The TV series "Ning Min Town", which is being broadcasted recently, tells the story that Xihaigu people in Ningxia got rid of poverty and became rich in the early 1990s.
In the plot, the life of Xihaigu people in Huangsha Mud House is really too bitter. At that time, many children only had a pair of decent pants, and they had to lie under the bed when they went out alone. Xihaigu, known as the "bitter world", was very sad.
Where is Xihaigu? Looking through the historical materials, it turned out that it was under the jurisdiction of Gansu, and Xihaigu was the collective name of Guyuan, Xiji and Haiyuan, and was later placed under the jurisdiction of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region together with Longde and Jingyuan.
Now, Xihaigu has disappeared from the administrative map, and it is all under the jurisdiction of Guyuan, becoming a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Ningxia.
How poor was the Xihaigu area in those days? Is it really as described in the TV series? As a traveler, I have been to Xihaigu area in September these years, and now I have changed beyond recognition. It is almost impossible to find a scene facing the loess and facing the sky. It can be said that earth-shaking changes have taken place.
If we can still vaguely find the shadow of Xi Haigu's Bitter Armor on Earth, we can only look for it in the old houses and alleys left over in those years. It happened that I remembered the Centennial Hutong in Longde County, Xihaigu District, where I had been. From here we can see how poor Xihaigu was at that time.
Longde County, Guyuan, located at the western foot of Liupanshan Mountain in southern Ningxia, covers an area of 985 square kilometers and has a population of about 200,000. It is the "hometown of modern folk painting in China" and "hometown of calligraphy in China". In its territory, there is a century-old hutong open to tourists, which restores the life imprint of the old Lund people.
The old alley is located in Hongya Village, Chengguan Town, Longde County. The whole street is more than 200 meters long, with 10 ancient courtyards. Now it is a national 3A-level cultural tourist attraction.
Walking into the village, the old streets and alleys are connected, and the elms and willows are dancing. The old yellow mud houses, stone mills, stables, sheepfolds, chicken nests and sinks made from local materials tell the hardships of the people in Xihaigu in those years.
These are photos I saw in Ningmin Town, which makes people feel back to that terrible era.
A stone trough made of local materials.
Horse drinking trough? The pattern on it shows its uniqueness.
Chicken nest?
If it is not the picture description of Ningmin Town, it is really hard to feel how poor the people in Xihaigu were then. The following group of old houses makes people feel sad.
Old yellow mud wall, old fire kang. I happened to find a long piece of wood on the kang above the fireplace, and there were several artificial irregular grooves in the middle of the wood. It's unbelievable to ask the locals what this is for.
The local people said that this was because the poor people didn't have tables and bowls to eat in the past, so they came up with a way to dig holes in the wood beside the kang as rice bowls, so it was convenient to stand or sit on the kang to eat. Listen, this is incredible.
What is puzzling is how to wash such a wooden bowl.
Time flies, today's Xihaigu has already changed from a dry beach with flying sand and stones to a golden beach with an inch of land. It has completely removed the label of "the world's bitter armour", and many places have begun to rely on their unique resources to develop tourism and attract tourists from all over the country.
Xihaigu is no longer desolate, and many people have started farmhouse music by traveling. In 2020, Hongya Village in Laoxiangzi received more than 300,000 tourists, with a direct income of 1.4 million yuan.
What people can't let go for a long time is what kind of hardships Xihaigu people experienced when the whole family wore a pair of pants and couldn't afford a table and a rice bowl.
It is estimated that people who have experienced that hard time are at least 50 years old, right?