It’s overcast the day before yesterday. Such kind of weather is quite suitable for travelling. So a friend and I got up early and set off to Peng'an, a small county in northeast Sichuan, for sightseeing. Internet tells me that this county is known for its well-preserved ancient town and its beautiful sceneries along its Jialing River section.

As I mentioned before, my hometown Langzhong has been famous as one of the four best preserved ancient cities of China (the other three are Lijiang city of Yunnan, Pingyao county of Shanxi and She county of Anhui), in recent years, it has been stepping up its efforts to develop itself into an attractive tourist city. I was wondering, since Peng'an also has an ancient town, then why don't I go and have a look? Besides, both Peng'an county and Langzhong city enjoy the gentle embrace of Jialing River. It further increased my curiosity to explore that strange place.

It's just two hours' bus ride from Langzhong city where I live, so the bus journey wasn't quite tiring. However, even before the bus arrived at its destination, the Peng’an Bus Station, I already felt a sense of disappointment. The county I saw through the bus windows were dirty and untidy, the buildings were old and ugly, much different from what I had expected. Before getting off the bus at about 11:10, I asked the nice bus driver about the way to the ancient town. Knowing that I went there as a tourist, he advised me to take his bus back to Langzhong at 1: 50 pm as there’s not much to see except that small ancient town. Taking it with a grain of salt, I thanked him lavishly and started our exploration.

First we went to a large square, only about 300 meters away from the bus station. Strangely, no one else was on the square. On the right of the square lay a beautiful small park where I took a few pictures. This small park dispelled part of my previous disappointment and we began to cheer up.

Then the bus No. 1 took us to the riverside, which led to the ancient town. Not many people were seen there. The unclean stone street along the river was sparsely dotted by litter. It was until then that I came to realize how lucky and proud I was to be able to live in Langzhong, such a clean and beautiful city. The only thing that impressed me there were the many amazing stone and bronze sculptures by the street, silently telling the visitors about this county’s history and culture.

About 20-minute’s walk along the river, we finally reached the ancient town. Most houses there seemed to have a history of probably one hundred years. Inside those small wooden houses lived their original residents who had been there for generations. There were some small shops, mostly owned by the residents there, selling daily necessities, old books or snacks. Their business appeared quite sluggish, yet they didn’t seem to mind.

At around 1 pm, we left the ancient town and found a small restaurant nearby to feed ourselves. I felt myself in a market, because the environment there told me so, but strangely no vegetable or meat vendors were in my sight. Ah, a middle-aged woman was selling grapes by the road. I came up and bought a bunch of inviting dark purple grapes. We took it as an appetizer for our lunch.

After lunch, we intended to hang around the small county. However, nothing more seemed to appeal to us. Well, probably it’s time to leave. The bad news was that we had missed the last direct bus back to Langzhong. So we had to resort to another way, buy two tickets to Nanchong city and then change buses there to Langzhong. After four hours’ bus ride, we finally arrived at Langzhong at 7 pm. Although it took us two more hours on the bus and more money for the bus tickets, at least we could return home and sleep a comfortable sleep at our own homes.

At last, I’d say, keeping clean and tidy is necessary and important not only for we individuals, but also for the cities, counties or towns as a whole. If the governments want their jurisdictions to thrive and prosper, they should at least keep them clean and tidy, thus help build up their people’s confidence in a better society while giving their visitors a favorable first impression.

in a small park

a buffalo ploughing a field

a young woman is picking up silk cocoons and puting them into a back basket.