Dujiangyan Travelogue, Dujiangyan Travelogue Composition

Dujiangyan is a place name we often see in history textbooks. Here, over two thousand years ago, the largest water conservancy irrigation project in human history began to be built. It is also the cultural origin and beginning of Sichuan’s Tianfu Plain, and here I will share a Dujiangyan Travelogue composition with you.

Many ancient projects are the crystallization of the wisdom of our ancestors, including Dujiangyan. While we admire it, we should learn its scientific planning spirit.

In fact, I believe that in ancient China, whether it be buildings or water conservancy projects, they were built not only to meet human needs. Another point is that the biggest characteristic of these projects is that they arise naturally and are built in accordance with nature. This is also the feng shui layout advocated in Taoism.

If modern Chinese architecture could consider these things more, it should be able to leave behind a lot of solid and practical things for future generations. Just like Dujiangyan, it has survived the 521 earthquake. The Temple of Heaven in Beijing, the drainage system concept of the Forbidden City, far surpasses those modern urban design and architectural masters.

Because, now people design buildings, mostly seeing a point. But the ancients saw the whole mountain, the whole city, or even the whole natural world that is constantly thriving.

First, the training in Dujiangyan for a week ended, and I finally returned to this plateau town.

After dinner, taking a bath, washing clothes, sitting in front of the computer, I couldn’t help but open the document and wanted to write something. I don’t know what caused it, but thoughts came flooding in, and the screen was filled with these words: Hometown-like Dujiangyan.

I am not a native of Dujiangyan, nor am I from Sichuan, but I inexplicably have a kind of feeling for this small town, which is hard to describe.

After much thought, I suddenly remembered a line from Su Dongpo: “Where my heart is at peace, there is my home.” These words were originally said by the singer, Rou Nu, who accompanied her friend Wang Dingguo to exile in Binzhou, Guangdong after he was implicated in the Wutai Poetry Case. The question she was trying to answer was: “Is Guangdong not a good place?”

Dujiangyan, this ancient town, is only over an hour’s drive from the center of Chengdu, but it is the source of Chengdu’s rise, and even the entire Sichuan province. It enjoys the reputation of the “Source of the Tianfu Plain” because of the ancient water conservancy project named Dujiangyan, which has created the reputation of Sichuan as the “Land of Abundance.” Therefore, it also has another name, Guanxian.

Second, there is too much rain in Dujiangyan in October, as if it can’t get enough.

When we arrived, it was a cloudy day after rain. The ground was wet, and the dark clouds pressed down on the sky, making it seem low and heavy.

Fortunately, the rain always starts and stops without warning. Most of the time, it’s not heavy. It won’t get you too wet if you walk a short distance without an umbrella.

The ground and the trees are covered with moss, some grayish-green, some emerald green. Some small seedlings grow in the moss on the trees, and some even bloom with tiny flowers.

Adjacent to the Dujiangyan water conservancy project is Sichuan Water School, actually called Sichuan Water Conservancy Vocational and Technical College, but people seem to have long been accustomed to its old name.

We are in its newly established Li Bing Continuing Education College this year, and among our fellow students, there is actually a Li Bing, and another one, whose name sounds similar but has different characters.

A grassy lawn and a simple school gate isolate the hustle and bustle of the scenic area from the outside. This is an old campus with a history of over sixty years. Its main function has probably been transformed into hosting various trainings, and there are not many students here.

Many mottled dormitory buildings, the red paint revealing patches of gray, don’t seem old, but rather add to their sense of weight. Plants that love to climb cover the walls, showing the tenacity of life.

Tall sycamore trees grow along the roadside, their gnarled branches stretch out, and their broad leaves spread out. The sky above is completely covered, and on sunny days, only a few scattered patches of sunlight can penetrate. On rainy days, rain drops, having been rolled around for a long time, drip down from the leaves.

Third, the name Dujiangyan is obviously too famous, so much so that even I don’t know whether I’m talking about the water conservancy project or the place itself if I don’t add a suffix.

Actually, with my picky and nitpicking nature, I don’t like this way of doing things. I always feel that using just these three words to refer to the project is very good. If I add “water conservancy project,” the ancient and profound meaning is greatly reduced.

Just like Qinghai Lake here, I still prefer the name without the word “lake,” but because of the establishment of the province, it had to be changed to its current name. There are also some famous old brands that now have suffixes like “Limited Company,” which is not very aesthetically pleasing.

This ancient project was built during the Warring States period, supervised by Li Bing, the prefect of Shu County under the Qin Dynasty. It has been in use for over two thousand years and is still functioning. It constantly receives visits from tourists from all over the world and is admired by water conservancy professionals.

To be honest, even as a water conservancy professional who knew the name and had read descriptions of its principles, I still didn’t have a deep understanding of it. After listening to the introduction this time, I became even more confused.

So I had to find some materials to continue studying, and finally I figured it out. Unfortunately, there are still many errors in many of the videos and articles about it, which is truly regrettable.

Fourth, rivers throughout history have been mostly winding, and the surface of the winding rivers is not level.

In the winding sections of the river, in terms of the river bank, the water flow is affected by centrifugal force, one side is eroded and concave inward, this is the concave bank;

The other side lacks water flow and accumulates silt, gradually becoming convex, this is the convex bank. Straight channels also become increasingly winding because of this.

The water flow is also affected, and the water surface becomes higher on the concave bank and lower on the convex bank, like when you turn on a bicycle, the bike and the person both lean inward towards the curve, and the faster the speed, the more the lean.

The water flow in the bend, while flowing downstream, also rolls on the surface in both directions of the bank, from the convex bank to the concave bank, and underwater, it flows from the concave bank to the convex bank again, forming a circular water flow.

The water flow on the concave bank thus becomes lighter and clearer, while the convex bank becomes heavier and more turbid, and silt continues to accumulate on the convex bank.

The Dujiangyan project, the Neijiang at the Yuzuizui (Fish’s Mouth) at the uppermost reach, where water is diverted for irrigation, is located on the concave bank, naturally making it easier to draw clear water flow. Furthermore, the Neijiang is deep and narrow, while the Waijiang (Outer River) is wide and shallow. This ensures that when the water is low, the Neijiang can draw enough water, while when the water is high, the excess water flows down the wider Waijiang, and the Neijiang’s water intake does not become excessive. This is the principle of “Four-Six” and “Balancing Drought and Flood.”

Although the silt is less, there is still silt in the water drawn by the Neijiang, and sometimes the water volume is too high. Therefore, there are the Feishayan (Flying Sand Weir) and the Baopingkou (Treasure Bottle Mouth).

That is, the water drawn from the Neijiang is divided into two streams, and the excess water is discharged from the top of the Feishayan because the water level exceeds it. Relative to the Feishayan, the Baopingkou is still at the end of the concave bank, which allows further silt removal. The Baopingkou is narrower than the Neijiang, and together with the impact of the rocks, silt is either discharged from the Feishayan or accumulates in front of the weir, where it is excavated annually during dredging. In order to determine the dredging depth, stone horses and iron objects are buried at the bottom, and when they are reached, it means that the dredging is complete.

Fifth, I seem to be a person who likes to pick holes, but I never do it for the sake of picking holes. Some important things still need to be clarified.

For example, regarding the water diversion and silt removal of Dujiangyan, according to the ratios of “Four-Six,” and “One-Nine,” some people say that the water intake is 60% during the dry season and 40% during the flood season, and that the amount of sand entering the Baopingkou is 5%, while the amount discharged is 95%.

However, they do not consider that the water volume and sand volume are constantly changing every moment. How can there be such accurate data? The so-called “Four-Six” is simply a distinction between 40% and 60%, and it is just a rough estimate, not the actual numbers of 40% and 60%.

A person who is good at thinking and discerning right from wrong needs to learn the spirit and essence of the predecessors, and never follow blindly and rigidly. If they do so, no matter how well they learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, they will still be heading in the wrong direction because the foundation is wrong from the beginning.

Sixth, Dujiangyan is indeed a great water conservancy project, just like the Zhengguo Canal, the Ling Canal, and so on, but Li Bing is even greater than Zheng Guo and others.

Because the Zhengguo Canal, the Ling Canal, and other ancient projects are now just history, while Dujiangyan is still playing a huge role.

The greatness of Dujiangyan lies in the fact that Li Bing, not only like Zheng Guo and others, supervised the construction of great water conservancy projects, benefiting the people of the time, but he also raised the management and maintenance of this project to a very high level, forming a system and tradition, so that it continued year after year, generation after generation, allowing it to function for a long time and continuously benefit the people downstream.

Two thousand years later, in the present day, the problem of “reconstruction over management,” an ancient problem, still exists in water conservancy work. It is likely that other sectors in the construction industry also have these problems, so Dujiangyan still has great practical inspiration and educational significance.

Dujiangyan is a great project, it’s great to be great. Because of its greatness, many people from ancient times to the present have paid attention to and valued it. This is also the reason why so many historical figures have their statues on the Yengongdao (Weir Achievement Path) in the Stone Mountain Park.

Because of its greatness, many rulers of the Shu region from ancient times to the present have regarded the maintenance of this project as a very important matter. Dredging, repair, and other matters have been given high priority, and the farmers and laborers involved have felt that this is a great and meritorious task, so they have devoted their hearts and souls to ensure its long-term operation.

Seventh, perhaps because I often attend various trainings, this training is not particularly outstanding among all the trainings I’ve attended.

As the teacher joked, Sichuan’s Mandarin is still different from that of teachers in Beijing and other places, but we can still learn a lot of knowledge related to work and personal growth in this week-long time, listening to different teachers explain this knowledge from different perspectives, and stimulating our thinking. This is still very valuable.

Compared to the standardized service of the hotel, the food in the school cafeteria is simple, and the service is not as standardized, but I suddenly felt the feeling of being back in school.

The cafeteria auntie collecting meal tickets actually stretched out her hand to prevent students who hadn’t handed in their tickets from doing so first. The actions of the uncle collecting plates and wiping tables were still different from those of girls in other places, but it didn’t cause any displeasure.

The downtown area, on the other hand, is filled with delicious food everywhere. The steamed stone pot fish in Longtanwan, the courtyard drinking in front of Yulei Mountain Park, and so on, all have a unique and wonderful taste. Occasionally having a few drinks makes the deliciousness even more elevated.

Eighth, October in Dujiangyan is indeed a harvest season, and the fish and river delicacies that are everywhere are getting fat.

Oranges have been ripe for a long time, and they are already very sweet. The occasional hint of sourness further stimulates the taste buds.

The so-called wild kiwis in the Dujiangyan Scenic Area are small in size, but they are so sweet. However, when I went to look for them again, I couldn’t find them in many places. On the tall grapefruit trees at the entrance of Yulei Mountain, large grapefruits are hanging, but they are not ripe yet, and they are still a bit sour.

Behind me, Dujiangyan is still a sea of green under a cloudy sky, but once the train leaves Sichuan and emerges from the darkness, the plateau is filled with golden yellow, mixed with some red, purple, and green, truly a harvest season, not only in Dujiangyan, not only on this plateau, but also in many other places in this ancient country.

In the past, when science and technology were not developed and the level of productivity was low, there were many constraints in building a project. People who built projects were very respectful of nature, so they conducted thorough research and planning before building projects. Now, the level of science and technology is high, and large-scale machinery and equipment are readily available, so the construction speed of projects has been constantly accelerated. “Rushing the work, it’s not washed clean,” and the quality has become much rougher than before.