Entering China
The clouds in the early morning were still perched on the mountainside, and the lime kiln was already crowded. With the wafting of wheat fragrance wafting from the curling green smoke, the first furnace of golden fragrant bread in the bread kiln was baked. Liu Zhiliang, the village party secretary, walked to the kiln with a handful of firewood and added a fire to the furnace. There are two kilns tens of meters high, one is a bread kiln and the other is a “kiln study”. At first glance, it’s a bit dreamy. You know, these two kilns fired lime 20 years ago.
In the 90s of the last century, Lulikeng Village, Changshan County, Zhejiang Province was a well-known “lime village”. At the foot of Sanqu Mountain, more than 100 lime kilns work day and night, and the stones all over the mountain turn into lime for wealth in the flames.
“The villagers’ pockets are bulging, but the green mountains are covered with dust.” The village party secretary handed me a loaf of bread and told me the story of the village. At the beginning of this century, the lime kilns were shut down one after another, and the roar came to an abrupt end. Without the kiln fire, the village seemed to be drained of its soul. Young people went out to make a living, the old people who stayed behind guarded the pit, and Liu Zhiliang also went to the city to start a business.
Later, Sanqu Mountain was developed into a stone forest scenic spot. Many tourists come to the village to play, and the villagers take advantage of the situation to open a “farmhouse”, and also take out the village’s agricultural products to sell, local chickens and ducks, eggs and wild vegetables, which are very popular.
In 2020, Liu Zhiliang was elected as the village party secretary and got acquainted with the wealthy family who returned to his hometown to start a business. Jiafu is a post-85 generation who graduated from the China Academy of Art. The young man has ideas and creativity, and the homestay business he opened is very good. Liu Zhiliang found him and asked him to give lessons to the villagers, talk about homestays, talk about development, and share ideas. Later, the two walked through the abandoned lime kilns, collapsed sheep sheds, and dusty farmhouses, and the more Jiafu’s eyes looked, the brighter they became: “These are not ruins, they are simply gold mines!”
11 idle farmhouses were repaired in the village, and the family rich made suggestions and opened the “Sanqu Poetry Collection” homestay. Why is it called “Sanqu Poetry Collection”? “When the plum is yellow, the day is clear, and the stream is overflowing, but the mountains are traveling. The green shade does not decrease when it comes, and it adds four or five yellow orioles. Zeng Ji’s poem was written in the land of Sanqu, and Sanqu Mountain was in the pit in the road.
There is a naturally formed karst cave in the village, which the villagers used to lock cattle and sheep, and after cleaning it up, they installed a coffee bar and a projector, arranged green plants, and transformed the cave into a chic “cave restaurant”. On the day of the opening, there were many tourists, the light and shadow in the cave were swaying, the people outside the cave were boiling, the villagers were too late to greet the guests, and even the septuagenarians were trembling and serving the guests with home-brewed rice wine.
Two abandoned lime kilns are also interesting. Last year, a provincial-level cultural commissioner came to the village, sat in front of the sheep shed café with everyone and chatted, looking at the giant kiln in front of them to “brainstorm”. For a while, everyone said, it is better to open a “bread kiln study”. There will be bread, and there will be a study.
Just do it, two lime kilns, one with an oven installed, is just right for baking bread; The other has transformed the top space into a geological science popularization space, as well as a spire study, which is simply beautiful. This kiln study, although the area is not large, the view is excellent, the mountain is four o’clock, morning and dusk, sunny and rainy, there are different beautiful scenery from time to time.
On the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, the villagers danced the dragon in front of the bread kiln to celebrate, and the bread kiln study room was officially opened. Guests order a cup of coffee, bread in their left hand, a book in their right hand, sit in front of the window of the kiln study, and enjoy a quiet time in the countryside for half a day. The kilns are still the same two kilns, but the scenery inside the kilns is different. The two kilns are no longer hollow and dilapidated, but stand like works of art between heaven and earth. It seems that the kiln fire has never been extinguished, but the way of burning has changed, and it used to burn lime to make a living, and now it is a dream for the countryside.
After my coffee, I went for a walk around the village. The abandoned pigpen has been transformed into the “Sanqu Art Museum”, with local photography works hanging on the mottled earthen wall; The pit is paved with wooden plank roads, and the tents and swimming pools have become peach blossoms under the stars; The women of the village learned to grind coffee and latte art, the uncle turned baker, and many young people came from the city to drink coffee in the study halfway up the mountain. You see, in front of the window of the kiln study, a girl with pigtails sits in the morning light and reads, like a flower blooming in the mountains, which has illuminated spring.
