyan trees and earthen buildings compose a song of Nanjing clouds and water .
Friends who are interested in going, it is recommended to understand before making a decision.
The more I travel, the more I realize that Although the unknown is wonderful, it is still better to do some homework before going to a place, which will also help you better observe and discover. I hope we can all see a different life.
