"Is this the national border?" Wang Dahai, who was standing in front of the national boundary monument, took off his sun hat with a confused look on his face and scratched his head with his hand in confusion. Wang Dahai just graduated from college this year. His family runs two antique stores, so he was forced to take over one of the stores after graduating from college. Wang Dahai, who had finally finished four years of college, couldn't give in, so he ran away from home and went south to play.
Wang Dahai, who was born in the capital, is far more knowledgeable than ordinary people. During his trip south, what interested him was only the scenery, not the prosperity of the city. At this moment, he was standing in front of the border between Yunnan and the Southern Xinjiang Kingdom, but the scene he saw in front of him was different from what Wang Dahai had imagined. It is true that there are border markers here, and there are also border guards patrolling here. However, there is neither a border gate nor a barbed wire fence to separate the border. There is only a solitary boundary marker.
While Wang Dahai was standing in front of the boundary monument in a daze, a child wearing shorts and a vest, carrying a bowl of food in a daze, walked directly to Wang Dahai's side and went directly to the other side of the border. The scene he saw in front of him shocked Wang Dahai. His first reaction was to quickly look to both sides to see if any border guards had seen the child crossing the border. Reality gave Wang Dahai a heavy blow, because not far from Wang Dahai's left hand side, there were two border guards standing.
As if Wang Dahai was looking at him blankly, one of the border guards waved hello directly to Wang Dahai. Before Wang Dahai could react, the child who had crossed the border had already come out of the opposite yard and came back carrying a small bowl. "The border residents here have relatives with each other. When it's meal time, they send their children home to deliver food to the relatives on the other side." As soon as the border guard finished speaking, Wang Dahai saw two children coming from the opposite side. , as expected, they all held vegetable bowls in their hands.
"Across the way is the Kingdom of Southern Xinjiang. Ever since the border was established in 1950, there has never been a barbed wire fence here. However, if people here want to go to the other side, as long as the time exceeds 24 hours, they still need to go through huzhao." Another border guard soldier After looking at Wang Dahai, I thought that Wang Dahai looked like a tourist, so I gave him a kind reminder. "Our border station can apply for a tourist passport, but the time limit is only half a month. If you do not return after the expiration date, you will be regarded as illegally crossing the border, and the other side will also be regarded as a blacklist."
Wang Dahai, who originally wanted to take a look at the other side, was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately followed the border guards to apply for a short-term tourist passport. "The Kingdom of Southern Xinjiang is known as Little China. Their basic language is Chinese, and English is only an auxiliary language. There is no language barrier for us Chinese to travel to the other side. But I just want to remind you that the other side still uses traditional Chinese characters. If you don’t know a word, it’s best to ask the locals for advice. Don’t try too hard and make blind guesses. If you make a joke, you will only be embarrassed.”
The officer at the border station who applied for a tourist passport for Wang Dahai made a special explanation. Looking at the other party's expression when he spoke, Wang Dahai guessed that someone must have made such a joke on the other side. Applying for a tourist passport at the border station is not a hassle. After spending ten yuan to get the photos that were expedited for development, and paying an additional five yuan for the production fee, Wang Dahai got the tourist passport. The passport specifically stated that the validity period is only Half a month. Half an hour later, Wang Dahai, who was well prepared, crossed the border marker and entered the Southern Kingdom on the opposite side.
The villages and towns in southern Xinjiang near the boundary monument looked no different from those in China. However, after Wang Dahai took a minibus and drove a few kilometers away from the border, the scene in front of him immediately changed. "Our place was renovated in the 1960s!" The middle-aged man sitting next to Wang Dahai seemed to realize that Wang Dahai was a tourist, so he took the initiative to introduce the situation here to Wang Dahai. "My home has been here for 45 years. At that time, the scenery here was not so good, and the traffic conditions were not good."
"In 1957, the indigenous people here were deceived into making trouble, but were suppressed by the army. It was definitely not feasible to put so many people in prison. As a result, the royal family came up with an idea to simply let these indigenous people undergo labor reform. The government took care of their food and drink, and paid them a small amount of salary. They were responsible for building roads and clearing mountains and forests. Later, the royal family felt that this was an opportunity, so they assigned a lot of landscape architects to deal with these mountains and forests and land that was not suitable for planting. Landscaping was done.”
"I heard from the elders in my family that at that time, the mountains and plains here were full of working indigenous people. It is said that at the peak, there were hundreds of thousands of people! Ours is Simeon Mansion, where the royal family started. Because of the military station, , it was renovated relatively late. If you have time, you must go to Dongtai Mansion to take a look. The scenery there is even better than here." The middle-aged man talked and introduced many places to Wang Dahai along the way, but Wang Dahai didn't remember any of them.
Along the way, Wang Dahai had already been deeply attracted by the scenery on the roadside. Especially when he saw the villages on the roadside and the buildings with obvious ancient styles, his excitement reached the point where he could not control himself. Wang Dahai's family runs an antique shop, so he is naturally interested in things from the past. Although Wang Dahai is not interested in the antique business at home, he is very interested in this kind of building with a strong ancient style.
Wang Dahai, who wandered around this ancient style building, spent a week taking photos to look at and prepare to take them back for his family to appreciate. But soon, Wang Dahai discovered that the villages and towns in the Southern Xinjiang Kingdom were different from those in the country. The local people who were asked by Wang Dahai smiled and gave the answer, "Our roads here have been connected to every village as early as the 1960s. It's not that we don't have money to buy cars, it's that we don't need them at all. Electric tricycles are more suitable for us, as they can carry goods and pull people."
The construction of villages and towns in the Southern Xinjiang Kingdom has gone through decades of continuous improvement, and as long as they work hard, every family can build a small building and live a prosperous life. Moreover, people in southern Xinjiang pay more attention to cultural accomplishment and are not like the nouveau riche in China. This is another discovery of Wang Dahai. Compared with China, in the Southern Xinjiang Kingdom, whether in villages, towns or cities, there are many beautiful and fashionable young women, but they never wear clothes that are too revealing.
"Girls here receive the same education as men. If there are no elders in the family, women also have the right to inherit and can establish a household. And in our southern Xinjiang, there are no bars or dance halls in villages, towns or cities. Adult women Smoking is allowed, but cigarettes and alcoholic beverages are absolutely not allowed for men and women before they reach adulthood. Dongtai Province did not ban the operation of brothels and casinos at the earliest, but in the 1960s, they had completely banned them ”
Wang Dahai has seen these situations mentioned by the locals these days, and the situation is indeed the same as what these locals said. Compared with the country, the Kingdom of Southern Xinjiang has more fireworks and less impetuousness, and the interactions between men and women are also more conservative. In terms of culture, the Kingdom of Southern Xinjiang still retains enough cultural inheritance. The cultural people who came south here in the 1940s and 1950s completely passed down their knowledge in this land.
Looking at the urban construction of the Southern Xinjiang Kingdom, there are no high-rise buildings like the domestic big cities, but after nightfall, the neon lights are still very lively, and tourists like Wang Dahai abound. Wang Dahai came by chance. There were only five days left before his tourist passport expired, and it happened to coincide with the Chinese Clothing Festival in Simien Province. On this day, all locals in Simeon Prefecture will dress up in costumes and go out to visit friends and have gatherings. The locals do not refuse tourists to participate, but the Chinese clothes worn by tourists can only be purchased or rented from specialized stores.
A Chinese costume festival made Wang Dahai see the profound national customs of the Southern Xinjiang Kingdom. Especially the young people here, their love for Chinese costumes comes from the bottom of their hearts. This is in line with the attitude of domestic young people towards foreign affairs. Completely opposite. "We are Chinese and like Chinese things. What's the problem with this? The royal family of Southern Xinjiang is inherited from the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty. The royal family does not reject the things left by our ancestors. Why should we reject it?"
The young people in southern Xinjiang that Wang Dahai came into contact with all looked at Wang Dahai like he was a fool. After learning that he was a tourist, these young people in southern Xinjiang softened their attitude. "Most of the Chinese in the Southern Xinjiang Kingdom came from China in the 1940s. Without the help of the royal family, it would be difficult for them to gain a foothold here, let alone the comfortable life they have now. Southern Xinjiang has always advocated equality and freedom, but this The prerequisite for this kind of equal freedom is that it will not hinder other people's normal lives and not disturb the social environment."
"Most of our adults in southern Xinjiang have received higher education, but we do not envy the life in foreign countries. For us, stability and comfort is the life we want." After being asked by Wang Dahai, the people from southern Xinjiang said, All gave this answer. With the explosion of tourism, people in southern Xinjiang can enjoy this wave of dividends just by sitting at their doorsteps, so they are not eager to go to foreign countries to engage in so-called struggles to prove themselves.
Isn't it better to have more money? With doubts in his mind, Wang Dahai accepted the invitation of these local young people to visit their homes. Only after entering a local's home did Wang Dahai have a clear understanding of the life of southern Xinjiang people. The residences of these locals are all beautifully built and large in size. All the household appliances that Wang Dahai knows are available in these locals' homes, and their styles and functions are even better and more beautiful than those in China. "This is nothing. When we people in southern Xinjiang purchase household appliances, the government provides certain subsidies, and we in southern Xinjiang originally produce these small appliances."
