Yangzhou has been a prosperous place since ancient times and a leisurely Jiangnan water town. In Li Bai's poem "Fireworks fall under Yangzhou in March", Yangzhou is given a vague meaning about separation and longing.

In my heart, Yangzhou has always been a mysterious existence and a "charming" existence. On the one hand, it is because I have felt the preference and rendering of it by too many literati and literati in books, and on the other hand, it is because--I have eaten Yangzhou fried rice for decades.

After graduating, I first arrived in the south. In the 1990s, my future was uncertain and my money was even more difficult. After work at night, I occasionally order a delicious, refreshing and grainy Yangzhou fried rice in a small shop at the entrance of the factory. The satisfaction of taste buds is a few warm memories during those embarrassing years. From then on, I learned that there is a place in the world called Yangzhou.

After thinking about it for decades, I finally came to Yangzhou in the cold winter of the twelfth lunar month.

Let's first get to know Yangzhou simply and rudely: more than 2500 years old, a world heritage city, a world food capital, a world canal capital, a cultural capital of East Asia, China's top 100 cities, a national historical and cultural city, a United Nations Habitat Award-winning city, China's famous hot spring city, national garden city, national forest city... More words describing Yangzhou are superfluous.

I have long heard that Yangzhou people are proud of being "skinny big people". When I inquired with the locals, it turned out that this skinny big person was not a beautiful, tall and tough beauty in Yangzhou history, but one of Yangzhou's three famous tourist attractions-Slender West Lake, Daming Temple, and Geyuan.

Among the skinny ones, Slender West Lake is a landmark scenic spot in Yangzhou. Some people say that if you don't visit Slender West Lake, you have never been to Yangzhou. Although I don't agree with this statement, after all, as an ancient city that embodies thousands of years of history and culture, Yangzhou's charm is far beyond the scope of a lake. However, this sentence also reflects the status of Slender West Lake in Yangzhou City.

Strictly speaking, Slender West Lake is not a lake as understood in traditional terms. It is a broad and winding river. According to data records, Slender West Lake is a belt-like landscape composed of cities and lakes from different eras such as the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and maintains an interactive relationship with the Grand Canal with water sources.

Review history by the way. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, built in the Spring and Autumn Period, is the ancient canal with the longest mileage and largest project in the world. The Grand Canal starts from Hangzhou in the south and has a total length of more than 1700 kilometers. It has a history of more than 2500 years since its excavation. In 2014, it was successfully selected into the World Cultural Heritage List, including Slender West Lake, one of the heritage sites of the "Grand Canal of China" in Yangzhou.

Slender West Lake is located in the northern suburbs of the west of Yangzhou. It is an AAAAA tourist attraction. It covers a total area of about 2000 acres, of which about 700 acres are on water.

Named "Slender West Lake", it is naturally a benchmark for Hangzhou's West Lake. However, compared with the vastness and vastness of the West Lake, I prefer the small and exquisite nature of the Slender West Lake.

If Hangzhou West Lake is a novel with ups and downs, then Yangzhou Slender West Lake is a short and fresh essay.

Appreciate prose, pay attention to casual nature, and read Slender West Lake, only need to be in an idle mood.

The water of Slender West Lake, the bridges of Slender West Lake, the pavilions and pavilions of Slender West Lake, the gardens of Slender West Lake, the willow embankments, the corridors, and the white towers. Walking around at will, there are scenery everywhere, and paintings every step.

It is recommended to enter from Nandaemun and first explore several key scenic spots. On the way, you will travel back and forth on both sides of the waterway via stone bridges in different lake sections, and finally exit from Beidaemun. Along the way, the overall visual outlook goes from near to far, from dense to sparse. It is also a good hierarchical way to visit the park.

South Gate.

Passing through the pavilion, the Da Hongqiao Bridge not far away is clearly visible.

Long Causeway. The willow embankment facing the south gate is flat and slender, with sparse peach willows and beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, it is not spring and summer. The willow branches are less charming and the peach blossoms have not yet bloomed.

In the early morning, the water vapor has not yet dissipated, and the sun does not seem to have woken up. The lake is dense and hazy as gauze. A group of early ducks pass by, causing slight ripples and shimmering lights.

At the end of the long embankment is Xuyuan.

Xu Garden was built in 1915 and is located on the former site of the original "Peach Flower Wu". It was originally a pavilion forest to worship Xu Baoshan, commander of the Second Army of the Revolution of 1911. The word "Xu Yuan" on the forehead of the door was inscribed by Ji Lianggong, a Yangzhou calligrapher in the late Qing Dynasty.

The main hall is listening to oriole hall.

The two large iron pots in front of the museum are said to be water-holding items during the Xiaoliang period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Xuyuan is small, but it has all the factors for building the garden. Water, stone, museum, club, pavilion, pavilion, corridor... In an inadvertent corner, a wonderful collision occurred.

Across Xuyuan, across the bridge, is the Xiaojin Mountain Scenic Area.

Xiaojinshan is a large island in the lake. From here, you can see the main lake scenery of Slender West Lake, especially the Diaoyutai area where the view is most open.

Diaoyutai is located at the end of a section of lake embankment protruding into the water on the west side of Qianlong Pavilion. It is said that it was the fishing place of Qianlong in those days. Diaoyutai is actually a small pavilion built next to the lake, built using the "frame-and-scene" method. There are three walls, one side is empty, and three white walls have three large round doors. When viewed from the side, the round doors are staggered and overlapped, and there are holes in the holes. It is really a classic work of Slender West Lake.

Frame art can often be seen in traditional Chinese gardens and is one of the commonly used methods of landscape construction in garden architecture. The idea of frame landscape design often uses door frames, window frames, tree frames, and even gaps in rocks to cleverly intercept the beautiful scenery within the field of view behind the empty frame, forming a visual beauty like the scenery embedded in the frame.

Standing in the Diaoyutai, looking west through the empty wall door opening, the Wuting Bridge appears from time to time in the distance. There is still some mist on the lake, and the ground in front of you is dotted with strange stones and blue bricks. Looking at the scene from a frame, it is like a beautifully mounted freehand painting.

Excellent Chinese garden designers must be masters of space aesthetics.

The buildings and attractions in top Chinese gardens are named with a strong cultural heritage like obsessive-compulsive disorder, emphasizing poetry and pursuing realm. Slender West Lake was not called this name from the beginning. Its "former name" was Baobao Lake, which sounds a bit "rustic" and lacks poetic elegance. During the Qianlong years, poet Wang Hang came to Yangzhou and wrote a poem "Ode to the River of Protection": The poplar trees continued to pick up the remnants of the grass, and the goose teeth and the red bridges drew pictures. It is also a pot of gold, so it should be called Slender West Lake. From then on, the resounding reputation of Slender West Lake was slowly spread.

Thin, literally, is used to describe the size of an individual. It mostly refers to the body's lack of meat and fat, as opposed to fat and fat. In addition, thinness has the extended meaning of thin and barren land. I never thought that the word "thin" had been given a broader and deeper connotation by poets and poets in history.

Li Qingzhao's "Dream Ling·Rain and Wind Last Night" boldly uses "green, fat, red and thin" to express the poet's emotion that life is fleeting and illusory due to his injury to spring when spring is fading and the seasons change in midsummer are coming. "Thin" transformed into a refined place, and its "literary value" soared overnight.

Five to six hundred years later, in Yangzhou City,"thin" once again became the "hot money" in the poet's writings.

In the old days, literati and literati's obsession with writing originated from thousands of years of cultural accumulation. How could Westerners easily understand and use it?

Continue westward and you will reach Wuting Bridge, the core attraction of Slender West Lake. Wuting Bridge is known as "the most beautiful bridge in China". Photos of this bridge are used as the cover of many articles introducing Slender West Lake and even Yangzhou.

Wuting Bridge was built in the 22nd year of Qianlong (1757). It was destroyed by Binghuo in the fifth year of Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty (1856). It was later rebuilt in the 21st year of the Republic of China (1933), and the Wuting Bridge Pavilion was rebuilt in 1990.

Bridge expert Mao Yisheng once said that the oldest bridge in China is the Zhaozhou Bridge, the most magnificent bridge is the Lugou Bridge, and the most artistic bridge is the Wuting Bridge in Yangzhou.

The main body of the Wuting Bridge is constructed of blue strips of stone, and the piers are located on the four wings, forming an "I" shape with the bridge deck. Together with the approach bridges on both sides, the bridge body has a total length of about 58 meters and a maximum width of about 19 meters.

The most distinctive feature of Wuting Bridge is the round arch under the bridge, with three small arches on each of the four wings, and the half arch under the north and south approach bridges. Together with the largest main arch, there are a total of 15 bridge holes. The bigger feature is the five pavilions built on the bridge deck, red pillars, glass, stone railings, and cornices, which are solemn and generous. The five pavilions each have their own names: Yongrui, Fucui, Longze, Chengxiang, and Zixiang. The pavilions are connected by short corridors, and the structure is smooth and in one go, forming a pavilion bridge.

The center arch of Wuting Bridge is 7.13 meters wide, and its horizontal span is not large. "Bridges are a branch of architecture and a testing ground for building structures. They often reflect the unique ability of a structure to span space... China's brick arch technology was widely used in underground buildings earlier than that in ground buildings, and was later used in ground buildings. This was because the ancestors first conceptually chose wood rather than stone as the preferred building material... The stone arch technology has matured after long-term practice in underground tombs, and its strong and beautiful characteristics have been recognized, so it has been widely used in bridges... Architecture is not a simple expression of technology or art. Its development process may be related to the unique metaphysical thinking of the Chinese nation." (Fang Yong, Fifteen Lectures on Traditional Chinese Architecture)

Wuting Bridge is a masterpiece among ancient bridge buildings. It is solid and ethereal. It combines the two-sided temperament of "show" and "male", and also vividly interprets the meaning of the oriental beauty that combines "rigidity" and "softness".

How can there be no poetry in such a beautiful place?

Yangzhou is good, with a high span of Wuting Bridge, clear waves on all sides and a moon mirror on all sides, hollow heads passing through the clouds, and listening to the jade flute at night. -- Qing, Huang Xing 'an,"Looking at Jiangnan. Yangzhou is good. Wuting Bridge."

Mr. Huang's Jade Ren Xiao should be taken from the original work of Du Mu in the Tang Dynasty. The poet Du Da expressed his love for the mountains and rivers of Yangzhou in "To Judge Han Chuo of Yangzhou" and wrote that "The green mountains are faintly and the rivers are far away, and the grass in the south of the Yangtze River has not withered yet at the end of autumn. On the bright night of the twenty-fourth bridge, where can the jade man teach to play flute?" A good sentence. The 24th Bridge described in the poem is located not far from the west side of Wuting Bridge.

When I first heard about the 24th Bridge, I thought it was a building complex composed of 24 bridges. After seeing the real appearance, I realized that I was only half right. The Twenty-Four Bridge is a building complex, but there are no 24 of them. It is a combination bridge connected by a mountain stream plank road, a single-hole arch bridge, a three-folded flat bridge and a blowing xiao pavilion.

The single-hole arch bridge in the 24th Bridge Building Complex should be its core symbol. The single-hole arch bridge is made of white marble material to build railings. From a distance, it looks like a flowing jade belt or a mini rainbow lying in a lake after rain. From a close look, the semicircular arch and the reflection in the water are integrated into each other, forming a complete circle. The arch bridge is 24 meters long and 2.4 meters wide, with 24 railings and 24 steps at the top and bottom, hence the name of the Twenty-Four Bridge.

Today's 24th Bridge is a scenic spot later rebuilt by the Yangzhou City government. The bridge where Lao Du stood and recited poems has long since been reduced to ashes. At this time, it is the end of autumn in the south of the Yangtze River. Perhaps we should come over at the bright moon and visit Slender West Lake at night. Above this half-solid and half-virtual stone circle and under the full moon, we can experience the ancients '"Twenty-Four Bridges Bright Moon Night". Fun and artistic conception.

Another main building in the 24th Bridge Scenic Area is Xichun Terrace, which is also the "Chuntai Bright Moon", one of the "24th Scenery" in Yangzhou. It is said that this was once specially built by a salt merchant in Yangzhou to celebrate Qianlong's birthday. It is said that it was the place where Qianlong celebrated his mother's birthday when he went to Jiangnan. No matter who it is celebrating and praying for, it is related to Qianlong anyway. The past of the romantic emperor has long been extinguished under the rolling wheels of history.

The Wuting Bridge is elegant and luxurious, and the 24th Bridge is gentle and elegant. However, the "small bridges" in other places in Slender West Lake will not be overshadowed by this. The Yuban Bridge, located not far from the east side of Qianlong Hall, has flowing lines and clever ideas. It connects the north bank and Xiaojinshan Island on a branch waterway of Slender West Lake. Through the bridge arch, you can see the main and auxiliary arch holes of Changchun Bridge not far away. There is a bridge in the bridge and a bridge outside the bridge. I don't know if it was the designer's intentional work or an inadvertent masterpiece.

There is also a small bridge next to Xuyuan. It has no name, but it does not hinder its elegant and exquisite temperament.

Perhaps in Yangzhou, any poetic meaning about the water town is just an existence that is accustomed to, and there is no need for extensive publicity or deliberate low-key.

Bridges, especially stone arch bridges, have irreplaceable cultural meanings in traditional Chinese buildings. In oriental garden design, bridges are often a strong highlight or even the finishing touch. The bridges shoulder the important responsibility of connecting all the scattered beautiful scenery to achieve a beautiful piece of beauty.

Fuzhuang. It was originally a private villa built by Yangzhou squire Chen Chenshuo in 1921. It is located on a small island in the water on the east side of Wuting Bridge. Fuzhuang is surrounded by water on all sides and has to be entered through a long stone bridge. The entire manor is like a mini island in the heart of the river floating on the water, completely remote from the land world.

Fuzhuang is very small and square, but the layout is exquisite everywhere. Carved railings, pavilions, water-facing corridors, fake stones are scattered and scattered. The manor has both outdoor air and pavilions. You can look into the distance by the water or enjoy the fish by leaning on the railing. Wuting Bridge is on the water side, but when viewed from the wooden corridor, it has a different charm.

Fuzhuang is undoubtedly an excellent pocket version of the oriental garden.

In the Shaolin Temple in the Eight Departments of the Dragon Dragon, a few sweeping monks are all masters.

Fu, pronounced "fu", means wild duck. Fuzhuang, literally understood, combined with the location and characteristics of the manor, should mean the countryside where wild ducks and water ducks live. Professionals with easy-to-understand texts analyze and speculate that Fuzhuang is surrounded and floating in the water, separated from the other side and only outside the abbot. The word "Fuzhuang" reflects the owner of the manor at that time who wanted to escape reality but also had feelings for Yunsheng. The ambivalent psychology of attachment to Yunsheng also reflects the owner's inner desire and longing to float his life independently.

The feeling of beauty is divided into levels and depths, depending on the different perspectives held by the aesthetic. It is not denied that beauty has a functional function and a mission to compare morality, but perhaps the ultimate philosophy of beauty is relaxation?

The interpretation of words may be just the wishful thinking of others. The road is as simple as it is. How can there be so many distorted connotations?

Fuzhuang landed ashore and walked dozens of steps along a stone path to Fahai Temple (also called Lianxing Temple, named after it during Kangxi's southern tour in 1705). According to records, Fahai Temple was built far earlier than the Qianlong period of Wuting Bridge.

The White Pagoda is an integral part of Fahai Temple. Like Wuting Bridge, the White Pagoda has become one of the landmark buildings in Yangzhou City.

The White Pagoda was built during the Qianlong period, imitating the White Pagoda in Beihai, Beijing. There is a thick square platform, a huge covering bowl, thirteen circles of round wheels engraved on the long tower neck, a hexagonal canopy, and a gourd copper roof.

The White Pagoda is commonly known as the "Lama Pagoda". As a cultural symbol of Tibetan Buddhism, the White Pagoda represents the place where sacred sites have appeared. Legend has it that the white pagoda on Slender West Lake was built "overnight" by Yangzhou accompanying officials during Qianlong's visit to Slender West Lake in order to please the emperor, and local salt merchants spent tens of thousands of gold.

Jingxiang Bookstore. It was an old building owned by salt merchants during the Qianlong period. Jin Nong, one of the eight monsters in Yangzhou, often traveled here. Jin Nong is especially good at painting plum blossoms. The bookstore department was rebuilt.

It is still the art of gardening.

Chinese gardens pay attention to implicitly and twists and turns, and every architectural structure strives to be non-identical or non-repetitive. The depth of the courtyard is not achieved by the size of the space or the length of the distance, but more by relying on changes in levels and the diversity of the buildings.

Compared with the southern scenic spots, the overall architectural layout in the area north of the 24th Bridge has gradually become sparse, but it has another refreshing garden experience.

Slender West Lake is not so much a "slimming" version of West Lake, but rather a "enlarged" version of Humble Administrator's Garden. There is a garden in the garden and there is water in the water. The double beauty of Slender West Lake's impression and meticulous brushwork has been played to perfection by many garden designers in the long history of history.

The pattern and shape of typical Chinese gardens is mostly a microcosm of the jungle, hills and valleys in nature. The mountains and rivers overlap, just like nature. Walking on the scattered forest corridors of Slender West Lake is like a giant striding across mountains, rivers and mountains. Compared with European gardens and West Asian gardens, Chinese gardens indeed have more temperature and tension of years.

There is a forest on the lake, a flowing stone wall, a stele corridor, a bonsai garden... More attractions can be swept by, and the fireworks will come to Yangzhou in March to enjoy them carefully.