Jingxiang Travel Notes 018 | "Northeast Journey" Chapter 18: After watching the roe deer looking for fungus, after talking about clothes and drinking milk tea

Time: June 5, 2013

Location: Zhalantun, Inner Mongolia

Travel Notes "Northeast Journey" Chapter 18

After watching the roe deer looking for fungus, after chatting about clothes and drinking milk tea

After leaving Mr. Li’s home, Master Li told me: “Nanmu is also a tourist area.”

"Rafting?" I saw an advertisement on the way here.

"Yes, do you want to go rafting?" Master Li asked for my opinion.

I didn't want to take up too much of their time, but I was chasing after the fungus: "I don't need this. Can you let me see the fungus section?"

Mr. Li made several calls and got basically the same answer: Because the fungus segment requires a large amount of wood, the cost is too high, and the government does not support this wood-wasting industry, so they don't do it.

We had no choice but to go back because it was time for lunch. We ordered two dishes with local characteristics, one is willow sprouts and the other is bracken.

The food that was served surprised me. I know that the dishes in Northeast China are large, but I have never seen such a large portion. As a result, three people ate two dishes and still had half left.

After tasting the wild vegetables, I still had one thing on my mind: What are fungus segments? I still don't know it yet. The more I don't know, the more I want to know: "Master Li, is there any way to see fungus segments?"

Master Li thought for a moment and then led us to another village and stopped in front of a large courtyard. The owner of the courtyard was a man in his forties, and he invited us in very politely.

As soon as I sat down, I was attracted by a knife stand: "Is this an antler?" I asked because I didn't think it looked like an antler.

The owner replied: "This is Roe Deer Corner."

When I was a child, I often saw descriptions of roe deer in novels. I knew it was very similar to a deer, but I had never seen it before.

The owner took us to the backyard. This is a roe deer breeding farm. The place is not very big, but there are several pens, most of which are used to raise roe deer, and two pens are used to raise wild boars.

The backyard is very cool because there are many trees planted. The spacing of these trees is very reasonable, which neither blocks the branches nor allows too much sunlight to penetrate. The roe deer roaming freely under the shade of the trees is not as afraid of people as the sheep I saw. It even obediently allowed Teacher Bai to touch its horns.

The antlers of some roe deer have been sawed off, and there is a layer of white stuff on the wound. You can imagine what the antlers look like after they are sawed off.

Roe deer looks like a deer but is not a deer, and its horns certainly cannot be made into antler. So I asked the owner here: "What is the value of Roe Deer Cape?"

The master said: "It can be used as a knife rest."

"Is the knife holder worth more than the deer antler?" I asked.

"Don't underestimate this knife holder, this is the only one that makes money." The owner replied.

Indeed, when humans no longer worry about food and clothing, the things they use become more valuable than the things they eat.

Through communication, I found out that his surname was Sun. Once they became familiar with each other, they talked more. As they talked, Mr. Sun actually had a casual acquaintance with Mr. Bai’s husband, Mr. Wang. I struck while the iron was hot: "Mr. Sun, does anyone know who has fungus segments?"

Mr. Sun stood up immediately: "Follow me." See, having Teacher Wang's relationship is different. You know, Teacher Bai's husband is a veterinarian teacher.

The car followed Mr. Sun's guidance and drove into a trail into the mountains. When the car stopped, I saw sections of wood neatly arranged in the mountains. Mr. Sun pointed to the pieces of wood and said, "This is the fungus section."

After Mr. Sun’s explanation, I understood: There are two types of fungus currently cultivated. One is to use plastic bags filled with sawdust (that is, sawdust produced by sawing) and put bacteria in it for cultivation. This is what we call artificial Cultivated fungus. The other method is to cut specific wood into several sections, punch holes in each section of wood, and then put bacteria in the holes. Black fungus will grow within a few hours after it rains. This kind of wood segment used for cultivating fungus is called "fungus segment".

In comparison, the cultivation of fungus segments is much better than the cultivation of sawdust: first, the fungus segments must be cultivated in the wilderness, which is actually the same as the wild fungus, while the cultivation of plastic bag sawdust is carried out indoors; secondly, the fungus segments must be cultivated indoors. The wood selected is very particular. Broad-leaved trees with loose texture and deciduous leaves in winter are used as materials. Among them, tung wood is the best, followed by cypress, duck foot wood, toon tree, Chongyang wood, etc. In wood chip cultivation, various types of wood are mixed; thirdly, the cultivation cost of fungus segments is high and the consumption of wood is large, which is a project that limits development.

If you want to get wild fungus, you have to go into the deep mountains and old forests in the hinterland of the Daxingan Mountains to pick it, dry it, and then sell it to all parts of the country. The cost of this method is very high and the quantity is small. It is good to be able to buy fungus segments that grow in the same environment as wild fungus, because it is called "mountain fungus".

After walking out of the mountains, the trip in Nanmu was over. The car crossed the bridge from the west of the Yalu River and entered the downtown area. It was the rush hour after get off work, so there were more people coming and going, but the road was always open.

There were about a dozen female students among the pedestrians in front of them. They were hurriedly walking forward in Mongolian clothes. They were probably going to participate in some performance.

From the time we entered the Hulunbuir Prairie to now, in addition to the three old women we saw in Ewenki Banner wearing national costumes, we also saw a group of young people changing into Mongolian robes in front of Hailar Railway Station. The reason why these young people took off their Hanfu and put on Mongolian robes in that place must be to participate in some performance or ceremony. From this point of view, most ethnic minorities have become Chinese in their clothing, and their ethnic costumes are only used as props for performances rather than as necessities for daily life.

I'm guessing about the process of Chineseization: ethnic minorities have perfected clothing suitable for their work and convenient life in the environment in which they live, and formed a culture that has been passed down from generation to generation. When they change their living habits or move to their original way of life, After the environment, the original clothing that is no longer suitable for the current living environment will slowly be replaced by local clothing adapted to production and life. The Ewenki people, known as "people in the mountains and forests", no longer live in the mountains and forests. The Oroqen people have also come out of the mountains. The Mongolian people now live in cities with high-rise buildings, which are paved with cement and asphalt. Although the road is called "horse road", it is no longer allowed to be trampled by horses. The Mongolian robe, which was originally suitable for grassland grazing, seems cumbersome in daily life. Just the row of cloth buttons makes you time-consuming. However, due to traditional concepts, national characteristics must be passed on, so they become props and dresses. They only wear costumes with national characteristics during grand festivals.

Teacher Bai’s cell phone rang, and I was surprised to hear her fluent Mongolian. She is an authentic Mongolian and one of the few teachers who can teach in both Mongolian and Chinese. However, she is not like a Mongolian. Not only does she look like a southerner, but she also does not drink alcohol.

Teacher Bai doesn't drink, which is a good thing I can't ask for, because I don't drink either. During dinner, the section chiefs and directors from Teacher Bai’s school came over. Their enthusiasm made me unable to push for a drink. However, they said that the reason why Mongolians can drink it is because milk tea can relieve hangover.

On the way from Hailar to Ewenki Banner, the driver asked me if I had drunk fresh milk. I said: I can’t find the place. She said: It is sold at every alley entrance in the morning. You can take it home and cook it before drinking it - this was the evening of June 5, 2013.

For a tourist traveling abroad, you can only stay away from food that needs to be processed again, unless you bring a stove.

It was only when I arrived at Zhalantun that I drank milk tea for the first time. There are corresponding stoves in the restaurant. There is a stove under a pot of milk tea. You can boil the fresh milk and drink it.

The herdsmen only have dinner as a main meal a day, and drink milk tea for the rest of the morning and lunch. The supplementary food is fried rice, skin jelly and other snacks. This kind of skin jelly is made by boiling pig skin into glue, freezing it and then cutting it into strips. Their fried rice is not fried with rice, but a kind of yellow rice that looks like millet but is not millet. This kind of fried rice will swell when eaten with milk tea, so the herdsmen eat these in the morning and lunch, which look like snacks but are not. Feel hungry.

The best way to eat mutton is probably hotpot. Their sauces are hot pot sauce, southern milk, sesame oil, etc., which are similar to ours. The difference is that the mutton here comes from the most famous mutton producing area - New Barhu Right Banner.

During the dinner, they chatted about my itinerary. According to the scheduled plan, I will go to the Molidawa Daur Autonomous Banner tomorrow. This is the last of the three autonomous banners.

"Actually, the grasslands of Ewenki Banner are also very beautiful." Teacher Bai showed me many photos.

If you don’t see it, it will make me regretful: I only know about the Ewenk Museum, but I didn’t expect to go for a walk on the grassland. Under the blue sky and white clouds, a row of yurts are neatly arranged on the vast grassland. The colorful ribbons on the ovoos are fluttering in the wind. What a beautiful grassland!

Perhaps only older people have seen the movie "People on the Grassland". This film adapted by Northeast Film Studio in 1953 based on Malaqinfu's novel "People on the Horqin Grassland" has three very beautiful interludes, among which "Aobao Meeting" can be said to be a household name, known to everyone of all ages. Although Malaqinfu's novel is written about the Horqin Grassland where I will go next, the filming location for the Obo meeting was on the Bayan Hushuo Grassland of the Ewenki Autonomous Banner in the Hulunbuir Grassland. In other words, I At that time, we had already arrived next to Aobao! Do you think you can't regret it?

However, the inconspicuous little Aobao was no longer there, replaced by a more imposing big Aobao.

Here it is necessary to talk about what Aobao is. On the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, you can often see a pile of stones on some mountaintops or hills. It is usually round or dome-shaped, with some flag poles or branches stuck on it, and colorful hangings on these poles. Article, this is the "Aobao" of Inner Mongolia grassland. "Aobao" is Mongolian, meaning "heap", or a pile of wood, stone and earth. These obos were originally used by people on the grassland as road signs to identify directions. Because the grassland is so vast, you have to pile up a pile of earth and rocks at a certain distance, and then you can tell others: "When you see the obos, go east." Later it became It became a place of worship.

However, it is difficult to see a large flock of sheep like the one in the movie. Now they are herded one by one, and the scale is definitely not as large as the original people's commune.

Since you missed it, let’s go to Mo Qi tomorrow to see it.

If you want to know what happened next, please read Chapter 19: He is excellent when it comes to geography, and he is worthy of being an expert when it comes to human relations.