Jianshui Travel Notes|

In Jianshui County, Yunnan, a small town in southern Yunnan, the words "Lin'an" can be seen everywhere.

Lin'an Hotel, Lin'an Inn, Lin'an Dream Hotel, and Yi Lin'an Hotel, I thought for a while that I was in the wrong car, and I fell into the beauty of Jiangnan in a trance. But this is not the land of Jiangnan after all, and I haven't seen a river when I wandered around. I heard that there was "water" near Jianshui City in the early years, but today it has dried up, probably due to urbanization and industrialization.

I asked Lola again, why do they call themselves Lin'an here? That's not the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. Is Hangzhou at this time, and what does it have to do with Jianshui? She said that it was deliberately done by the Song Dynasty at that time. If the ethnic minorities outside the border invaded, they only thought that they had entered the capital, and they would no longer be aggressive. That is, to deceive the "barbarians" by creating a fake Lin'an to protect the real capital.

But I always feel that this statement is wrong, and I feel like treating the barbarians as fools, and even the rulers of the Song Dynasty who did this are a little mentally retarded. So I checked the information and found a more plausible reason.

After the Mongolian army destroyed the Song Dynasty, it changed the name of Lin'an at that time to Hangzhou, and then changed the name of a small town in the southern border of Yunnan to Lin'an. Probably to use the wild energy of Yunnan to suppress the dragon veins of the Southern Song Dynasty, so that it will never be turned over. Later, the name of "Lin'an" in Yunnan came to the head of Jianshui after several twists and turns.

In recent years, real estate companies with deep pockets have aggressively entered China's county areas, and Jianshui County is naturally included. The word "Lin'an" has been repeatedly emphasized, posted on various huge commercial posters, and used the noble sense of the name of the ancient capital to render the style of its real estate. The tourism sector has also seized on this selling point and promoted it everywhere. Even the conscription advertisements clearly read "Lin'an Good Man".

But just like the signboards of those hotels say, Lin'an can "dream" and Lin'an can also "remember", but the flowers and springs are gone. After all, there is no such prosperity as Lin'an. Like almost all county-level cities in China, it has aged badly.

In the most prosperous ancient city area in Jianshui, it is also the center of the county and the place with the most tourists, but there are very few young faces, and even fewer local young people. In my hometown, a county in the south of the Yangtze River, civil servants, public institutions and teachers are at the top of the "county food chain", and other occupations seem to be not considered promising. Jianshui probably can’t accommodate young people’s desire for success. Those who can’t get into the system will have to go out to earn a living.

Most of the people left are middle-aged and elderly, playing cards. On both sides of the city gate archway, under the shade of trees, in the pavilion, in the small shops in the alley, wherever the shade can be shaded, you can see the card table. Densely crowded, most of them were men, wearing white vests and fat shorts, lifting up the clothes on their stomachs to cool off, or simply taking off their shirts to meet the brothers frankly.

The types of games on the poker table include poker, mahjong or various chess, and even unpopular games such as "Nine Chess". Jiubang is a Western type of chess. The American continent in "Assassin's Creed 3" is full of this kind of game. I don't know how it became popular in Yunnan. Not everyone will "end" in person, and there are many people watching. "Watching" has its own fun different from "playing". The uncle who is standing by the side shaking the palm and pointing, and you who posted the barrage during the live broadcast. I am not much different, but there is more touch between people.

Women who play chess and cards less often sit under trees to enjoy the shade. Few of them take out their smartphones, older people probably don't, and middle-aged people aren't used to letting their phones intervene in their lives. From time to time, they would say a few words to the people next to them, and after that, they would stare blankly at the market, wondering what they were thinking. In the afternoon of 30℃, in the shade of high trees and intermittent voices, it is quiet and self-contained.

Whether it's playing cards or chatting, these old people seem to live in an independent flow of time. They don’t measure the time like people in the city. They clock in at nine o’clock and have a meeting at eleven o’clock. They want to save money for the house in their hometown in five years, and plan to be awarded the title of professor in ten years. They don't think about things like this. "The poker conference will end on time at five o'clock" and "I will win the poker championship within five years." I'm afraid there is no such concept in their minds. The reason why the poker game is over is that most people don't want to play any more today, or they are hungry and it's time to eat, so let's break up and come back tomorrow. It's an extremely inefficient way of life, but there's nowhere in their lives they need to walk fast.

The commercialization of the ancient city has been completed rapidly in the past few years, while the old people adhere to the inherent way of life.

Underfoot is a deliberately antiqued bluestone road, with long groups of shops lined on both sides. The shop was renovated from the original old house. In the brick and wooden buildings after the unified style, various urban symbols are operated, such as McDonald's, KFC, Michelle Ice City, Yihetang, Zhengxin Chicken Chop, Mingchuang Youpin... This is due to the fact that Jianshui is a tourist city. Although it is not as famous as Lijiang, Dali, it is also a little famous, so it can support this batch of shops. In many other counties, "Ken McKee" and other off-brand fried chicken restaurants have not been completely replaced, and Wallace is already the top match of Western-style fast food.

There is a "gardener's bookstore" in the ancient city. Ten years ago, lola often came here to buy teaching materials. Now, it has caught up with the tide of consumerism and has become a "muji-like" grocery store. The bookstore has been exquisitely decorated, with the slogan "lifestyle" written on the signboard, and the store is lit with warm and dim lights. It sells mobile phone cases, small ornaments, jewelry, and exercise books with fashionable patterns, but the bookshelves are not seen. But things are still cheap, a rubber band only cost a dollar. There is also a fried chicken shop at the entrance of Lincheng. Under the glass counter, there is advertising paper with a bright red background. It reads "Fried chicken legs, buy a pound for half a pound" in head-sized words. I calculated it, and it is even better than buying chicken legs. It's cheaper to fry it yourself. Jianshui's prices are enviably low.

After walking out of the ancient city, we entered an alley next to Jianshui High School, and scrambled rice noodles in a small shop called "Gourmet Beauty". There are six square tables, and a TV is hung on the wall. The TV shows the "Health and Medicine Program" of the local station. While listening, the boss clenched the folded ears, which were still stained with red mud from the ground. The rice noodles also have a "earth" flavor, a clear soup base with a little monosodium glutamate, a few slices of unmarinated white meat, and a few slices of green vegetables floating on the soup, so simple that I cook it myself at home.

We also bought a cup of milk tea in the alley, and watched the boss pour fresh milk into it. It only cost six yuan. The taste reminded me of the high-end milk tea I drank more than ten years ago. It is not uncommon now, but in that era when milk tea was brewed with seasoning powder and essence, it was very difficult to drink real milk.

I thought to myself, it would be great if milk tea could stay at this "high-end". Now I really don't like going to milk tea shops. The general milk tea menu in the poetry recitation competition, and the names of the ingredients overloaded with adjectives always make me stay in front of the milk tea shop for a long time, and I can't imagine that "Mixing each other with foam tea" is a murmur-like taste. What a trick. The saliva was frothy again, and it was a little disgusting to think about.

I can hardly imagine how an old lady who has lived locally for decades wants to buy a cup of milk tea for her grandson, what would she think in the face of the ghostly name of the milk tea?

Fortunately, the old people have long been positioned as "non-target customers" by the merchants, and the old people have long been thrown out of modernization - this is a good era for young people. This reminds me of one year when I went back to my hometown, my grandmother complained to me with a bitter face, saying that she could not pay the electricity bill, because now it only accepts mobile phone electronic payment. And she can't use a smartphone.

But fortunately, in the corner of the good times, at least there are still six yuan for pearl milk tea, chicken legs for half a catty, and rubber bands for one yuan. Local people have to maintain the original life. Incomplete modernization only exists in the prosperity of Lin'an in the old dream. This probably constitutes the misfortune and unwillingness of a small border town, but to a certain extent, it is also its greatest luck.

Before leaving Jianshui, I stood on the empty train station square, staring again at the clouds in the sky. The sky was high, but the clouds were so low that they seemed to fall at any moment, and the soft canopy wrapped around the roof of the station. With sweat on my body, I suddenly remembered the cloudless hot summer days in my hometown, the shade of trees, the bench, and the swaying fan in my grandmother's hand. I was walking on the streets of a small town, drunk by the blazing sun, and drunk in the warm wind.