Lianxiang Dak

Like a scene from a fantasy world of immortals and martial heroes, it is truly worth visiting for photography. This year, the rapeseed flowers bloomed particularly early, and recently it is the peak of their bloom, which perfectly complements the ancient post roads. The small path in front of the fortress gate, which is a necessary pass from Zhongqing to the ancient capital of Yunnan, was historically known as 'Yixi Road,' an important part of the ancient southwestern Silk Road. Among the 'Nine Passes and Eighteen Lodges,' only the third pass, Lianxiang Pass, still exists today! It was originally built during the Ming Dynasty. The small village at this pass and the local residents live in harmony. Life is as plain as water yet profoundly real. From the entrance to the end of the pass, it stretches 750 meters, with five pass towers, one stone arch bridge, and dozens of salt merchant courtyards built along it. The ancient streets, residential courtyards, and Sanhua Temple are all there, with the hard bluestone road still clearly showing the hoof prints from years gone by.

The Ancient Tea Horse Road of Lianxiang Pass in Lufeng County, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, is located on Yaostation Street, Jinshan Town. 'Lianxiang Pass' was established in the Ming Dynasty (the 16th year of Chongzhen, AD 1643). It consists of four major parts: five pass towers, ancient streets, residential courtyards, and Sanhua Temple. The total length from the entrance to the end of the pass is 750 meters, with five pass towers, one stone arch bridge, and dozens of salt merchant courtyards, truly a rare sight. The ancient post road of 'Lianxiang Pass' is 2 meters wide, paved with hard local bluestone. Despite years of erosion by wind and rain, the hoof prints left by horses can still be clearly seen. The 'Lianxiang Pass' tower is over 12 meters high and nearly 9 meters wide, a three-story building. The lower level is a semi-circular city gate hole made of bluestone, and the second and third levels are wooden structures with circular corridors, battlements, and more. After entering the gate, another 50 meters leads to a pass tower called 'Guojie Tower', which is also a three-story building with flying eaves and a majestic presence; 200 meters further inside the pass is the 'West Gate Tower'; 50 meters from the West Gate Tower is the 'Chongguan Tower', which is the exit passage; outside the Chongguan Tower is also built the 'Dengmen Tower'. When you enter the ancient houses of the past, they are almost more than 100 meters deep, with three quadrangles and a layout of interconnected towers. Inside the courtyard, there are carvings of dragons and phoenixes, and the craftsmanship of the hollow-carved doors and windows is exquisite.

🌟Highlights: 1. Take the high-speed train from Kunming to Lufeng, then transfer to the direct bus from Lufeng to Tuguan. It's a 70-plus kilometer drive, taking about 1 hour and 30 minutes. 2. The peach blossoms are blooming, and you can take beautiful photos effortlessly. 3. Few people and beautiful scenery 4. Cultural landscapes of Lufeng: the hometown of dinosaurs—Dinosaur Valley, the Western Yunnan Highway, Jiuguan Shida Pu including the Lianxiang Pass, the salt capital, and the salt-producing area—Heijing Ancient Town (there are direct buses to each attraction) 5. The food is inexpensive (Lufeng rice is very tasty)

The hiking trail at Lufeng Dinosaur Valley is truly amazing! Along the way, you can see the interesting settlement organization within the village of Dinosaur Valley, the beautiful Yunnan-style vernacular architecture, and an ancient path at the entrance of the village that is filled with historical vicissitudes. Then, as you reach the mountain, you walk along the old trail of the Yunnan-Burma Railway, overlooking from the mountain, the scenery of the valley below is unobstructed, and you can also see several beautiful bridges and tunnels—these are the nationally protected 'Yunnan-Burma Railway Dinosaur Valley Bridge and Tunnel Group'. The bridge and tunnel group, once part of the railway line, has now been abandoned and become a monument, but it has been revitalized in outdoor tourism, spontaneously completing adaptive reuse without the help of professional architects or planners.

In the cold winter morning, we set off from Kunming by car, looking for the unforgettable image of Lianxiang Pass on the ancient Yixi Road imprinted in our minds. Starting from Anning City, taking the old road of National Highway 320, the car spirals like a snail on the first international passage of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau - the Burma Road, also known as the Stilwell Road. The mountains and valleys are dangerous, the valleys are deep and the walls are steep, suddenly up and down, from the top of the mountain to the deep valley, walking in the valley or the mountainside, the car enters and exits in the clouds, occasionally a horn sounds from the opposite side, rumbling, a truck like a train, occupying the road and coming head-on, scaring the three souls to only one soul, so we have to stop by the road to let it pass. Carefully and nervously driving past Luduan and Tuguan, we saw the whole view of Lianxiang Pass in the red canyon at the highest point of Yanglaoshao. Lianxiang Pass, also known as Waist Station, is the third pass in the 'Nine Passes and Eighteen Shops' of the ancient Yixi Road. From Yanglaoshao, it is high at both ends and low in the middle, a street runs through the whole city, the whole city is less than a square kilometer, no wonder the ancients vividly called it 'Waist Station'. The city tower of Lianxiang Pass in winter, slowly lifts the fog shrouded on it under the sunshine, the small river under Yanqing Bridge, the waves are quietly flowing without surprise. Although it is a 'pass', there is no noisy howling, it is like a fossil standing quietly at the head of the ancient city, basking in the sun, completely silent. I really doubt if I went to the wrong place - is this a grand pass? I always thought that a 'pass' is majestic and tall, whether it is the official or the common people, when they come to the pass, they must dismount, they have to bow their heads. When I really came to the ancient pass, the expected hustle and bustle, the horse teams were purely nonexistent, which inevitably made people feel surprised or disappointed. From the fork of Yangjiazhuang on National Highway 320 to Lianxiang Pass is only 2 kilometers, but these two kilometers seem like two different worlds, as if time has stopped here. Everything in Lianxiang Pass is quietly sleeping: quiet streets, quiet residents, quiet temples, quiet city towers. Lianxiang Pass

The current Lianxiang Pass city, initially built in the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), has a stone wall surrounding it, with only one street and four city gates. The street is over 800 meters long from east to west, with a stone arch bridge in the middle, standing with five gate towers. They are Lianxiang Pass Tower, Overstreet Tower, West Gate Tower, Heavy Gate Tower, and Ascending Gate Tower. The 800-meter-long street is divided into upper, middle, and lower streets, which also divide people into different classes. The Overstreet Tower to the City Gate Tower is the upper street, where the government offices are located. There are local patrol inspection offices, supervision and sales offices, and other yamen. The Heavy Gate Tower to the Overstreet Tower is the middle street, a gathering area for salt merchants and wealthy households. This area gathers the largest salt number of Zhang Bing Zhang in Lianxiang Pass, the former provincial assemblyman Liu Junan Liu's salt number; and dozens of large, medium, and small horse shops led by the Xu family. If it is a street day, thousands of horses and merchants stay in Lianxiang Pass, and the business of salt shops, horse shops, blacksmith shops, rice shops, and silver shops is booming. The Heavy Gate Tower to the Ascending Gate Tower is called the lower street, where most of the craftsmen such as silversmiths, blacksmiths, stonemasons, pot makers, leather workers, tailors, painters, and barbers gather. The beggars in the Flower Son Temple outside the Ascending Gate Tower are singing 'Lianhua Luo' and begging in the pass, forming a bizarre prosperity in the pass. According to records, historically, Lianxiang Pass once had seven gate towers, four bridges, and more than 1,400 households and 6,500 people at its peak in the late Qing Dynasty. Every day, the horse teams entering and exiting the pass, driving thousands of horses, transport more than 100,000 catties of salt, tea, and other local products to Kunming every year, and carry back foreign goods such as foreign bowls, foreign oil, foreign yarn, foreign cloth, foreign umbrellas, perfume, foreign alkali, foreign fire, foreign iron, foreign basins, etc., and bring foreign culture back to Lianxiang Pass, transporting it to various places in western Yunnan. After experiencing years and storms, the prosperity of Lianxiang Pass once fell into the long river of history.