Village without walls

? In the "Three Walled Villages" (A Shi Zhai, Old Zhai, A Yi Zhai), residential architecture is more distinctive, due to the living environment restrictions, the villagers will be based on the hillside, the sloping land dug flat into the foundation, cover the houses and yards, part of the residential masonry walled houses. "In the past, basically on the ground to build and build three frame beams of earth and wood structure of the straw house, now basically tile houses, sporadic a few families of modern steel mixed structure of the house." Mr. Li Haiquan, the branch secretary of Ashizhai, introduced the construction of houses in the village to us. The houses here are generally built to cover 2 blocks, a main house 3 rooms, the center of the hall, with a fire pit, on both sides of the bedroom.

The most distinctive residence is the "one into five courtyard row building", like a modern townhouse. There is no gate, from the first to the fifth house, each house is connected to the other, and the patio of each house is the road in the village, which is the village road. Everyone can come and go freely.

Li Zhishu said: "We are here in the mountainous area, there used to be more robbers, bandits and robbers will come to the village from time to time to carry out robberies, coupled with the fact that we are in the deep mountains, wild beasts are often infested, in order to protect the safety of people and animals and encounter special circumstances to help each other, most of the villagers are tightly clustered together, the families are very close to each other, and everyone's house is built together, each other have a Take care of each other."

? The village is connected to each other, the whole village almost can not find the wall. We are used to seeing the high walls of the courtyard, we are very curious. From the time of war to the present peaceful era, the custom of not having a wall has been continued until now. After walking through every path and yard in the village, only 4-5 newly built houses have a wall.

? Without gates and walls, are all the hearts here open? The truth is that we were a little surprised.

? In Ashizhai, the villagers we met while walking in the village were a bit introverted and shy, and "hid their faces" in front of my camera, and almost all the shots I captured were of their backs. Seeing me raise the camera, originally in front of the house or the yard leisurely family like electric shock jumped up and "run away".

When we arrived at the old village, the situation was completely different. Everyone greeted us warmly, invited us to eat, invited us to sit in the hall, and poured water for us. Under the leadership of Yang, the director of the village supervisory committee, we are very happy, just like in a small tour of a foreign country.

? We were all a little bored. Here was once the Yunnan-Burma Highway through the place, or 320 National Highway through the main line, according to the old camp township records, the Republic of 27 years (1938 AD), the construction of the Yunnan-Burma Highway was completed and opened to traffic, the north through the Wayao, the horse turned to the Bay, Monkey Rock into the old camp territory of the Gold Factory River, the old Zhai Pass, A Shizhai, and so on from the Ghost Gate out of the North Temple. 'Three Walled City' of the main road is to take the old 320 national highway, the old Walled City from the national highway 1.5 kilometers, in 1991 to repair the village and the national highway line connected to the highway. Ai Zhai in 1997 to repair and the village of the national highway connected to the highway, the length of 2 kilometers.

We strung along the village road, one by one, to appreciate the village family life. Most of the families are covered with two buildings, the upper one for the "three room" main house, the lower one for the "two room" under the front. The main house is a three-frame beam house, with a hall in the center, a fire pit, and a kitchen on the left. Into the kitchen, did not see the traditional "stove", but a fire pit, the fire pit placed on the tripod, cooking on weekdays with gong pots, iron pots set up on the tripod, cooking needs to be half of the body down, looks a little tired. There is bacon hanging on the beams above the head of every house, which is what we usually call "smoked meat". My Dali home is also the same production, the salt, pepper and other small amounts of fresh meat coated evenly, and then hang up, 3-5 days after the basic flavor, in addition to a small amount of smoky flavor, the special aroma after eating unforgettable.

? The function of the fire pit is powerful, in addition to daily cooking, boiling water, year-round pickled spicy vegetables rely on it. Old Walled City's pickled vegetables are the most famous, in the fire on the side of the "stew" overnight can be eaten. "Our pickles are the best here, perhaps because of the quality of our water. People from neighboring villages like to eat our pickled vegetables and come to learn how we make them, even bringing back our raw materials such as greens and radishes, but the taste is still not as good as our Old Village's." Yang Yingzhong, head of the village supervisory committee, said proudly.

"Roasted tea" is also a time-honored habit of the three cottages, after tea and dinner, roasted tea while roasting a fire by the fire, put raw tea in a clay pot and roasted it by the fire, and when the tea flavor aroma overflows, pour boiling water and cook it for a little while, and then you can enjoy it. The fatigue of the day disappears without a trace when you take a sip into your mouth while it is still hot. Think about this kind of slow time, is how we city people long for the life.

? The fire is also a very sacred place in the family, it is said that their tripod only once a year, generally in the waxing twenty-four years to thirty nights between the support put, can not pick the day and orientation, the rest of the time support to pick the day and orientation, once the tripod is well set up, to be placed in a year, not allowed to family members or outsiders to move. Some people's fire pit year-round fire, some people in winter because of fear of cold old people will also be in the evening cover a blanket or burlap quilt in the fire on the edge of the sleep over night.

? "It can be said that the fire pit is a great treasure for the residents of 'Sanzhai'", Director Yang said with a smile.