Travel Notes on the Three Northwest Provinces—Crossing Wushao and Traveling to Hexi

10 month11 day

Get up early.

The driver and tour guide reminded me last night that today’s journey is quite far and we have to travel over 600 kilometers to see the colorful Danxia in Zhangye.

We are a tour group of ten people, respectively from Foshan, Guangdong, Changsha, Hunan and Kunming, Yunnan. The tour guide is also the driver Xiao Peng.

After breakfast, we set off from Lanzhou, took the Lianhuo Expressway, passed through Wushaoling, took the Hexi Corridor, and headed west to Zhangye.

From Lanzhou to Zhangye, you have to cross Wushaoling and enter the Hexi Corridor.

Wushaoling, called Haxiang in Tibetan, meaning Monk Ridge, belongs to the branch of Yanlenlong Ridge in the east of Qilian Mountains. The main peak, Dawading, is 3562 meters above sea level , with the longest winter in the year. It lasts for 7 months, with a length of 17 kilometers from east to west and a width of 10 kilometers from north to south. The average annual temperature is -2.2℃, and the snow on the top of the mountain does not melt all year round. The climate in Wushaoling area is unpredictable. Even though it is summer, there will be snow when it rains. According to the "Collection of Ancient and Modern Books": Wushaoling "wind blows up in midsummer and snow is everywhere. The cold is bone-chilling. " Yang Weichang in the Qing Dynasty called it a wonder of "flying snow in the hot sky", and wrote a poem "Wuling Towering to the Sky" to describe the wonders of Wushaoling. He Wei'an: " Surrounded by thousands of mountains, I live alone in Chong, looking down on the rocks, it's like Daisong. The road to Shu is as dangerous as the sky, and Kuanglu has not yet become the dominant force after entering the Han Dynasty. The thunder lies on the ground and makes a faint sound, and the stars and cliffs guard the sky.Looking back, I was even more suspicious of the way to the sky, and suddenly I was in the white clouds "

At that time, Lin Zexu was convicted of banning smoking and was sent to Yili. He passed through this place in the eighth month of the lunar calendar. It was also recorded in his "He Ge Ji Cheng": "On the twelfth day, Wuzi, it was sunny. Walking at Chenke (7-9 am), there were five miles of water springs and five miles of Wushao Ridge. The mountains were not very steep, but the ground was very cold. To the west The mountain outside the mountain is the Snow Mountain. Although I wear fur clothes, it is not very cold. The lower ridge is still peeling off my skin clothes. Seven miles northwest of the ridge is the junction of Pingfan and Gulang, and another seven miles of Shuangkouziping. Liuli Anyang...and Qili Gulang County, I stayed in the hotel at the door."

There is also a Qing Dynasty official Feng Junguang who visited Wushaoling in the third year of 1877, which was also the eighth month of the lunar calendar. It is recorded in his "Diary of Journey to the West": "On August 21st, on the 22nd day of the 22nd day, Qiang Yijian was in the town. Suddenly clouds appeared everywhere, and there were a few flying snow. Yujiu's body is still cold. According to the longitude and latitude, the ground here is as high as the top of Liupan Mountain, and the weather is warm in autumn. , It is easy to climb and move ten miles to the top of the mountain."

Mr. Jin Yong wrote this in the martial arts novel "The Book of Swords and Enemies" in the chapter "The ghost warriors fight at Wushao Ridge, and the officers and soldiers are choked at Chitao Ferry": "We have to cross Wushao Ridge today. It was a famously dangerous place on the Ganliang Road. After Cao Neng ordered his soldiers to have a good meal, they walked up the mountain with energy. It became colder and colder, and the road became more and more dangerous. In September, snowflakes started to fall. "

It seems that this road has left behind many literati and ink writers who recorded the scenes of snow falling in the summer in Wushaoling.

A few years ago, when I drove through Wushaoling for the first time, my colleagues from Gansu introduced Wushaoling to me in the car. I didn't care. I just remembered that it was a mountain range with a higher altitude. Unexpectedly, I became interested in it this time.

Although the altitude of Wushaoling is not too high, due to its geographical location, Wushaoling has become a boundary mountain in my country's natural environment. Topographically, it is the boundary between the first and second steps of terrain in our country, and the southwest of Wushaoling is the first step of terrain. To the east and north is the second step; at the same time, Wushaoling is also the area where the dividing line that divides my country's monsoon and non-monsoon areas, and the inflow and outflow areas passes. To the east is the monsoon area and outflow area, and to the west is the non-monsoon area. and inflow areas. The warm and humid ocean monsoon stopped here and stopped going westward when it was blocked by Wushao Ridge. It is also located at the intersection of my country's three natural areas. In terms of topography, it is located at the intersection of three major plateaus: the Loess Plateau, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the Inner Mongolia Plateau; in terms of climate zoning, the three major climate zones of the plateau sub-arid zone, the mid-temperate sub-arid zone, and the mid-temperate zone arid zone intersect in Wushaoling. I think this is because the mountains are not high, and the geographical location is very important.

After leaving Lanzhou, our car gradually went up. The clouds in the sky were thick and the scenery outside the window gradually changed. The road was steep, and before we knew it, we were on the ridge. Looking at the overcast sky and the scenery of the mountains, it seemed like winter. On the contrary, the leaves on both sides of the road are golden, which is really beautiful.

The highway passing through Wushaoling has a tunnel group consisting of five tunnels. There are two tunnels with a length of more than 6,000 meters. The longest one is the Anyuan Tunnel at 6,940 meters. The completion of the tunnel shortens the driving time, eliminates the pain of climbing mountains and circling, and reduces the chance of snowfall in summer. During this trip, we didn’t see snow falling in the summer, but there were clouds and mist. Perhaps, as the earth's climate warms, there are fewer days of snow falling in the summer on Wushaoling, and there are also fewer modern articles about snow falling in the summer.

Suddenly I saw an international ski resort passing by above the road.

Gradually going downhill, the desert Gobi appears on the roadside. We passed Wushao Ridge and saw the blue sky again.

Wushaoling is the boundary between Longzhong Plateau and Hexi Corridor, and is also the throat of Hexi Corridor. It is an important route on the ancient Silk Road and a military stronghold. It is famous for its steep mountains and rugged terrain. yes The eastern gate of the Silk Road, guarding the strategic point, is An important pass on the Hexi Corridor leading to Chang'an on the ancient Silk Road.

After passing Wushaoling, you enter the Hexi Corridor.

The Hexi Corridor is located to the west of the Yellow River, accompanied by the Qilian Mountains in the south, and guarded by Longshou Mountain, Heli Mountain, and Mazong Mountain in the north. The two mountains stand between each other like a corridor, so it is called the Hexi Corridor. It starts from Wushaoling in the east and extends to the junction of Gansu (Su) and Xinjiang (Xinjiang) in the west of Yumenguan. Since ancient times, it has been the main road from mainland China to the Western Regions. The snowy water of the Qilian Mountains continuously nourishes this land. The corridors are rich in water and grass, and there are flocks of cattle and sheep. The land is fertile, and the forests are lush and the grain is abundant. It is the rice granary of the west, a land of abundance, and of course a battleground for military strategists.

The sky has cleared and there are no clouds in the sky. The sunshine in autumn and winter shines brightly. Looking out the window, a long ridge appeared on the empty wasteland, winding along the Hexi Corridor and stretching continuously. From time to time, tall mounds of soil appeared. Suddenly I had a feeling in my heart, could this be the Great Wall of China? Then I picked up the camera and kept capturing the wilderness and the ridge in the fast-moving car.

After the car drove for a while, the driver Xiao Peng said that the ridges visible on the roadside were the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. My suspicions were confirmed.

The driver had no intention of stopping the car in order to hurry. Others in the car had no intention of getting out of the car to see the great ruins of the Great Wall. Although I had something in mind, it was difficult to bring it up, so I had to just go with the car. Fortunately, there is quite a distance, and the highway is accompanied by the ancient Great Wall, so I can take a few more photos of the desolate figure of the ancient Great Wall.

According to information: "The Great Wall, as a symbol of the unyielding spirit of the Chinese nation, has stood on the land of China for more than 2,300 years and spanned more than 20 dynasties. According to statistics, the Great Wall of China lasted from the Warring States Period to the Qing Dynasty, and its overall length It has exceeded 100,000 miles. The remains of the Great Wall in Gansu Province in western China also exceed 10,000 miles.”

During the Western Han Dynasty, the earliest Hexi Great Wall "Lingjusai" was built with a length of more than 700 kilometers. The "Biography of the Western Qiang" in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty states: “ When Emperor Wu conquered the four barbarians, expanded the territory, repelled the Xiongnu in the north, and drove the Qiang people in the west, he crossed the Hehuang River and built a fortress. When he first opened up the Hexi Corridor, he established four counties and opened the Yumen Pass, isolating the Qiang and Hu people and preventing the north and the south from communicating. Thus, barriers, forts, pavilions, and beacons were built thousands of miles outside the Great Wall. The Ming Dynasty attached more importance to the construction of the Great Wall, and nearly 1,000 kilometers of the Great Wall were built in Hexi. To date, the Han-Ming Great Wall, beacon towers, and barriers in Shandan County are the most complete section of the ancient Great Wall preserved in China, and are praised by experts as an "open-air Great Wall museum."

The Great Walls of the Han and Ming dynasties met at Wushaoling and meandered westward. There are three places where the Han Great Wall can be seen in Tianzhu, all of which are built with rammed earth slabs.

Although the Wushaoling Great Wall is a rammed earth wall, it has weathered and collapsed after thousands of years of wind and rain erosion, and most of it has become earthen ridges. But from the remaining ruins, one can vaguely imagine that day The majestic atmosphere comes. Looking at the winding ridges along the way, it feels like hunting with flags next to your ears, and the neighing of war horses, and you feel like you are on an ancient battlefield with fighting and iron horses and dusty dust.

With the vicissitudes of life, the historical mission of The Great Wall as a military defense has long ended. However, the Great Wall has had a profound and positive impact on politics, economy, military, ethnic integration, cultural exchanges, transportation between China and the West, and the development of science and technology in Chinese history. .

The ancient battlefield of the past has now become the granary of Gansu.

On the way, I saw the ancient Great Wall in the Hexi Corridor, which was an unexpected and big gain.