Chongqingxiaotian'e (kaifaqu)

At five in the morning, I stood alone on Shigu Mountain, where the Xiang River and the Zheng River meet. The wind blew from a thousand years ago, the sound of pages turning— shh, shh, shh… No tourists, no noise, only the soft ringing of the copper bells under the eaves of the academy, like an old gentleman reciting in hushed tones. 📌 This isn't a 5A scenic spot, there are no trendy photo spots, no light shows, but it holds something China should never forget— a "breathing" academy. --- ### 🏛️ Hengyang·Shigu Academy One of China's four great academies, yet it remains as low-key as a mystery. Founded in the fifth year of the Yuanhe era of the Tang Dynasty (810 AD), more than a century earlier than Yuelu Academy; Zhu Xi and Zhang Shi once lectured here, Wang Fuzhi studied here in his youth, Emperor Kangxi personally inscribed the plaque "Learning Reaches the Nature of Heaven"... But today, when "academy" is mentioned, everyone knows Yuelu, but ask about "Shigu"? Nine out of ten people will shake their heads. 📌 Yet it is precisely— the place closest to the "true meaning of reading." --- ### 📖 I walked not through a corridor, but through the intellectual footprints of ten dynasties. At dawn, I strolled along the blue brick path, each stone slab beneath my feet engraved with a name: ✅ Han Yu wrote "Record of Hejiang Pavilion" here ✅ Zhou Dunyi planted the "Lotus Pond," from which Neo-Confucianism sprouted ✅ Wen Tianxiang stationed his troops here, reading the *Spring and Autumn Annals* at night, his clothes soaked with tears. Arriving at the "Former Lecture Hall Site," the guide said: "Back then, students sat on the ground, the teacher didn't lecture, but only asked one question: 'Why do you study?'" 📌 Some answered "To become an official," and were beaten; Others answered "To understand principles," and nodded in approval. > It turns out that the ancients studied not to "reach the shore," but to— become a clear-headed person. --- ### 🌿 The most touching scene took place at the ruins of the "Library". An elderly man with white hair sat on the stone steps, holding a yellowed copy of *Reflections on Things at Hand*, and read aloud, word by word: "Cultivation requires reverence, learning progresses through the pursuit of knowledge..." I asked him, "Are you a scholar?" He smiled, "A retired worker, I've read books for half my life. Every time I come here, I feel like the sages are speaking in my ear." 📌 Shigu Academy doesn't have a "replica ancient book exhibition," it doesn't have an "immersive VR experience," but it has a magic— making you feel that the wisdom of a thousand years ago still flows in these mountains. --- ### 💬 The comments section exploded: - @Hunan University student: "I brought my girlfriend here, and she thought it was just an ordinary park. When we got to the 'Inscription Pavilion' and saw 'The human heart is perilous, the moral heart is subtle,' she suddenly fell silent. She said, 'This doesn't feel like a tourist attraction; it feels like my soul has been cleansed.'" - @History teacher Lao Li: "I took my students on a study tour and asked them, 'What is the spirit of the academy?' One child said, 'It's a place where even in poverty, one doesn't give up thinking.' I immediately teared up." - @Beijing drifter A-Jie: "Working overtime until I was about to collapse, I came across this article, booked tickets, and headed straight to Hengyang. Standing by the river in the early morning, listening to the academy bell, I felt for the first time: 'I can still persevere because there are people who are suffering more than me, yet they have never stopped reading.'" --- ### 🎒 In-depth travel guide｜How to experience a "time-travel" feeling? 📍 Best Time: 6:00-7:30 AM or after a late autumn rain (Mist rises over the river, the academy appears and disappears, like a scene from a Song Dynasty painting) 📍 5 Must-Do Things: 1. Listen to the morning bell (it rings at 6:30 AM, a sound that resonates deep within). 2. Stand silently for three minutes before the "Seven Sages Shrine" (Han Yu, Zhou Dunyi, Zhu Xi...they once stood here). 3. Walk along the "Reading Path" by the river (the winding stone path feels like walking alongside the ancients). 4. Copy a passage from the "White Deer Grotto Academy Proclamation" (the academy provides paper and pens; spend ten minutes in quiet contemplation). 5. Shout a heartfelt message to the Xiang River (it is said that the river will wash away your confusion). 📸 Photography Suggestions: - Take a photo of the eaves silhouette against the thin mist on the river, using a "vintage film" filter. - Take a photo of someone holding a book from behind, captioned: "I'm at Shigu Academy..." "I've reunited with myself from a thousand years ago." --- 🎁 Exclusive for Fans | "A Thousand Years on a Single Sheet" Project 👉 Leave a message: "If I could travel back in time to Shigu Academy and meet a sage, I would want to say to him: __________" The first 50 people to like this post will receive a prayer offered on your behalf at the academy's "Prayer Platform" and a **handmade Xuan paper postcard**—with your wish written by the academy's caretaker and stamped with the "Shigu Cultural Heritage" seal. Limited quantities available. --- 📌 Finally, a word for you: "We always talk about 'involution' and 'lying flat,' but a thousand years ago, some protected books and migrated south amidst war, some studied diligently under lamplight in poverty and illness, some preferred death to surrender, determined to guard their teaching platform. Shigu Academy isn't bustling, but it reminds us: True civilization, is not skyscrapers, but— even in chaos, there are still people, willing to light a lamp, read a page, and guard a glimmer of light." Come, to Shigu Mountain, and listen, to the sound of reading that has transcended a thousand years.

At five in the morning, the first rays of sunlight slanted across Jiangmen's Thirty-Three Market Street, casting a soft glow on the cobblestones. An old teahouse just opened its wooden door, a soft "whoosh" sounding like the unlocking of a time capsule. The steamer lid lifted, white steam rising, revealing a plate of tangerine peel beef balls, a pot of Pu'er tea, and a salty, fragrant voice on the morning breeze: "Sister, char siu rice noodle rolls with egg!" 📌 I'm not in a TVB drama; I'm standing on—Jiangmen's Thirty-Three Market Street, China's most authentic "living arcade museum," and the prototype for "Old Factory Street" in the film *The Storm*. But it's more real than any TV drama, because it doesn't depict gangsters or the underworld; it depicts—the everyday lives of ordinary people over the past century. --- ### 🏮 Thirty-Three Market Street, not a trendy street, but a "living fossil of overseas Chinese life" It was first built in the Ming Dynasty, and flourished in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, it was the last place for overseas Chinese before they went to sea: - Mothers came to buy red headscarves for their daughters to keep in their dowries - Fathers went to the bank to send money to Southeast Asia - Vendors carried their wares and called out "Dried Tangerine Peel and Preserved Fruit—" - In the teahouse, men drank morning tea while reading the *Zhongxi Daily* 📌 Today, the street: ✅ A 1.5-kilometer-long row of century-old arcade buildings ✅ 37 time-honored shops hidden deep in the narrow alleys ✅ Under every stone slab lies a letter home and the sorrow of parting A 90-year-old grandmother said: "My grandfather went to Vietnam to work as a laborer, and before he left, he bought a pair of cloth shoes on this street and took them with him." He never returned, but every year remittance slips were sent to "Thirty-Three Market, Ninghe Lane." > This street, is the starting point, and also the place of waiting. --- ### 🍜 I slipped into an unnamed breakfast stall, and the owner's words stunned me: "Want some 'Overseas Bride Rice Noodle Rolls'?" I asked, "What's an 'Overseas Bride Rice Noodle Roll'?" He smiled and said, "In the past, when a girl married and went to Southeast Asia, her mother would cook a bowl of smooth rice noodle rolls for her last meal before boarding the ship, saying, 'When you get there, may your life be smooth and easy.'" I took a bite, the aroma of rice coated with pork lard, and suddenly I understood what "nostalgia in food" meant. 📌 Here, every bite tells a story: - Tangerine Peel Duck: Stewed for three hours with Xinhui tangerine peel, its bittersweet flavor mirrors the life of an overseas Chinese. - Traditional Chicken Biscuits: Sweet and salty, the elders say, "Like the tears shed the night I left home." - Smoked Green Bean Soup Base: Not scraped clean isn't authentic—"One must have a bottom line." --- ### 📮 I entered the "Remittance Hall"— The walls were covered with yellowed "overseas Chinese remittance letters." One letter read: "Dear Parents: I work in a tin mine in Indonesia, twelve hours a day, but I save my meal money and send you HK$30, to pay for my younger brother's tuition. Please don't worry. Your filial son, Lin Zhiyuan, with tears in his eyes." Another letter was from his wife: "I received the medicine you sent, The child's fever has subsided. The rice jar is empty." But I didn't touch the money you left for your wedding. Take care, I'm waiting for you to come back.” 📌 At that moment, I stood in front of the display case, tears falling onto the glass. This wasn't an exhibition, this was— a story of Chinese love and responsibility written in blood and sweat. --- ### 💬 The comments section exploded: - @Malaysian Chinese: “My grandfather's hometown was in Thirty-Three Market. Seeing the words 'overseas remittances' instantly broke me down. It turns out our family's story is hidden on this street.” - @Guangzhou white-collar worker Xiaolin: “I skipped work on the weekend to check this out, and ended up sitting in a teahouse all day listening to the old people chat. They weren't talking about history, they were talking about life.” - @Photographer A-Jie: “After photographing ancient towns for three years, this is the first time I've encountered a street where even the air has a sense of history—it's the smell of dried tangerine peel, tea stains, and sea breeze mixed together.” --- ### 🎒 Travel Guide｜How to Explore Thirty-Three Market Street in Depth? 📍 Best Time: 6:00-8:00 AM (Less crowds, stunning lighting) 📍 5 Must-Do Things: 1. Enjoy a dim sum meal: Recommended at "Hongfu Tea House," order "shrimp dumplings + chicken feet + 'Overseas Bride's Rice Roll'" 2. Stroll through "Ninghe Lane": See the old houses of returned overseas Chinese, carved iron gates, and dried cured meats. 3. Visit "Yinxin Wharf": Where money and letters were once unloaded. 4. Buy a set of "Four Treasures of the Overseas Chinese Hometown": Dried tangerine peel, soybean paste, traditional cakes, and salted fish. 5. Listen to a street performance of Cantonese opera: Around 3 PM, elderly people often spontaneously sing. 📸 Photography Tips: Wear a plain-colored cheongsam or cotton/linen; Take photos of the arcade buildings with their lighting, handwritten signs, and close-ups of elderly people's hands as they brew tea; Use a "film retro" filter and caption: "This street moves so slowly you want to stay." 🎁 Fan Benefits | "A Letter from Overseas Chinese" Project 👉 Leave a comment: "If I could write a letter to my overseas Chinese ancestors a hundred years ago, I would say __________" The first 20 commenters to like this post will receive a 【Hometown Memories Gift Pack】: Includes a customized overseas Chinese postcard + a small jar of Xinhui tangerine peel + a Cantonese nursery rhyme audio recording made just for you --- 📌 Finally, a word for you: "We always chase after the romance of distant places, but forget— in Jiangmen, Guangdong, there is a street, that has etched the deep affection of the Chinese people, into the cracks of bricks, the aroma of tea, and the warmth and coldness of human relationships. Come to Thirty-Three Market Street, not just for a photo op, but to listen— to those sighs and loves preserved by time, still echoing gently on the stone pavement."

At five in the morning, I pushed open a weathered wooden door. Sunlight slanted into the century-old courtyard. Dewdrops clung to the blue bricks. Vines climbed over the stone inscription of the "Cao Family Motto" in the corner: "Cultivating the land and studying are the family's enduring traditions; poetry and books are passed down through generations." At that moment, standing in the center of a little-known Hakka walled village in Xingning, Guangdong, my eyes suddenly welled up with tears: The deepest roots of the Chinese people are not in the Forbidden City, nor in Jiangnan, but in these silent, centuries-old walled villages. 📌 This is the Cao Family Walled Village— An "Oriental Castle" hidden in the mountains of Lingnan, a place that holds the joys and sorrows of an entire family for a century. --- ### 🌄 What is the Cao Family Walled Village? It is not a tourist attraction, but a living history. 📍Located in Xingning City, Meizhou, Guangdong Province, this Hakka walled village was built during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty (around 1820), over 200 years ago. It is a typical Hakka four-cornered walled village, covering nearly 6,000 square meters with over 100 rooms. It once housed more than 300 members of the Cao family across five generations. 📌 Unlike the rounded and flamboyant Tulou (earthen buildings), or the eye-catching white walls and black tiles of Hui-style architecture, it possesses— ✅ Four corner watchtowers stand tall, providing fortress-like defense ✅ A symmetrical layout along a central axis, with nine courtyards extending in depth ✅ A series of interconnected courtyards, with drainage channels still functioning today ✅ The ancestral hall hangs high with a plaque, its incense burning continuously for over a century > It is a "miniature city," and more importantly, an epic written in brick and stone by a family. --- ### 🏺 My first impression upon entering: This is not a house, it is time itself. - The worn-in bricks underfoot bear the marks of generations sweeping the floor every morning. - The faded carvings on the beams still reveal the spirit of plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums. - The kitchen stove remains; the old man says, "My grandmother used to cook porridge for her daughter's wedding here." - Modern T-shirts hang on the clothesline, creating a surreal yet heartwarming contrast with the century-old wooden windows. 📌 The most breathtaking part is the ancestral hall. In the center is the ancestral tablet of the Cao family, flanked by inscriptions: "The first-class people are loyal ministers and filial sons; the two most important things are studying and farming." An elderly woman with white hair is offering incense. She says, "The first thing our Cao family members who go on to university come back to do is come here and kowtow." --- ### 💔 But such walled villages are disappearing… There are fewer than 3,000 Hakka walled villages remaining nationwide. More than 70% are dilapidated, many have been rebuilt, collapsed, or reduced to ruins. 📌 The Cao family walled village has been preserved to this day because— the entire clan refused to be acquired by developers, spontaneously raised funds for repairs, young people returned to their hometown to do volunteer work, children memorized family precepts and worshipped ancestors from a young age. A young man surnamed Cao, born in the 1990s, told me: “I earn 300,000 yuan a year in Shenzhen, but I always come back for Qingming Festival. Because I know, if I don't come back, this family will fall apart.” --- ### 🌿 Here, I understood the Chinese concept of “home”: - Safety: High walls on all sides, watchtowers for observation, protecting the bloodline in times of chaos - Order: Respect for elders, men on the left, women on the right, no step out of the way in the main hall - Heritage: The private school was located on the second floor, the sound of children reading once echoed throughout the walled village - Belonging: No matter how far one goes, one's name is on the family genealogy, and there is a bed to return to > Westerners use churches to place their souls, Chinese people use walled villages to place their families. --- ### 📸 How should travelers visit the Cao Family Walled Village? #### ✅ Best Time to Visit: Spring (surrounded by rapeseed flowers) | Autumn (golden threshing grounds) | Spring Festival (ancestral worship ceremony) #### ✅ How to Get There: High-speed rail to "Meizhou West Station" → transfer to bus/taxi for 40 minutes to Xingning Xinbei Town #### ✅ Experience Suggestions: - Stay one night in a Hakka walled village guesthouse (some rooms have been converted into cultural guesthouses) - Learn to make Hakka stuffed tofu and salt-baked chicken - Listen to the elders tell "Walled Village Night Talks": bandits attacking the village, fleeing famine to Southeast Asia, and delivering grain during the War of Resistance - Participate in the "Opening the Middle Gate" ceremony (the main gate is only opened on major holidays) 📌 Tips: Don't just take photos; Please gently touch that wall— What you touch is the warmth of your ancestors. --- ### 💬 The comments section exploded: - @OldGuangdongResident: "My grandfather was born in a Hakka walled village. Seeing this post made him cry." - @DesignerXiaoLin: "This is true 'Chinese design,' a million times more sophisticated than trendy homestays." - @OverseasStudent: "After ten years abroad, this is the first time I feel I have an answer to 'Who am I?'" --- ### 📌 In conclusion: If you're tired of crowded ancient towns, If you want to know "Where do Chinese people come from?", If you still want to believe— A family can live for over a century based on faith, Then, please visit the Cao Family Hakka Walled Village. 📌 Standing under the courtyard, listening to the wind whistling through the pillars, you can almost hear the sounds of children reciting lessons, women washing clothes, and the clan leader giving instructions from a hundred years ago… > Some buildings, are not meant to be seen, but to remind us: Don't forget whose children we are. --- 🎁 Interactive Giveaway｜Find Your “Family Memories” 👉 Leave a comment: “My family’s old house/ancestral home is in ______, I remember ________” The top 5 commenters with the most likes will receive a 【“Roots-Seeking” Gift Box】: Includes a customized family motto bookmark + a Hakka indigo-dyed handkerchief + a handwritten letter, “To You a Hundred Years From Now” 📌 Finally, a quote for you: “No matter how far you go, don’t let your soul lose its way home. Some walls, seemingly enclosing the house, in fact, support the backbone of a nation.”

At five in the morning, I stood on the ridge of the Nanling Mountains in Guangdong. The wind whipped up red sand from the valley floor, like a silent flame shooting towards the sky— Before me was not Martian terrain, not the American West wilderness, but China's most hidden "Southern Red Desert": Nanling Red Desert. 📌 No navigation, no fences, only a dirt road worn into the ground by off-road vehicles leading into the depths. Locals said, "We used to call it 'dead land,' now we understand— this is the blood that flowed through the earth, the scars formed, and also poetry." --- ### 🌵 Can you believe it? In one of the places in China where deserts are least expected, lies a "red wasteland." Deep in the Nanling Mountains, bordering Guangdong and Hunan provinces, where annual rainfall exceeds 1500 mm and forest coverage is over 92%, a 40-square-kilometer red wasteland abruptly splits open—barren, crisscrossed by gullies, its red soil slicing the earth like knife blades. 📌 It's not a natural wonder, but rather an ecological scar built up over 300 years: During the Ming and Qing dynasties, villagers cut down trees for charcoal, iron smelting, and ore extraction, destroying vegetation, exposing the red soil, and allowing rainwater to carve out countless gullies, ultimately creating the "earth's decay" we see today. > Ironically—it is precisely this man-made disaster that has created this unique "desert-like landscape" in southern China. --- ### 🔥 The moment I stepped into the Red Desert, I heard the earth weeping. The red soil was soft as ash underfoot, Every step felt like walking on an ecological tombstone. Where the wind blew, fine sand swirled up the rock walls, forming wave-like patterns resembling "yardang" landforms; After torrential rains, blood-red streams appeared in the gullies, locals called it "washing water," and even cattle and sheep dared not drink it. 📌 But in this "land of death," life was quietly returning: - The first pine tree sprouted from a crevice in the rock, its roots sinking into the last remaining thin layer of soil. - Drought-resistant reeds spread in patches, like green stitches mending the earth. - The research team discovered a rare new insect species, named "Red Ridge Blind Beetle" (chì lǐng máng wèi). 🌱 This is not desolation, but a slow and stubborn self-redemption. --- ### 📸 Why are more and more photographers venturing into this "forbidden zone" in the rain? #### ✅ 1. Incredibly challenging lighting and shadow effects, yet the final product boasts god-like quality. - Morning backlight: Red sand flows like lava, silhouettes possessing an epic feel. - Post-rain aerial photography: Water reflecting in gullies resembles "the earth's veins." - Sunset: The entire wasteland ablazes, clouds dyed purple-gold. > A picture went viral online: > A person stands with their back to the viewer on a sand dune, facing the torn red earth and the cracked sky— > Caption: "I thought I was escaping life, > Actually, life banished me to the truth." #### ✅ 2. Wearing Hanfu, riding a motorcycle, playing guitar… the contrasting aesthetics are explosive. - A woman in a white dress stands on a red earth platform, holding an umbrella, like a fairy who has stumbled into a wasteland. - A rider in black rides a heavy motorcycle down a sand dune, kicking up dust like a battle flag. - Someone plays "Yi Jian Mei" (a popular Chinese song) on ​​a speaker, singing in the wind until they choke up. 📌 Here, there are no rules, only the ultimate release of emotions. --- ### 🚫 But it shouldn't become a "hotspot for social media check-ins," but rather a "warning sign for humanity." When I excitedly posted on WeChat Moments, an environmentalist commented: "Did you know? It will take at least 800 years for the soil here to recover. Every step you take may be crushing a micro-ecosystem that took ten years to form." 📌 The reality is: - Self-driving tourists trample on newly formed vegetation - Campers leave behind plastic and campfire traces - Drones disturb bird habitats We are accelerating its secondary damage with "checking in" on social media. --- ### 🌿 I suggest you "see" the Red Desert this way, not "occupy" it. #### ✅ The Correct Way to Experience It: 📍 Suggested Route: Shixing County, Shaoguan, Guangdong → Shendushui Yao Ethnic Township → Red Desert Entrance (Unmarked, guide required) 🚗 Transportation: 4WD vehicle + local guide (protects the ecosystem and prevents getting lost) 📅 Best Season: October to March of the following year (avoids the rainy season and soil erosion) 📸 Photography Tips: - Use a telephoto lens to compress the space and emphasize the vastness of the wasteland. - Wear dark clothing to create contrast and avoid fluorescent colors ruining the image. - Do not dig, carve, or leave any traces. #### ✅ A More Recommended Way: 👉 Participate in the "Red Desert Greening Project": For every 50 yuan donated, you can adopt a Masson pine tree. Volunteers will plant it and send back photos of its growth. 👉 Or choose to view from afar: Climb to a nearby mountain viewing platform and pay homage with your camera, rather than stepping inside. --- ### 💬 In conclusion: The Red Desert shouldn't be a "photogenic paradise," it's a mirror— reflecting the price of human greed, and also nature's silent forgiveness. 📌 We're always searching for distant scenery, but we forget: The most beautiful journey is learning to travel the world quietly. --- 💬 Discussion in the comments section: What are your thoughts on the phenomenon of "ecological scars becoming internet-famous tourist attractions"? Should it be opened to attract visitors and boost the economy, or closed off for protection to prevent disturbance? (The first three likes will receive a free 【Nanling Red Desert Art Photography Collection + Biodegradable Seed Paper Postcards】—Plant it, and wildflowers will grow, just like hope, always reborn from the cracks.) 📌 Finally, a quote for you: “Some places, we don’t need to arrive, we only need to know how to respect them.

At four in the morning, a thin mist rose over Dongchang Lake in Liaocheng. I stood on the stone steps of Guangyue Tower, watching the last lantern slowly illuminate— a giant dragon leaped forth, its scales strung together by 3688 LEDs, reflected on the lake's surface, like the Milky Way falling to earth. At that moment, the entire city was still asleep, but water and light had already ignited spring ahead of time. 📌 This is no ordinary lantern festival, this is a love letter from a thousand-year-old water city, as winter fades and spring arrives, to the world. --- ### 🌆 You may not have heard of "Liaocheng," but it has transformed the Chinese lantern festival into an epic, traditional Chinese spectacle. In Shandong, there is the grandeur of Mount Tai, the waves of Qingdao, and the Confucianism of Qufu, while Liaocheng quietly weaves an underrated oriental fantasy with water, city, lanterns, and dreams. 📍 It's a rare "Water City North of the Yangtze River" in Northern China. A canal flows through the city, and lakes reflect like mirrors. 2000 years ago, it was a vital hub for water transport. Now, from the Spring Festival to the Lantern Festival, the entire city transforms into a giant stage of light and shadow—42 themed lantern displays spanning 12 kilometers of water, illuminated for 38 consecutive days, attracting over 100,000 visitors daily! 📌 But what's most breathtaking isn't its scale, but how it meticulously weaves history, folklore, technology, and poetry into every single lantern. --- ### 🏮 How amazing is the Liaocheng Water City Lantern Festival? #### 1. "The Grand Canal Lantern Scroll": A River of Lights, Half of Chinese History Strolling along the ancient Grand Canal, you will see: - Tang Dynasty merchant ships setting sail, lanterns swaying with the waves - Song Dynasty peddlers carrying their wares, their cries even recreated with light and shadow - Ming and Qing Dynasty security escort agencies protecting silver through locks, lights simulating the rushing water 📌 It's as if the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" scroll has come to life, only this time, you are walking within the painting. #### 2. "Phoenix Soaring" Water Light Array: 500 Drones + Laser Projection, Breathtakingly Beautiful As night falls, flames suddenly rise in the center of Dongchang Lake. A phoenix spreads its wings and soars into the sky. The wings are composed of a swarm of drones. The tail feathers scatter golden rain of light. Simultaneously, the original text of the Book of Songs appears on the lakebed projection: > "The phoenix soars, its feathers fluttering, and it alights here." 📌 It is said that the inspiration came from Liaocheng, formerly known as "Phoenix City." That night, the entire lake seemed to beat for its hometown. #### 3. "Childhood Memory Alley": A lamp illuminates the New Year's atmosphere for generations Here are the most touching details: - A tin frog lamp that "clicks" and jumps when you press a button. - An archway made of candied hawthorn skewers, its red light glistening. - An old-fashioned radio-shaped lightbox, playing 1980s New Year's greetings on a loop. 📌 I saw an old man holding his grandson's hand, saying: > "This is exactly like how Grandpa celebrated the New Year when he was a child… So, even light can make people homesick." --- ### 🌉 The "Lamp Keeper" at Guangyue Tower: Some traditions are warmer than light. Backstage, I met a 72-year-old craftsman. He was making a "Qilin Bringing a Child" lamp with bamboo strips. His fingers were chapped, yet his movements were as steady as a watchmaker's. He said, "I've been making lanterns since 1968. Back then, it was all handmade paper pasting and candle lighting. A single rainstorm could ruin half a month's worth of work." But now, even with high technology, he still insists: "The key parts must be handmade. Machine-made lanterns have form but no soul; handmade ones have 'human touch.'" 📌 At that moment, I understood— Intangible cultural heritage isn't just a specimen in a museum; It's someone willing to dedicate their life to continuing the light of memory, one lantern at a time. --- ### ✨ Why you absolutely must visit the Liaocheng Water City Lantern Festival? Because it's not just a "photo-op spot," It's a ritual about memory, belonging, and hope: - As you sail through the "Starry River Arch Bridge," you'll suddenly feel: life may be tough, but at this moment, it deserves to be treated gently. - When a child points to the sky and shouts, "Dad, look at the spaceship!" You know, the festive spirit of the New Year is reviving. - When millions of lights reflect on the lake, the entire city of Liaocheng resembles a crystal dream floating in space— You will believe: The romance in the bones of the Chinese people has never disappeared. --- ### 📸 Travel Guide｜How to Make the Most of This Light and Shadow Extravaganza? 📍 Address: Dongchang Lake Scenic Area, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province (Navigate to "Water City Lantern Festival Main Venue") 📅 Time: December 23rd to January 18th annually (estimated January 22nd - February 14th, 2025) 🎫 Admission: Free during the day; approximately 60 RMB for the nighttime lantern festival (half price for students) 🚢 Must-try experiences: - Night cruise: Board at the "Grand Canal Wharf" for a 40-minute immersive lantern viewing experience. - Lantern riddle corridor: A 100-meter-long lantern wall; answer correctly to exchange for a handmade lantern. - Intangible cultural heritage market: Linqing tribute brick rubbings, Chiping paper cutting, Yanggu cloth puppets. 🍜 What to eat? - Shazhen Guada (Crispy Meat-Filled Pancake) - Gaotang Lao Doufu (Served with Spicy Soup, a Local Breakfast staple) - Canal Grilled Fish (Freshly Caught and Grilled, Full of Local Flavor) --- 💬 What's your most unforgettable lantern festival memory? Was it the lanterns and the sounds of oars on the Qinhuai River? Was it the dinosaur lantern array in Zigong? Or was it the alleyway in your childhood hometown filled with red lanterns? (Share your "lantern story" in the comments section, and the top three comments with the most likes will receive a [Liaocheng Customized Canal Glass Lantern Ornament + Handwritten "Fengcheng Night Whispers" Postcard]—May we travel far and wide, and there will always be a lantern shining for you.) 📌 Finally, here's a quote engraved on a lantern pillar: "The lights of ten thousand homes are nothing special, but when you know, each one is lit for you by someone— you possess the warmth of the entire universe."