This is a city that is easily overlooked. Compared with the hustle and bustle of the Pearl River Delta, Zhaoqing, located on the banks of the Xijiang River in northwest Guangdong, is very quiet. The quiet Xijiang River flows through the south of the city and surrounds Zhaoqing City together with the Beiling Mountain Range across the north of the city. North of the city is Xinghu Lake, which accounts for nearly one third of the urban area, and the famous Qixingyan is located in it. To the south, it is the Millennium Duanzhou City blessed by Xijiang River and Xinghu Lake.
Duanzhou is the ancient name of Zhaoqing. Established in the 9th year of Emperor Kai of Sui Dynasty (AD 589), it is now Duanzhou District, Zhaoqing City. The old city of Zhaoqing is very small. Get off at the bus station, walk south along Tianning North Road to the south of Qixingyan Square, and you can reach the edge of the old city.
I thought this city would have a vibrant old community, just like other cities with rich history that I visited in Guangdong. Old people bask in the sun and read newspapers in front of the door, children chase and fight at the corner of the roadway, and sheets full of sunshine and fragrance are drying overhead. The old master under the faded signboard is quickly preparing a delicious rice rolls. For example, Guangzhou, Chaozhou and Xinhui.
However, it didn't.
Zhaoqing is a very quiet city, as quiet as a cat dozing in the summer sunshine. There are not many people in the old city, and it can even be called lifeless. A careless slope leads directly to the wall of the old city. There are no doors or towers, so it goes straight through. Walking along the left side of the top of the slope, the words "Zhaoqing City Wall, National Cultural Relics Protection Unit" suddenly stood on the roadside.
There is really nothing in the old city, and the whole city is very desolate. About everyone has moved to the new district. The only pagoda that looks a little energetic is also full of depression. On the contrary, the Yuejiang Tower, Mei 'an, Confucius Temple, Zhaoqing Four Pagodas and Xinghu Lake outside the old city are more aura.
Yuejiang Building, built in Xuande period of Ming Dynasty, has been repaired in all previous dynasties. It turned out to be an academy, and later it was the regimental headquarters of Ye Ting Independent Regiment. Aside from the long history, just saying the name of this building and reciting it once will make you feel that the word "reading the river" is used wonderfully.
In Chengdu, there is a Wangjiang Building. A famous couplet once wrote: "Wangjiang Tower, Wangjiang River, Wangjiang River on Wangjiang Tower". Repeatedly chanting, an inexplicable sense of parting and helplessness permeates the whole body with the mist on Jinjiang. The river is flowing, and I'm looking forward to it. This is a sad feeling.
Looking at the Yuejiang Tower again, my eyes are as bright as flames, and the surging river is waiting for me to check, and a kind of self-confidence that the country is under control arises spontaneously. According to the data, Nanjing and Xi 'an also have a Yuejiang Tower respectively. Among them, the Yuejiang Tower rebuilt at the top of Nanjing Lion Mountain is even more imperial because of the inscription of "Yuejiang Tower" by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It has an unobstructed view on the river and has an extraordinary momentum.
To the south of Yuejiang Building is the wide Xijiang River. Not far from the upstream and downstream of Zhaoqing, the Xijiang River is narrow because of the canyon landform, but in the south of Zhaoqing, it forms a wide arc, just like a smiling face with a wide mouth. This smiling face is embedded with two upper and lower teeth.
This is the four pagodas in Zhaoqing, with Jubilee Pagoda and Yuan Kui Pagoda on the north bank and Civilization Pagoda and Xunfeng Pagoda on the south bank. The four pagodas stand across the river, all built in the Ming Dynasty, guarding Zhaoqing Feng Shui. The Yuan Kui Tower is unguarded, but it cannot be climbed. Civilization Tower and Xunfeng Tower are located on the south bank of Xijiang River, so I didn't visit them, but I was deeply impressed by the Chongxi Tower alone.
Chongxi Tower is octagonal in plane, with nine floors 17 floors and a height of 57.5 meters. Every two floors need to go around to another entrance through the platform outside the tower, and then walk up the stairs in the tower. Up to the top floor, my feet are soft and I only dare to stick to the wall. God knows whether the wooden railings of ancient pagodas in Ming Dynasty rebuilt by 1983 have decayed to the point of fracture, which made me fall into Xijiang River defenseless.
Chongxi Pagoda is said to be the earliest of the four pagodas, which was built by Wang Pan to gather gas and embrace the Xijiang River. Yuan Kui Tower and Xunfeng Tower were built to be the first, while Civilization Tower was built to promote literary style.
Leave Chongxi Tower, slide along the lazy street to Qixingyan Square, and finally come to the tourist attractions. But I didn't intend to enter the Seven Star Rock Scenic Area.
Along the Xinghu Greenway, through the Paifang Park to the central levee, it is the Xinghu of Zhaoqing people. A professional jogger with a bracelet, a photographer who makes children laugh with a purring voice, rides a little girl and drags her mother with a stroller. The lakes and mountains are the most beautiful in Zhaoqing. The sun shines obliquely on the waves from the west and becomes patches of light. In the flashing light, canoeists usually cut the water with arrows, raise their knives and start a group of white cranes.
After two days of sightseeing, Zhaoqing is not as interesting as expected. As the third batch of famous historical and cultural cities, although there are national-level cultural relics protection units such as Mei 'an, Qixingyan, Deqing Gong Xue and the ancient city wall, all the scenic spots are lonely and scattered, and there is a feeling of being separated from urban culture.
But from the historical and overall point of view, Zhaoqing is also a land of feng shui. Zhaoqing's Yin and Yang and Feng Shui are the best in Lingnan. Beiling Mountain is in harmony with the Yin and Yang of Xijiang River, and Xinghu Lake is in harmony with the Yin and Yang of the old city. In the Xinghu Lake, there is also a harmony between Yin and Yang between the lake and Qixingyan. In addition, the mouth of the East-West Canyon and the four towers on both sides of the Xijiang River echo each other from a distance, which will give urban people a sense of ventilation and comfort. No wonder so many celebrities get together here.
About eating, in the end, I didn't find anything that made my eyes shine. Only the following two pictures are an explanation.
In fact, this article about Zhaoqing has been shelved for a long time, mainly because for a rambler, Zhaoqing has only scattered scenic spots without continuous interesting urban areas, which leads to only writing about scenic spots, and I don't want to write about traditional scenic spots, so it has become such a four-elephant.
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