Pudi Scenic Area of Hundred-Mile Azalea
The Multicoloured Road
The Multicoloured Road boasts the most concentrated clusters of vivid azalea varieties across the scenic zone. Strolling along this path, visitors are constantly surrounded by blossoms of varied hues growing high and low. If you stay here for three to five days, the hospitable Yi people will treat you to fragrant rice wine and uniquely flavoured farmhouse cured meat.
Early in the morning, they will lead you up the flower-covered hills to taste sweet azalea dew and listen to the plaintive cry of cuckoos. In the daytime, you may watch Miao young men and women dance on the flower slope and perform lusheng dances, and appreciate traditional ethnic folk crafts including cross-stitch embroidery, weaving and batik.
After nightfall, a bonfire will be lit. You can join people of all ethnic groups hand in hand to dance to the tune Ode to Wumeng Mountains, which symbolizes great ethnic unity.
Dear tourists and guests, Hundred-Mile Azalea is just like a jar of strong rice wine. One tiny sip will make you thoroughly intoxicated. Even a light whiff of the floral fragrance will relax your whole body, lulling you into a colourful dream filled with azalea aroma.
Cloud Terrace Ridge
On misty drizzly days, the azaleas here loom amid swirling clouds and mist, presenting an indistinct hazy beauty, hence the name Cloud Terrace Ridge.
Please look westward. A row of round stone mounds comes into sight. Smooth, neatly arranged and elegantly shaped, they were praised as a string of imperial prayer beads by Yang Yintong, a local poet of the Qing Dynasty, who wrote this poem:
Amid misty ridges stand rows of rounded stones,
Like pearls strung together one by one.
Scholars admire their glossy jade-like grace,
Each crag shaped into a perfect pearl’s embrace.
Blossom Counting Peak
Blossom Counting Peak is the highest peak in the entire Pudi flower zone. Standing here to admire the blossoms, you will be filled with heroic pride overlooking the whole landscape. When climbing heights in the prime of life, your body ascends, and so does your spirit.
On the cliff lies a flat rock shaped like an imperial examination announcement, known as the Suspended Imperial Gazette. Legend has it that whenever the neighbouring Western Hill Peak, shaped like a giant writing brush, gives out a rumble, the words on the stone announcement flicker in and out, accompanied by gong booms echoing from the rock. Soon afterwards, young scholars at the foot of the two mountains would pass the imperial examinations. During the feudal imperial examination era, local villagers often came here to burn incense and pray for academic success.
The Qing poet Yang Yintong composed a poem for this site:
Along the winding path I reach the cliff on high,
Where hangs the imperial decree beneath the sky.
Boundless imperial favour blesses this land,
When will new talents with literary glory stand?
Look ahead: the pink rhododendrons are wrapped in silvery white. Up close, they resemble white cranes playing in the water; from afar, they surge like sea waves. Over there, the red azaleas burn bright red in dense colourful clusters. The charming rhododendrons shine in gorgeous varied colours. Walking into the sea of flowers is just like stepping into a fairyland. If you taste the mellow Yi rice wine at Suoma Villa, you will fully understand the feeling of being drunk by flowers and wine, unwilling to return home.
Shexiang Ridge
This ridge witnessed the love story between Madam Shexiang and Aicui, leader of the Yi tribe.
Shexiang was born in Guduo Stockade in Yongning (present-day Gulin County, Sichuan Province). She received a well-rounded education from childhood: she studied reading and writing, weaving and embroidery, singing and musical instruments, horse riding and archery. She excelled in both literary studies and martial arts.
She was tall with peach blossom cheeks and crescent eyebrows. When she smiled, birds sang and flowers bloomed. When she frowned, winds howled and all beasts fell silent. She was far more outstanding than one girl out of a hundred, indeed the most beautiful maiden among a thousand Yi women.
One March, she heard that Aicui held a flower festival at Fangjiaping under the Zhiga Alu Mountain, inviting young men and women from far and wide for horse racing and archery contests. Long admiring Aicui’s reputation, Shexiang travelled a long way to attend the gathering.
Right here on this ridge, she met Aicui. He reined in his horse and proposed marriage to her. She looked up and saw a robust, distinguished hero. Yet on closer inspection, she found he was already over forty with a full beard. She burst into laughter and nearly fell off her horse.
Realizing she thought him too old, Aicui was not offended at all. He bowed respectfully and chanted:
Forty-three years I’ve lived alone,
My sincerity could move immortals down.
If you don’t mind my beard and age,
I’ll govern Shuixi and calm every town.
Moved by his sincerity, Shexiang replied:
I’d marry a fiery bold young soul,
Not a frail old man growing slow.
I’ll test your wit first, then your might;
If you fail, we’ll go our separate ways this night.
Aicui asked: “What shall the test be?”
Shexiang answered: “First literary knowledge, then martial skill.”
Aicui agreed readily.
Shexiang asked: “How many villages and stockades are there in Shuixi?”
Aicui replied: “Forty-eight large stockades, and countless small hamlets scattered like stars.”
Shexiang asked: “How many rivers run through Shuixi?”
Aicui replied: “Twelve major rivers, with brooks spreading like veins across the land.”
Shexiang asked: “How many rich and poor families live here?”
Aicui replied: “Eight hundred thousand households in total. Frankly speaking, nine out of ten families live in poverty.”
Satisfied with his honest answer, Shexiang moved on to the martial contest. They walked to the vast grassland of Hundred-Mile Azalea, Fangjiaping. Shexiang drew an arrow from her quiver and shot it firmly into a fir tree a hundred paces away. “It is your turn, chieftain.”
Calmly, Aicui nocked his arrow and released it. The second arrow struck exactly on top of the first, a perfect overlapping shot known as “eagle seizing the nest”. He smiled and said: “Maiden, this must be our destined marriage!”
Word spread quickly. Young men and women swarmed to congratulate them, escorting the newlyweds riding side by side down the hill for their wedding.
More than a year later, when Shexiang was about to give birth, neighbouring tribes invaded western Yunnan. Aicui personally led troops to the rescue and fell in battle. At only nineteen years old, Shexiang took over governance of Shuixi. Capable in both politics and military affairs, she developed farming, trade and administration, winning deep respect from all residents. Before long, she transformed this poverty-stricken land into a prosperous homeland where people of all ethnic groups lived in peace and joy.
This ridge was named Shexiang Ridge to commemorate her marriage to Aicui and honour her remarkable achievements. Every year on the third day of the third lunar month, young men and women of all ethnic groups gather here for the flower festival.
Drunken Nine Oxen
One of the most legendary scenic spots in Pudi Area gets its name from a touching folk tale.
According to History of Southern Barbarians, in the 17th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, Madam Shexiang, Tusi of Shuixi, took a herd of strong cattle as tribute to Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to secure peace along the southwestern border. But when they reached this spot, the cattle refused to move forward. They were completely captivated by the gorgeous azaleas and fell drunk amid the blossom woods.
After Shexiang reported the incident to the emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang decreed that this place be named Drunken Nine Oxen. As time went by, the cattle gradually turned into stone statues frozen among the sea of flowers.
Red Army Square
This place lies in the heart of Hundred-Mile Azalea and was once the main battlefield of a fierce Red Army campaign.
The Sparks of the Prairie, a memoir of the Long March, records the Huangjiaba Blocking Battle in Pudi, also known as Huangjiaba. In 1985, the People’s Government of Dafang County erected a monument to the battle halfway up Blossom Counting Peak, the mountain on your left.
Why are these horse-tail azaleas so crimson red?
They were dyed red by the Red Army soldiers’ blood shed.
In April 1986, the poet Huang Zhongxiu returned to his hometown and wrote:
Fifty years ago heroes fought on this ground,
Workers and peasants with valour were crowned.
Where Long-Martyr soldiers shed their blood,
Azaleas bloom in a deeper crimson flood.
Since the establishment of the Hundred-Mile Azalea Administrative Committee, the azaleas have bloomed more beautifully than ever. Natural scenery and man-made landscapes set off each other in perfect harmony.
In 2011, the scenic area built Red Army Square on the former battlefield, to pay tribute to revolutionary martyrs, remember the Red Army, and preserve touching stories between the Red Army and local ethnic people.
More than seventy years have passed. Through the smoke of war, the gunfire of the Huangjiaba Blocking Battle still echoes in our memory.
|
上一篇：
发表、查看更多关于该信息的评论 
将本信息发给好友 
打印本页
