Dujiangyan is an irrigation system that is over two thousand years old and is still working. You can read its history here.
Having a geeky interest in early engineering and applied science, I’ve been wanting to visit ever since hearing about it. It is about 32 kuai round trip to Dujiangyan from the Chadianzi bus station. This is my first trip outside the city since arriving.
South bridge just outside the entrance, over the Bao Ping Kou stream which is about 20 m wide. The gate is almost very elaborately, almost kitschily, decorated. I loved the little street past it though, which was flanked with noodle shops and tea vendors and almost completely shaded with a canopy of low trees. We had a beef version of hui guo rou (the quintessential Sichuan dish) and some really good lamb skewers at a Muslim restaurant there.
The gardens at the entrance gorgeous, with fish ponds. The fish are huge – here they are fighting for food. On the opposite side of the pond there was one plant hanging into the water and the fish were tugging at the leaves and eating them. We saw turtles swimming in the water too, making it look like fun to be turtles.
Li Bing, the builder, is so revered that there is a temple to him. Inside the temple is a hall with dozens of photos of distinguished visitors – M*o, Zhou Enl*i, former president Carter, the King of Sweden, Deng Xi*oping. The photos date back to the fifties and made us feel pretty important.
We crossed the rope bridge leading to the weir which is the main part of the irrigation system. Crossing the rope bridge was a bit scary since the Min river is large and fast, nothing like the lazy streams that wind through Chengdu. Other people also found it fun to rock the bridge as they crossed.
We climbed past several temples on our way up to the Qinyan tower.
From the tower we had a great view of the whole irrigation system and the mountain side:
We took the Songmao Ancient Road to the next exit of the park. There were good views of Dujiangjan from here as well. All along the path were those speakers that look like rocks with Chinese stringed instrument music playing.
The last few steps to the exit:
No comments:
Post a Comment