Travel Notes to the Southeast | Meizhou: I am a Hakka, returning to my ancestral homeland I have never met before

For more than a thousand years, the Hakka people have always been rooted in the north and lived in the south. They have never had their own role. In short, the Hakka people have always lived in a trap where they are neither host nor guest, emphasizing "I". It becomes a highlight of existence, and the emphasis on "I" begins to have the meaning of survival. Suddenly I felt that the huge "I" character in the museum was not actually carved on the wall, but had been engraved in the hearts and bones of the Hakka people for thousands of years.

1.

We contacted the chartered driver to Meizhou through the hotel front desk in Chaozhou. After a simple phone call, I sent him text messages about several places I wanted to visit in Meizhou - Renjing Lu, Hakka Museum, Nankou Overseas Chinese Village, and Songkou Town. He estimated the kilometers and quoted a charter price of 900 yuan. I paid back the price, and the deal ended up being 800 yuan. I felt from the phone that the driver was very polite.

The driver picked us up at the hotel lobby on time at 8 o'clock in the morning. He was wearing white pants, a light-colored shirt, and a beige jacket. He looked younger than fifty. The car is also clean and smell-free.

Along the way, I don’t know whether it was professional enthusiasm or just nature, but the driver kept laughing and talking all the way.

At the beginning, JF and I were very interested and hoped to hear various stories and news about Chaozhou.

He told us that he was an old Chaozhou native and his home was near Paifang Street. It was just under a big tree wherever we walked from the hotel we were staying in. He told us that Chaozhou people drink tea. Although every house on the roadside has a tea tray, and each person puts three cups of tea, they are also divided into three categories: upper, middle and lower. Kungfu tea requires effort, and this effort is time. Time is not just about how long you take to drink slowly, but also about drinking at the right time. "Like us, we generally don't drink right after dinner. Some people drink all day long, and the more they drink, the worse their health becomes." He also quoted the three types of drinks in "A Dream of Red Mansions" in his own way. Tea man: drink donkey, drink horse, quench thirst, taste.

Speaking of tea, he planted an "advertisement" by the way - saying that he went to tea mountains a lot and knew which teas were good, and many friends came to him to get tea. Talking about the local economy of Chaozhou, he said: "Chaozhou, like Meizhou, is a fifth-tier city. The demographic dividend period has passed and it has become an elderly city. Now most young people have gone out. What is there in Chaozhou? Daily ceramics, such as toilets, stainless steel, and wood carvings." He said that his daughter works in Guangzhou. The child of one of his friends also went to Guangzhou, but the friend couldn't stand it after staying with the child for a few days and decided to return to Chaozhou. There are too many cars and too many people in big cities, but the elderly still like Chaozhou... He kept saying with a smile. JF lamented that he was so optimistic by nature, no wonder he looked less than fifty years old.

2.

The highway we took took us to the Meizhou border in about two and a half hours. I took out my mobile phone to record the scene outside the window just after entering Meizhou territory. Although there are only mountains outside, because this is my ancestral home, I wanted to record some videos and send them to my father.

They are all mountains. There are many mountains all the way.

Viewed from the highway, there are also many mountains.

Probably, such a place is the Peach Blossom Spring of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. This is the only place where people can temporarily escape the chaos of war and avoid being hunted.

I checked the water patterns on the map. Although there are many mountains, the Meijiang River serves as the main waterway through Meizhou and the surrounding Hakka settlements. The upper reaches are connected with the waters in Jiangxi, and the lower reaches enter the Chaoshan estuary via the Han River.

Perhaps, the Hakkas, or in other words, the people of the Central Plains who were fleeing the war, and the officials who were from the royal family who were fleeing the pursuit of those in power, passed through hidden waterways and entered peach blossom gardens with only "small openings in the mountains" that had no land routes.

HoweverAs the population grows, land resources become scarce, and Peach Blossom Spring is no longer so respectful of the elderly, caring for the young, and good-neighborly.

In order to ease the tense situation, their young men need to leave again and follow the waterway that their ancestors came from. As a result, most people returned to the cities in the Central Plains again, and some people went down the river to the seaport where trade was bustling. When they make a living in the seaport, they are naturally exposed to a lot of information from overseas, as well as channels to go overseas. Moreover, the "profit" of working overseas is greater, so another group of people find it difficult to make a living in the seaport. people, and a few people with greater ambitions, traveled across the sea.

My grandfather was born in 1919, the eldest son, and came from a family of small local warlords (or landlords with local autonomy). But when he was 12 years old, my great-grandfather passed away and all his belongings were robbed by relatives and enemies. Later, my grandfather went to Qinzhou to work on the recommendation of relatives. Later he became the shopkeeper. Because he has a burly figure that is rare among southerners (more than 1.8 meters tall), he likes to wear white suits, civilized sticks, and hats. He is suave and good at communication. He was born in a local businessman (it is said that my great-grandfather owned a street of property). The favor of a daughter. That's my grandma. It is said that despite the objections of my maternal great-grandfather, I wanted to marry my grandfather. The life she had when she married my grandfather was not an easy one. Her father had taken care of her for the past ten years, but the war, social changes, and her husband's old habits were difficult to change. Life was difficult... When she left, the eldest son was fifteen or sixteen years old. , my father was five years old, and my little aunt was just born. My grandfather spent most of his time abandoning his family and living abroad, and only lived with us in his later years. When he was in his eighties, during one of the few conversations he and I had, he mentioned my grandma and said it was a pity that there was no photo of her left. When he spoke, there was a bit of silence, as if he was remembering the past that Yi Lu didn't want to face in his heart.

I heard from my aunt that before liberation, my grandfather had thought about going abroad and going to the United States. It's a pity that I didn't get to hear more information because my aunt didn't know much about it. As my grandfather's youngest sister, my aunt was still very young at that time. Therefore, I don’t know whether my grandfather wanted to go abroad to make a living or because he longed for a distant place. But based on my grandfather’s financial situation at the time and our family’s genes, it was probably the latter.

3．

We entered Meizhou in two and a half hours, but the driver had not been to Meizhou for a long time and was unfamiliar with the roads. The navigation on his mobile phone was confusing. He went round and round and finally found our first destination around 11 o'clock. Jinglu.

Renjing Lu is the former residence of Huang Zunxian. To be precise, this is a complex of buildings consisting of the third "courtyard" of Renjinglu, Enyuandi and Ronglu, unified as the Huang Zunxian Memorial Hall.

Huang Zunxian (1848 year4 month27-19053 month28 Day), was born in Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong Province (now Xiashijiao, East District, Meixian County, Meizhou City), with the courtesy name Gongdu and the nickname Renjinglu Zhuzhu. He was born in Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong Province. Reading at the age of four and poetry at the age of ten. 1876 The mid-year election. A poet, diplomat, politician and educator in the late Qing Dynasty.

Renjing Lu is very small, more like a literati's back garden. It was originally Huang Zunxian's study. Since he participated in the Reform Movement of 1898 and was dismissed from office and returned to his hometown, he has lived in Renjing Lu most of the time, and many poems were completed here. Thanks to the poem, Renjing Lu is more famous than the two older former residences adjacent to it.

Some of Huang Zunxian's poetry collections are displayed in Renjing Lu. Also told some of his deeds. Before and after the Reform Movement of 1898, a reform movement took place in Chinese poetry, which was called the Poetry Revolution. The revolution in the poetry world impacted the archaism and formalism tendencies that had long dominated the poetry world. It required writers to strive to reflect the new era and new ideas. The language of some new-style poems became popular and was not bound by the old-style rhyme. All these had an impact at that time. Liberating the expressive role of poetry. Huang Zunxian is the leader of the "poetry revolution" and a generation of poets in Jiaying Prefecture. He once compiled nine Hakka folk songs and included them in "Renjing Lu Shicao", which greatly improved the social status of Hakka folk songs. Liang Qichao said: "Huang Gongdu is the modern poet who can forge new ideas into old styles."

"Every inch of the mountains and rivers is worth a coin, who can bear the separation? Dujuan bows again with tears of worry for the sky, Jingwei has an endless desire to fill the sea." - "Presented to Liang Ren's parents and peers". This poem was written by Huang Zunxian in 1896 Year (Guangxu twenty two Huang Zunxian was deeply saddened by the British occupation of Hong Kong ( 1842 ）、Japanese Occupied Taiwan ( 1895 ), in which he called on the people to worry about the country like the cuckoo and to work hard like the Jingwei to stop the division of the country.

As a patriotic poet, Huang Zunxian has an innocent heart. But as an official, he was quite conservative politically. Huang Zunxian served as the Consul General of the Qing government in San Francisco, the United States from 1882 (the eighth year of Guangxu) to 1885. He witnessed with his own eyes the United States in 1884 The presidential election did not inspire him to innovate his thinking, but instead made him more conservative. Huang Zunxian's poem "Chronicle" recorded the circumstances and feelings of the US presidential election, and concluded that "a republican system of government must never be implemented in our country today." Similarly, in the poetry revolution, Liang Qichao, Huang Zunxian and others emphasized maintaining the old style, making this poetry revolution just new wine in old bottles. Although there was progress in the reform of Chinese classical poetry, it had little effect.

Adjacent to Renjing Lu are Enyuandi and Rongludi, both of which are typical Hakka traditional enclosed houses. The interlocking layout of large courtyards, small courtyards, large rooms, and small rooms is like walking through a maze. Enyuandi was originally built by Huang Zunxian's uncle. Rongludi was built by Huang Zunxian when he returned to his hometown after finishing his post as Japanese counselor. It is said that the house where Huang Zunxian was born is the Deshan Hall behind this former residence, where he grew up, got married, and left for Beijing to take the exam. However, things have changed, the house has been greatly damaged, the property rights have been changed long ago, and local residents are still living there.

4.

After visiting Huang Zunxian’s former residence, it was already 12 noon. But the restaurant we planned to go to was on the other side of the Meijiang River, and the Hakka Museum, our second destination, was right next to the Huang Zunxian Memorial Hall.

In fact, Huang Zunxian Memorial Hall and Hakka Museum are both Hakka parks. The entire Hakka Park is very large, covering an area of ​​170 acres. It has 6 independent exhibition halls, as well as some courtyards and gardens. We had limited time, so after seeing the famous Huang Zunxian Memorial Hall, we went straight to the Chinese Hakka Museum building.

Meizhou City is the place where the Hakka ethnic group was finally formed, settled and multiplied in history. It is also the ancestral home and spiritual home of Hakka overseas Chinese all over the world. 1994 Year 12 moon 6 to 8 At the 12th World Hakka Convention held at Baihuazhou Theater in Meizhou City on the 15th, Meizhou was honored as the "Hakka Capital of the World". 2005 Year 3 moon 28 On that day, the foundation stone of China Hakka Museum was laid. 2007 Year 10 In June, the Meizhou Hakka Museum was established with the approval of the Meizhou Municipal Government. 2008 Year 4 moon 8 It was completed and opened to the public on Sunday. 2008 Year 6 The Guangdong Hakka Museum was established with the approval of the Guangdong Provincial Government. 2009 Year 2 The State Council approved the name of the China Hakka Museum. Some relevant information says that the China Hakka Museum is the only museum in China that collects, studies, displays and inherits Hakka culture.

Regarding the Hakka people, there is a text that explains it this way:

"In the history of China, there have been many large-scale population migrations. Due to wars and famines, large numbers of Han people in the Central Plains left their homes and traveled long distances, either eastward or southward, thus forming a kind of society that is common in Chinese history. However, it is only the Hakkas who have formed a special ethnic group due to migration and have a special language (dialect), customs and traditions that are different from other ethnic groups. Therefore, in a sense, they have continued to move south. The migration and formation of an ethnic group like the Hakka has become a special cultural event in Chinese history.”

When I walked into the gate of Hakka Park, I saw a well. On the edge of the well were four gilded characters "Drinking water and remembering its source". At that time, I thought: Does this "origin" refer to the ancestral home in the far north or the southern country in front of me? Or do you miss your unforgettable ancestral homeland or feel grateful for the southern land where you were born and raised?

After entering the building gate of the China Hakka Museum, on the wall facing me, there is a huge word "任 Cliff" (meaning "I", "we"). As a Hakka, I read it in Hakka dialect When I heard this word, I suddenly felt so friendly. Why should the word "I" be placed in the center of the entrance to the museum? And where is such a huge "I" engraved here?

After visiting the main exhibition hall, I seemed to have found the reason why the museum enlarged and engraved this "I" in the center.

In the main exhibition hall, the graphic and textual information display says:

There have been five or six large-scale population migrations in Chinese history. In the 1930s, researchers represented by Hakka ethnologist Luo Xianglin believed that the Hakka ethnic group has experienced five major migrations since the Jin Dynasty. Migration on a large scale, and multiplied and developed during these five migrations. The first three of them were crucial to the formation of the Hakka ethnic lineage. The first time was during the Jin Dynasty, which started with the Yongjia Rebellion. A large number of Central Plains people moved southward to the Yangtze River Basin; the second time started in the Tang Dynasty, when a small number of northerners moved from the Yangtze River Basin to the relatively peaceful Fujian and Guangdong due to the Anshi Rebellion. The border between Jiangxi and Jiangxi; the third time during the Song Dynasty, the northern ethnic groups invaded, and another group of Han people moved to the Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong areas, and gradually blended with a larger number of She, Yao and other ethnic minorities, and finally took shape in the late Song Dynasty and developed into the Hakka ethnic group The fourth time was in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Due to the ravages of the Manchu rulers and the occurrence of plague, the population of southern Jiangxi dropped sharply. In addition, the population of western Fujian and eastern Guangdong expanded. The Qing government ordered coastal residents to squeeze inland, and some coastal Hakka people moved back. In southern Jiangxi, another part moved from eastern Guangdong to Sichuan; for the fifth time, from the middle and late Qing Dynasty to modern times, many Hakkas moved from eastern Guangdong and western Fujian to the coast and emigrated in large numbers overseas.

It is hard to imagine that over the course of several centuries, groups after groups of people left the place where they were born and raised, and the places they are familiar with, dragging their children with them, supporting the old and the young, step by step, measuring thousands of miles with their feet. journey.

Where is the front? What's ahead? Unknowns and questions unfold one by one in sweat and blood. There is no answer, and no one gives them the answer. I think when they took the first step away from home, they left life or death to fate and the road.

Everyone who comes is a guest, but "customers" are not always welcome. When the population surges and survival resources become tight, conflicts and even fights are inevitable. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in the mixed-ethnic areas of the south, there were many violent conflicts of varying sizes between the first residents and the later residents, which were known in history as the "conflicts between natives and foreigners." The highest peak was the armed fighting between natives and foreigners that took place in Guangdong in the late Qing Dynasty. .

Conflicts between natives and Hakkas have occurred in many places, including many places where Hakkas live, such as Taiwan, Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, and Hunan. The conflict between natives and guests also spanned a long period of time, from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, but most of the conflicts between natives and guests occurred in the late Qing Dynasty (the 1840s-the end of the 19th century).

In the past, they left their hometowns and were displaced. Now they still drink water and think about their origins. For more than a thousand years, the Hakkas have always been rooted in the north and lived in the south. They have never had their own role. In short, Hakkas have always been in the same place. To survive in the gap between subject and object, emphasizing "I" becomes a highlight of existence, and emphasizing "I" begins to have the meaning of survival. Suddenly I felt that the huge "I" character in the museum was not actually carved on the wall, but had been engraved in the hearts and bones of the Hakka people for thousands of years.

Standing in front of the video wall about Hakka in the main exhibition hall, I felt a little teary-eyed as I repeatedly listened to the video of animated children reciting poems in Hakka.

After so many years, the place where the ancestors settled in Meizhou is nowhere to be found. The descendants of the same clan a few generations ago are scattered in various places, but the local accent has not changed.

I still remember when we were young, my brother and I spoke Hakka to my father’s side of the tribe. But because my mother is a local, she speaks vernacular (a dialect of the Cantonese family), so we would use the vernacular when talking to her, even My brother and I also speak the local dialect. And when those uncles, uncles, and uncles came to visit me and heard my brother and I communicating in local dialect, they would ask sternly: "Whose child are you from?! Why don't you speak in your own words?!" Unknowingly, I The communication with my brother returned to the orthodoxy of the Hakka people. But when I was a kid, I felt that speaking Hakka was "very rustic". Even at school, I was embarrassed to talk to my dad on the phone in front of my classmates. After I went to college, as I learned about the wide distribution of the Hakka ethnic group, I also went to some places and came into contact with some Hakka people in other places. I was able to rely on the similarities in language, or the common memories of customs, culture, and food. And recognize each other. At this time, I gradually felt amazing that as a member of the Hakka people, I had some cultural memories of the Hakka people.

Perhaps, coming to Meizhou is not just to pursue the ancestral land. I also want to find a sense of identity as a Hakka.

To be honest, the China Hakka Museum made me a little disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high. This museum is not highly academic, with no professional display on the formation of Hakka culture, and no authoritative introduction to the study of Hakka culture. On the contrary, the museum is too entertaining, with too many crude models and too many vulgar objects. Tourist goods, as well as some decorations that I think are more like those of the Yunnan-Guizhou ethnic minority than the Hakka people. In addition, the technological content of the museum is not high, and the exhibition layout needs to be improved. The "Hakkas" themed exhibition that is permanently displayed in the museum has five parts: "Where did the Hakkas come from", "Hakka customs", "Landmark houses", "Humanities Show Area" and "Hakkas take off". Only the first part can be seen. sex. The museum also has display panels that tell how many generals, cultural figures, and celebrities are "Hakkas from Meizhou." This is puzzling. Since it is named the "Chinese Hakka Museum", why not go beyond the small area of ​​"Meizhou" and look at the entire "Hakka" world? It is the Hakka people's tradition of enduring hardship and standing hard, advocating for literature and martial arts that has cultivated generations of Hakka civil and military talents. In fact, this is a tradition in the Hakka world, including Meizhou. The hot land of southern China can accommodate the Hakkas, and Meizhou should accommodate the entire Hakka world. This is the courage and magnanimity that the "Hakka Capital of the World" should have, and this is the true reality of the "Hakka Capital of the World" Well deserved.

5.

After leaving the Hakka Museum, we headed straight to Wanqiulou for dinner. Xiaoxichun near Renjinglu is an urban village with many old Hakka houses and ponds in front of them. It is said that many of Meizhou’s literati and scholars in the past came from private schools in this area. Old Meizhou people like to call this place "Pan Gui Fang".

Then before crossing the Meijiang Bridge, pass through several arcade streets near the Meijiang District Government. It feels like old Meizhou has remained the same for decades.

Crossing the Meijiang Bridge and running towards Meixian, you will find yourself in the same small and medium-sized city street scene across the country. There are various discount clothing stores, promotional electrical appliance stores, mobile phone and telecommunications stores, dessert and ice drink shops on the roadside... Wanqiu Tower is right there. The edge of this bustling new city suddenly became quiet, and the surrounding area was replaced by residential buildings with external corridors from 20 to 30 years ago. Wanqiu Building is among the uneven residential buildings. It has a single house and a single courtyard. The interior is built in the shape of a Hakka enclosed house, but the materials are reinforced concrete. I ordered several Hakka home-style dishes such as Hakka Yong Tau Fu and water spinach, and they tasted good.

After dinner, it was half past two, and we still had two far away destinations to go.

Nankou Town Qiao Village is not far from where we eat, and it takes more than 20 minutes to get there. It is not as poetic as described in "Lonely Planet -Guangdong". It is just a relatively clean countryside with many Hakka houses. JFI was even disappointed because the enclosed houses seemed to be small and not as spectacular as many earth building promotional videos. JF and I walked along the rural cement road. There were several small houses of different sizes on the roadside, all of which were occupied by people. Looking through the iron gate, we could see that the garden inside was quite beautiful, quiet and clean. There are pots of flowers and plants placed in the patio, and the edges of the flower pond are lined with beautiful mosaic tiles. Our driver didn't know which road we were taking, so he waved to us from a distance across the farmland, called me and told me there was a mansion here that we could visit.

We crossed the ridge path and came to the place where the driver waved to us. Then we passed through a small orchard and stepped onto an open ground.

Oops! What a big facade! Just like the three doors of the palace!

"Nanhua Youlu" ? It sounds like this is the owner's second home.

There was a small group of visitors standing on the ground at the main entrance. They had just come out and were drinking water, smoking cigarettes and joking on the ground. We walked towards the middle gate, and among the small group of people, an old gentleman extended his palm to us and said the ticket was five yuan.

"Huh? Are there any admission fees? Both Renjing Lu and Hakka Museum are free of charge."

The old gentleman remained calm and just smiled.

"Where can I buy tickets?"

The old gentleman pointed at himself.

"Huh? You?" It turns out that this house belongs to the family of this old man named Pan. It is a private property open to visitors.

The house is very big, just like the Huang Zunxian Memorial Hall, with large and small halls connected one after another, large and small courtyards in an orderly manner, and many beautiful paintings can be seen on the walls. There is also a two-story building with beautiful wood carvings behind the house. On both sides of the three-column longitudinal building complex, separated by a driveway that can be driven by cars, there are also clusters of houses, and these houses are still inhabited by people. Different from the dank old atmosphere exuded by the big house in the middle, although the houses outside are also former enclosed houses, they seem to have a modern interior. From the doors and windows, we can see that there are tiled floors, LCD TVs, and The laughter of children.

In several of the rooms, there is a photography exhibition about Meizhou enclosed houses. Under all the photos, the builders of the enclosed houses are marked—almost all of them are overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia. Like many people who go abroad to work now, people who went abroad at the beginning of the last century or earlier always had to send money home and build a beautiful house when they made money. As for this house, they might not be able to live in it for more than a few months in their lifetime. But unlike many people who have immigrated their whole families now, most of those who went abroad to make a living at that time, their parents, wives, children and clans still stayed in their hometowns, including myself. In their later years, they also wanted to return to their hometowns and return to their roots.

After leaving the gate, I saw Mr. Pan sitting on the porch at the end of the courtyard wall, like many idle old people in southern towns, just sitting and watching the time go by.

I walked over and took a picture of him sitting there. Then I asked him which generation he was from, and he said seventeenth generation. I asked again why so many rooms in the middle were empty when people lived on both sides. He said that there is an ancestral hall in the middle, and one cannot live in the ancestral hall. I said, "There are so many red lanterns hanging here!" He laughed and said, "My granddaughter just got married, right during the Chinese New Year!"

6.

Saying goodbye to Mr. Pan, we returned to the parking lot at the entrance of the village. When the car drove on the highway for a short distance, I saw a tofu stall on the side of the road. There was no one around, as if they were spreading tofu to dry.

"Hakka tofu!" I asked the driver to stop, lower the window, and take pictures. But a woman ran over from a building more than ten meters away from the road, shouting sternly: "You can't take pictures! How many do you want?"

She stood by the tofu stall: "How many do you want?" She said forcefully.

"How much does one cost?" the driver asked with a smile.

"One piece at a time."

"...Two." The driver thought for a moment. In fact, he didn't really want to buy it, but he seemed to have to.

"Two?" The woman's voice rose, dissatisfied with this number. At the same time, he neatly wrapped two pieces of tofu and handed them through the car window.

The driver picked out two pieces of money from the handful of money he took out, but there was an extra piece of money inside. The driver also handed a candy in his pocket to the woman and said, "Here's a candy for you."

The woman counted the money and found that there was an extra piece of candy. She said, "One piece for each piece. Can you give me three pieces?" Still disdainfully, she threw the extra piece back, along with the candy. "I don't want this."

The driver smiled sadly.

JF and I were both stunned. The driver said: "Hakka women are very powerful. I have relatives in Yongding. When I went there last year, all their women said, why didn't you buy me a gift?"

That is, Hakka women never had their feet bound in those days of strict etiquette. They work alongside their husbands, or they can cultivate the fields independently even when their husbands are away.

JFI remembered the Hakka motto I saw in the Hakka Museum, one of which was: "Afraid of getting rich within oneself, and deceiving one's wife to remain poor all her life."

7.

Continue on your way. Look at the time, it's past four o'clock. The last destination, Songkou Town, is more than 70 kilometers away. It'll be six o'clock when we get there. Songkou and Chaozhou are in the opposite direction, so the way back will be longer... After thinking about it, the driver gave us an idea. If we don't go to Songkou, we still have time. If we don't take the expressway on the return trip, he can take us Go see some ancient villages along the way. In this way, you can visit a few more interesting places while returning to Chaozhou.

Unfortunately, we did not do enough research at that time. We just heard that Songkou was a thousand-year-old town, so we wanted to go there. But when we encountered time constraints, we gave up. Later, we learned from the information that - "Songkou has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. It is one of the ancient battlefields in history. There have been many battles of varying sizes in history, and battlefield relics are still left in the area. 1918 In 1912, Mr. Sun Yat-sen made a special trip to investigate Songkou. Songkou is located in the lower reaches of Meijiang River, the mother river of Hakka people. It is a small basin surrounded by mountains and rivers. The basin is hilly. The land on both sides of Meijiang River and Songyuan River is fertile and conducive to farming. The convenient water and land transportation is conducive to trade. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of Han people from various counties of Tingzhou Prefecture in Fujian moved to Songkou. The Han people who moved to Songkou settled down and multiplied and developed rapidly on this hot land. After the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Songkou’s population was overcrowded and they moved to other places to make a living. Because Songkou used to be an important commercial town and for various historical reasons, Songkou has the phenomenon of "people living together". Songkou Town has more than 10,000 residents, including 121 There are many ancient dwellings and cultural relics in various places. Songkou still retains street buildings from various periods. Under the Meidong Bridge, the street along the river is convenient for freight transportation and prosperous business. Most of the shops are two- or three-story sand-lime wooden buildings. The street was widened in the early years of the Republic of China and is a modified Ming and Qing architecture. On the north side of the street, there are still small streets and alleys and stone slabs, such as Shidexin Street, which is basically the original Ming and Qing streets. 30 In the early 1980s, overseas Chinese invested in the construction of their hometown and built a number of reinforced concrete shops in the area around Huochuan Wharf. Among them, near Huochuan Wharf, overseas Chinese Liao Fangzhou, Zhong Chengcai and others invested in building "arcade-style" European and Southeast Asian style shops, which are very distinctive and can be said to be representative of this period.

From this point of view, Songkou is the thoroughfare for Han people to enter Meizhou and for many Hakkas from Meizhou to go to the outside world. Because I couldn’t do my homework well, the mere distance of 70 kilometers made me give up an on-site visit to learn about “Chinese immigrants”.

The driver said that while returning to Chaozhou, he would “see a few interesting places along the way”, I don’t know if it was a lie or if we missed it. In short, we walked non-stop for four or five hours on the return trip without taking the expressway. What I saw outside the window was not only Shangougou, but also Shangougou, and I even passed by the foot of the mountain where the famous Phoenix Dancong is located. If this driver hadn't been so reassuring, we would have been worried about being sold into a ravine.

All the way back, the driver kept talking, either because of his nature or because he was afraid that we would be bored. He drove well and maintained a speed of thirty-four kilometers per hour on a deserted road. Occasionally there are some villages outside the window, and decent buildings have been built along both sides of the road.

The driver said: "These are hollow villages. I went out to make money and built a few floors when I came back, but there is no way to live in them. They are only lively here during the New Year. Young people stay at home and have nothing to do, and their heads are buzzing." Those on the roadside are okay. Some live in the mountains and there are no roads. They have to climb out. I once took a guest from Hong Kong to Ningde. At that time, the transportation was not as good as it is now. Mountain roads, It was quite late, and a motorcycle blocked the road. Oops, the Hong Kong guest was so scared that he thought he was going to rob him. He said that there were fruits in the back of the carriage. Give him all the fruits! ...The man said that his wife was going to give birth and he wanted us to do it! Help us, go to the village and help us get to the hospital. But we are afraid! It’s late at night, and the road is not easy to walk. I don’t know whether they can get in or not. If the wheel slips on the slope, it will be terrible. And who knows what will happen after entering the village! We asked you to use a motorcycle to pull him out first, but he said it was too painful to pull him out..."

I don’t know what happened to the motorcycle man’s wife in the end.

The driver said that he has many customers and has encountered everyone. There are also people who don't give money after getting on the bus. When they get off the bus, they say no, and there is nothing you can do against them. There is also someone who borrows money from you, in the middle of nowhere, how can you not give it to him?

I remembered that JF and I chartered a car in Hami. When the chartered car driver answered our call for consultation, he specifically asked us our gender. He later told us that if we were two men, or even one man and one woman, he would not dare to take this job. In fact, we are still worried about him! Before getting in the car, I secretly took his photo and license plate and sent them to his family for backup. (I think he also saw us filming him)

Another time, when I was in college, I went to the Qiao Family Courtyard in Qixian County, Shanxi Province with a classmate. After the visit, we took the bus back to Pingyao. But just after returning to Pingyao, the classmate discovered that the camera was left in a shop outside the Qiao family compound. Then we took the bus back. It was already dark when we came out again and there were no buses. There are no taxis or anything like that. I had to stop the car on the roadside. One after another, they just flew by. Finally, a big truck stopped with two men sitting in the cab. I don't dare to go up there, I'm afraid. But what should I do if I still can’t get a taxi? Climb into the car. He didn't talk much along the way. After an hour, we finally arrived in Pingyao and saw a bus. Daka put us down and handed us over to the bus conductor. The two male drivers actually breathed a sigh of relief at this moment and said, "I'm quite scared. I'm afraid that I might be blackmailed by you."

On the way, the Chaozhou driver said that there are several ancient houses in this village. Would you like to go and see them? But it was completely dark outside, and there were only a few lights flickering in the village. "Stop watching, it's too late! Just go back!" JF and I both felt a little dizzy. Moreover, I went to see old houses at night, and those old ancestral houses were too forbidding.

Later, we crossed a bridge over the river and the lights were more prosperous. The driver suggested that there is a large temple on the mountain and a five-star hotel owned by the richest man in Meizhou. Would you like to go up and have a look? We were really dizzy after sitting in the car. We just wanted to get back to the hotel in Chaozhou as soon as possible and rejected the driver's suggestion.

In this way, the driver took us back to the hotel in Chaozhou Old Town at around 9pm at the legal speed of 30 to 40 kilometers per hour.