Spring Festival Tour Day 11: From Yuanjiang to Mojiang Tropic of Cancer Marker Park

Today, I took my child to Mojiang Tropic of Cancer Marker Park in the morning to understand the Tropic of Cancer, which is both educational and fun, and makes it easier to grasp some knowledge. We set off at eight thirty in the morning and arrived at the west gate parking lot of Mojiang Tropic of Cancer Marker Park at only nine thirty, an hour's drive. The advantage of entering the park from the west gate parking lot is that you can take the Flying Carpet from the bottom to the top to the Gemini Square. The Flying Carpet looks like a conveyor belt. When you actually sit on it and experience it, it feels pretty good. I highly recommend you to sit on it yourself. This kind of passenger transport is quite rare. I have driven a lot of roads across the country, and this is the first time I have seen the Flying Carpet. It costs 40 yuan per person to go up the mountain, and you can pay by scanning the WeChat code at the entrance of the Flying Carpet. If you don't want to spend money, you can go up the stairs, which is not very high. Along the way, you can see the countries and introductions that the Tropic of Cancer passes through on the signs. Gemini Square consists of Gemini Gate, which is crossed by the Tropic of Cancer, the Wishing Pool, Gemini Well, and Twin Beds. It is said that the high rate of twin births in Mojiang is inseparably linked to the Tropic of Cancer. If you make a wish in the Wishing Pool, drink Gemini water, and sleep in twin beds, you can give birth to twins. To the left of Gemini Square, up the stairs, are Stonehenge Square, Star Gazing Pavilion, and Hani Fire Fetching Platform. Stonehenge Square is a main table for measuring the twenty-four solar terms, composed of 12 stone pillars of different lengths and shapes, representing the 12 months of the year. There is a metal ball on the south pillar, and the shadow at noon always moves on the purple-red line, which can be used to accurately infer the twenty-four solar terms. The 12 stone pillars also symbolize the 12 branches of the Hani people living in unity and harmony in this magical and charming oasis of the Tropic of Cancer. The Hani Fire Fetching Platform is composed of three fire-breathing dragon heads, which resemble the 'three-legged stove' on the Hani's ever-burning hearth. The twelve zodiac signs are located around it, reflecting the blending of Hani culture, Tropic of Cancer culture, and Western culture, and reflecting the Hani people's worship of fire. On major festival days, the local Hani people will hold a grand fire fetching ceremony here to worship the ancestors who brought light to the Hani descendants. Passing through Gemini Square and heading east, there are the Main Marker Pavilion, Sundial, Sun and Moon Confluence, Transcendence, Stone Ring, Kuafu Chasing the Sun, Five Elements Pillar, all the way to the East Gate. The exterior of the Main Marker Pavilion is shaped like half a globe, with two lines on it marking the positions of the Tropic of Cancer and the equator on the earth. Every year at noon on the summer solstice, sunlight passes through the 23.26 meter main marker tower's sun peeking hole and shines directly onto the small copper piece inside the tower, where you can directly see the astronomical wonder of 'no shadow of the pole' on the Tropic of Cancer. The sundial is an ancient Chinese timepiece that uses the sun's shadow to measure time. The sundial consists of a pointer and a disc, with the disc divided into twenty-four sections representing twelve hours. When the sun shines on the disc, the shadow of the pointer will be cast on the corresponding hour on the disc, showing the local solar time of the day. In certain regions of nature, even if the sound emitted is small, it will be clearly amplified, and the sound is more prolonged and continuous, which is quite interesting and creates a mysterious atmosphere of 'heaven and man responding'. This region is called the 'echo wall'. The Sun and Moon Confluence is represented by two marble balls each weighing 16 tons, representing the sun and the moon. Every year at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, the sun, moon, and earth revolve and rotate to the same line. In Mojiang, the big sun has not yet set and the moon has already risen. Under the illumination of sunlight and moonlight, the shadows produced by the two marble balls will overlap, forming the astronomical wonder of 'Sun and Moon Confluence'. The Transcendence Tower, composed of eighty-one steps, is 23.26 meters high. 23.26 is the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer, and the eighty-one steps represent that only by constantly overcoming various difficulties can one reach the peak of one's life and transcend oneself. It is passed down from generation to generation among the Hani people that if you pass through the spiral tower from east to west on the Tropic of Cancer, you can be one year younger, which is what we call 'time travel' today. 🗓The formation of the Tropic of Cancer The direct sunlight points at the northernmost and southernmost points of the earth formed by the earth's revolution and rotation. The earth's revolution refers to the earth's rotation around the sun in an elliptical orbit due to the sun's gravitational field. The time of the earth's revolution is one year, approximately 365.2422 days. Every point on the earth's orbit is on the same plane, which is the orbit plane of the earth around the sun, or the ecliptic plane. At the same time as the earth's revolution, it also rotates, and the orbit formed by its rotation is the equatorial plane. The ecliptic plane formed by the earth's revolution and the equatorial plane formed by its rotation form an angle of 23°26', which is called the ecliptic-equator angle. Due to the influence of the ecliptic-equator angle, the sun's vertical irradiation point moves back and forth between the north and south sides with a period of one year. The northernmost direct sunlight point is called the Tropic of Cancer, and the southernmost direct sunlight point is called the Tropic of Capricorn. In the region between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, there are two direct sunlights a year, and there is one direct sunlight a year on the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. There is no direct sunlight in the areas north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic of Capricorn throughout the year.