The number one rice noodle city in Hunan, it looks too much like the Peach Blossom Land, right?

As for the ideal retirement life, the veteran artist never had a clear vision until he started the latest season of "The Longing for Life".

The latest season of "Longing for Life" landed in Bailinzhou Village, Taoyuan, Changde, which is 's dreamland from "Peach Blossom Spring".

The camera panned over, revealing lakes surrounded by green forests, criss-crossing fertile fields, gurgling streams, quiet valleys, and peach groves with gorgeous flowers.

In this fairy-like environment, even if you drive a walking tractor to plow the fields during the day and go back to a leaky wooden house to soak your feet at night, it must be romantic enough.

△Bailinzhou Village with its own fairy filter / "Longing for Life"

The old artist, who was immersed in the model of a Utopia-style retirement, searched for Changde curiously. A "paradise" with numerous roads and misty rain Besides, Changde, a city only two hours away from the internet-famous Changsha, has many surprises that are unknown to the public.

You wouldn’t know if you didn’t search, but you were shocked when you searched. The old artist immediately booked a ticket to Changde.

For people who don’t know Changde, a fairyland and a bowl of rice noodles are all they can imagine. However, the old artist wants to give you a warm welcome - Changde, this famous cultural city that has been popular since ancient times, is really a treasure.

△Changde, a city with both style and heritage /

There is a kind of escape from the world, called Changde

The name of Changde comes from Laozi's "Tao Te Ching" "For the world's streams, Changde is inseparable" .

The reason why I have the courage to name it after "virtue" is because in Zhuangzi's records, a story about King Shan Juan Rang once happened here.

According to legend, when Emperor Shun was in power, he wanted to give up his throne and the world to a wise man named Shanjuan. But Shanjuan declined Emperor Shun's kindness and retired to the mountains and forests on the grounds that he "worked at sunrise and rested at sunrise, carefree between heaven and earth, and felt content".

△Changde’s landscape /

The place where he lived in seclusion was now Deshan in Changde. "The mountains in Changde are virtuous, and the sandy waters in Changsha are sandless" has become a folk proverb that has been passed down to this day, and Changde has therefore become one of the birthplaces of Chinese moral culture.

More than two thousand years later, the land of King Shanjuan attracted Tao Yuanming, who was also a hermit.

In his eternally famous poem "The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring", Tao Yuanming described a paradise where "everywhere traffics, chickens and dogs hear each other, yellow hair hangs down, and one is contented with oneself". Although there has been debate about the prototype of "Peach Blossom Land", Changde is undoubtedly the one with the greatest chance of winning.

△Changde Peach Blossom Spring /

In the original work, the person who discovered the Peach Blossom Spring was a Wuling man who was engaged in fishing. Wuling County in the Jin Dynasty happened to be located in today's Changde. The annotation of "Taoyuan Mountain" in "Cihai" also officially confirms that Changde Taoyuan is the pastoral utopia written by Tao Yuanming.

This is a secret painting created by the Yuanshui River, which flows into Dongting Lake, and the Xuefeng Mountain, the longest mountain range in Hunan. Described in Shen Kuo's Mengxi Bitan One of the Eight Scenic Spots of Xiaoxiang: "Fishing Village Sunset" , and started writing in this beautiful secret place with mountains behind and water in front.

△Yuanshui under the sunset /

However, Peach Blossom Spring is just a microcosm of Changde’s God-given beauty.

With Wuling Mountain to the west and Dongting Lake to the east, "The Roof of Hunan" The Huping Mountain, also known as the Huping Mountain, stands here. This mountain, with a main peak exceeding 2,000 meters above sea level, is named because it is high on all sides and low in the middle, shaped like a pot mouth.

During hundreds of millions of years of crustal movement, Huping Mountain has transformed from vast seas into mulberry fields. Due to its special geographical location at 30 degrees north latitude, many rare species native to this area have been able to survive the catastrophe of glaciers. Today, hundreds of species of animals and plants under national key protection still live here, so Huping Mountain is called "Noah's Ark of the Eastern Hemisphere" by the scientific research community.

In addition to mystery and wildness, Changde is also a beautiful city lifted up by rivers and lakes. The Yuanjiang River and Lishui River along the densely intertwined river network inject gentleness and beauty into the city. The vast mist of West Dongting separated a huge lake shaped like a willow leaf on the territory of Changde.

This freshwater lake was formed 50,000 years ago. It embraces most of the ancient city of Changde with its broad arms. As China's largest inland urban lake, Liuye Lake, with a lake area approximately equal to three West Lakes, gives Changde a broad view of the sea despite being located inland.

△Liuye Lake surrounding Changde /

There is painting in the eyes, and there is no lack of poetry in the ears. The Peach Blossom Land is well-known and coupled with its unique landscape charm, Changde has attracted many literati to hang out here.

Wang Yangming, an acting scholar of the Ming Dynasty, visited Changde twice and wrote in the Guanyin Pavilion outside the small west gate of Changde, "The mountains are gradually doubtful that Hengyue is near, and the flowers are deep in Wuling." Li Bai, who was keen on exploring famous mountains and rivers, passed by Yelang when he was exiled. Changde has left behind the eternal famous saying "Hupings fly down the waterfall, and peach blossoms fall at the entrance of the cave".

△Huping Waterfall /

Liu Yuxi was demoted to Langzhou (now Changde) for ten years, and he wrote many famous poems related to this place, such as "A crane in the clear sky and a row of clouds," which he wrote by the Liuye Lake with clear water and green willows, quoted poems. Love reaches the sky."

Langzhou Sima, who "lived in exile in Yuanxiang and was swayed by the scenery of the country, often turned his stories into poems", was inspired by Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs" and created the "Bamboo Branch Ci". He recorded the Yuanjiang dragon boat race and wrote "Race Song". "Cai Ling Xing" moved the local residents' pastoral work...

It can be said that Liu Yuxi spent the ten years when his poetry was most prosperous in Changde. Many of the poems he wrote during this period have become representative works of the landscape pastoral poetry school in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

These poems that sing about the scenery of Changde are now displayed on the Changde Poetry Wall built on the Yuanjiang flood control embankment and stretching for 6 kilometers. This "Great Wall of Poetry" in the words of Taiwanese poet Yu Guangzhong has engraved more than a thousand famous poems about Changde since the pre-Qin Dynasty.

The Changde Poetry Wall, which captures the past and looks at the present, has become the best annotation of the city's poetic charm.

△Changde’s modern and ancient trends are gathered on a poetry wall /

Recreating the "Peach Blossom Spring"

Although it has a poetic and pastoral hermit spirit, it is located in the fortress of "the throat of Wu and Shu, and the households of Yunnan and Guizhou". Historically, Changde has been disturbed by wars, and it is difficult to find peace.

Since its founding, Changde has experienced seven city-destroying battles from the early Northern Song Dynasty to the Anti-Japanese War. Because there are so many Changde people like Ding Ling who are "literary ladies yesterday and military generals today", the old city of Changde tenaciously stood up from the ruins every time, even during the Changde Defense Battle in 1943.

In this war, which is more cruel than the plot of a movie, this city with a history of 2,200 years and 160,000 residents was almost reduced to scorched earth during more than 50 days of continuous artillery bombardment. In Epstein's words - there are only two buildings with roofs left in the city, and they are both Spanish Catholic churches.

△The brave and tenacious Chinese soldiers desperately defended Changde

Repeated destruction and reconstruction gave Changde the fearlessness and courage to break the old and establish the new in urban construction. Although Changde often considers itself a fourth-tier city, Changde has set several firsts in urban design, including the first sponge cities in the country and the first city in Hunan to have BRT.

The most intuitive display of Changde's urban beauty is undoubtedly Old Ximen.

Lao Ximen is located in the Xicheng District of Changde. It was originally the site of the Yuanjiang Wharf and the moat. This was once the most prosperous area in Changde, with famous historical monuments such as the Fire Temple, Yangjia Memorial Archway, and Langjiang Academy scattered here.

As the population increased dramatically due to urban expansion, high-rise buildings were built on the land facing the street. The Old West Gate built on the moat was transformed into a sewage canal. This area instantly fell from a bustling city to the most dilapidated shantytown in Changde.

△The quaint red house in Lao Ximen carries the memory of history. /

In 2011, Changde launched the Old West Gate renovation project. Unlike the antique streets that can be seen everywhere in the city, the renovated Old West Gate has not had its memory erased and fallen into clichés. The historical fragments scattered here are pieced together piece by piece through the building complex.

Beyond the commercial pedestrian streets along the river, there is more life and art here.

The modernist relocation houses are like a honeycomb, as well as large cloisters and garden terraces connecting the neighbors. Even the exterior walls of the buildings are painted with gradient gray paint to create a visual effect like an ink painting. Laoximen, which has both beauty and comfort, has created the miracle of renovating the old city with 100% of the 1,600 aboriginal households living here relocating back.

△The renovated Old West Gate is a representative of urban architectural art.

As Qu Lei, the chief architect of Laoximen, said: "We hope that Mr. Zhang, who carves seals in the dilapidated house, and Master Chen, the stall owner who has been repairing shoes for 17 years at the street corner, can meet and chat every day."

The cellar house is a traditional house popular in western Hunan and other places. It is composed of high walls surrounded by four sides and a hollow patio. It looks like a big seal when viewed from above.

With the development of the city, such low-rise houses have almost disappeared. In order to restore this characteristic architecture, Lao Ximen's design team went to Huaihua and finally found two cellar houses with only walls remaining in the village. After marking each brick, they moved the entire cellar house to Lao Ximen.

△Jiaoziwu is a characteristic residential house in Changde, which is suitable for the local climate and life. /

In addition to the cellar house that inherits memories, there are also many Changde features hidden in the buildings of Lao Ximen, such as the Lao Ximen Theater inspired by Changde silk strings.

The flowing curved exterior wall is decorated with thread-like bamboo steel of different thicknesses to echo the strings of the music used in the silk string performance. In this theater with Changde characteristics both inside and outside, you can hear the most authentic Changde silk strings, and also enjoy Changde Flower Drum Opera, one of the six major schools of Hunan Flower Drum Opera, and Lishui Boatwork, a national intangible cultural heritage that originated in Li County, Changde. chant.

In this old Ximen, which has won numerous honors in the field of architecture, there are red bricks used to build houses in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as old wood that has weathered the wind and rain from living in the countryside. These symbols that connect memories create the dreamy Daqianjing Alley, the Hulukou Square that changes scenery as you move, and the orange-red Bozicai Museum.

In the process of transplantation, integration, and reconstruction, a new version of Peach Blossom Land in the busy city was collaged.

△Rebuilding the Peach Blossom Spring embodies the romance of Changde people. / "The Rebirth of Old Simon"

Changde, how good is "Seven"?

The fertile Dongting Lake siltation plain accounts for two-thirds of Changde's cultivated land. The abundant agricultural output has allowed Changde to serve as the vegetable basket and rice bag for Hunan people for a long time.

I want pastoral poetry, but I also want three meals a day. "The stew pot is clattering in the stove, and I don't want to be the prince's consort in the court." A Changde proverb expresses the Wuling people's inclination to live in peace with the world and eat well.

Because there are no high mountains in the lake area to block the entry of the north wind, Changde people invented Bozi Cuisine - a cooking method that combines cooking and drinking to combat the windy and cold autumn and winter seasons.

The free-range grain ducks raised by the paddy fields, the thick and juicy local chickens, the crispy and tough fatty intestines... In the slow simmering of the small red clay stove, they exchanged souls with the onions, ginger, anise, green peppers and garlic. The aroma combines a home-cooked delicacy that Changde people cannot live without.

In Changde, everything can be cooked in a bowl. In addition to meat dishes such as grain duck bowl and beef bowl, there are also vegetable bowls, and even rice noodles can be stewed slowly over low heat.

△Freshly cooked bowl dishes

Even though we are in Hunan, a province famous for rice noodles, Changde rice noodles are still so good that they are unforgettable.

The ancestors of Jiangxi who migrated here brought rice noodles, and the Hui immigrants brought beef. Rice noodles cooked in beef soup have become the most well-known feature of Changde rice noodles. The overlapping dietary elements of the Han and Hui ethnic groups have greatly enriched the variety of oils that cover the rice noodles as the finishing touch.

Whether it’s the Hunan style of shredded pork, ribs, and eel, or the desert style of beef, lamb tripe, and beef tendon, it’s all hidden in this bowl of rice noodles floating in red oil.

△Red oil, the soul of Changde rice noodles. /

As amazing as the consumption of rice noodles is Changde's meat duck. In addition to the grain duck in the stew pot, Changde also has the sauced duck with a strong aroma and spicy taste; the duck king made with a variety of Chinese herbal medicines, which has many varieties and beautiful flavors. No duck can walk out of Changde alive.

△The salted duck with soy sauce will make you salivate at just one glance/

Changde’s tea is also full of personality.

The old artist can guarantee that even old tea drinkers who have tasted black, white, red and green will have their knowledge refreshed when they encounter Changde Leicha.

Although it is said to be a tea drink, it is actually as rich in content as porridge. This cup of tea is made with tea leaves and ginger as a base, then a handful of fried rice is sprinkled in, and finally salt or sugar is added. After drinking it, the first thing you taste is the strong aroma of grains, followed by the lingering aroma of tea leaves. .

After the two completely different flavors collide and blend between the lips and teeth, the spiciness from the ginger will be fully released, like a symphony of flavors playing on the tip of the tongue.

Because the raw materials are taken from raw leaves, ginger and raw rice, Leicha is also known as "Sansheng Soup". In the special New Year tea banquet, Leicha is one of the staple foods that can be included in the "eight plates and sixteen bowls". Even drinking tea has to be accompanied by a table of sumptuous "table dishes". Side dishes to accompany the tea include such as There are more than a dozen kinds of fried goods such as rice crackers and sweet potato chips, roasted goods such as broad beans and peanuts, and cold dishes such as dried fragrant vegetables, cucumbers, and lotus root slices. There are sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty flavors, enough to fill a table. It can be said that a tea gathering can also be a feast. .

△It is said to be tea, but it must be accompanied by a table full of "table dishes".

The hospitality scene of "setting up wine and killing chickens for food" in "Peach Blossom Spring" continues to this day. Changde people treat guests with delicious food and also delight themselves with delicious food.

The homely taste also condenses the life attitude of Changde people, which is "People who love to eat must be people who love life."