| Below Wushan
the river approaches the entrance to the 40-kilometre (25-mile) long Wu
Gorge, the middle Yangtze gorge that straddles Chongqing
municipality and Hubei Province. So sheer are the cliffs that it is said
the sun rarely penetrates. The boat passes, on the south side, the Golden
Helmet and Silver Armour Gorge (JinKuang Yinjia Xia) shaped, it is said,
like an ancient warrior's silver coat of arms crowned by a round golden
helmet. Ahead are the 12 peaks of Wu Gorge, famed for their dark and
somber grace. Poets have made many attempts to evoke both their bleakness
and beauty. The Goddess Peak is the most famous one with different
versions of stories. More often than not these green-clad peaks are hidden
by swirls of cloud and mist , and are difficult to distinguish, though
each has its own characteristics and posture. Whitewashed villages cling
to the mountain terraces that produce grain crops and fruits - oranges,
apples, apricots, and chestnuts.
It takes twenty minutes to go from the county seat of Wushan to Lu
You Cave by boat. Lu You (1125-1210), a well-known poet of the
Southern Song Dynasty, once served as an official at Kuizhou. The
stalactite cave is named after this poet who passed through the Three
Gorges twice and wrote 37 pomes. Tourists can stand on a platform in front
of the cave to enjoy the scene below.
Zigui
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of the fifth
lunar month ), the people of Zigui
gather along the riverside early in the morning to watch the boat races,
one way to commemorate the poet Qu Yuan
who, as the story goes, threw himself into the river in order to
protest against injustice. The mourning local people hoping to find his
body beat drums to scare away fish and console the soul of the dead and
dropped zongzi, glutinous rice dumplings, into the water in the wish that
fish would feast on the zongzi rather than on Qu. Over the years,
this has gradually evolved into the Dragon Boat Festival with people
eating zongzi on that day. What is fascinating about this particular race
is that at the bow of each boat, there is a man singing for the purpose of
calling back the soul of the deceased.
Zigui County in Hubei, situated in
the Xiangxi Valley, was once the home of Qu Yuan, the great poet of the
State of Chu in the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C). To
memorialize him, a museum has been built outside the east end of the
county seat. This structure was built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
The stone figure of the poet is displayed here
Baoping Village of Xingshan County
at the upper reaches of Xiangxi River is the home of Wang
Zhaojun of the Western Han Dynasty who was married to a Hun ruler
in order to establish peace. If you set off from QuYuan's birthplace,
Sanlu Village, by car, you will reach Baoping in two hours. Though well
off the beaten track, Wang Zhaojun's home is frequented by admiring
visitors. Nearby, there are many places commemorating her. A few years
ago, a beautiful statue of Wang Zhaojun was also dedicated.
There are two villages inhabited by Tujia people standing
by the Shennong River. Together called
Longchuanhe, the villages, 7.5 kilometers apart, have a population of 300
people. Though rather scattered, the villagers gather to dance all night
on the occasion of a funeral whether they were closely acquainted or
not. |