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绿 色 竹 溪 Essay: Green Zhuxi By Ming Yang
竹溪，没去过的人说很远，去过的人说很美。远和美构成了竹溪的大概内容。 For those who have never been Zhuxi, they say it is a place far away while for those who have been there, they say it is a beautiful place. Farness and beauty are the basic two parts of people’s perception of Zhuxi. 竹溪依邻于陕渝，是湖北省飘落在西北角的一个山区小县，是莽莽苍苍的江汉平原头顶上的一只绿色“安全帽”。 Zhuxi lies near to Shaanxi and Sichu provinces and is a small county scattered among the mountains of the northwest of Hubei province. It looks likes a protective hat for the stretching Jiang-han Plains on the map.
有人说：竹溪人常年在旅游。此话并不过分。竹溪人生活在浓墨重彩的风景画里，消费的是旷阔浩瀚的绿色，亲吻的是秀丽清洁的美景，恐怕除了用“旅游”来形容生活情形外，再没有更合适的词了。 Some say people in Zhuxi live as tourists all year long. That hasn’t gone too far. Given the beautiful natural landscape, it seems as if people in Zhuxi lived in a beautiful picture, consuming the endless greenness and enjoying the clean scenery. There could not be a better word to describe what kind of life people in Zhuxi live than the word “tourists”.
竹溪的绿，不是一种简单的颜色。在这里，绿，像是被净化了的经过加工了的，又像是储存了几万年后被释放出来的，任意地铺排，故意地摇曳弄姿，显得格外地妖冶娇媚。 3300平方公里的土地，除了河流和农田外，其余都是树，活立木蓄积量超过800万立方米。巨大的绿色帐蓬，严严实实地覆盖着山山水水，极目了望，满目苍翠，绿色的山，绿色的水，绿色的树，郁郁葱葱，繁繁密密，重重叠叠。鲜嫩的树叶，一尘不染，在阳光的照耀下，莹亮剔透，青翠欲滴，似乎轻轻一戳，便会滴出水来。 The greenness in Zhuxi is not simple at all. Here the green color has been purified and reprocessed. The greenness also pours out just as if it has been suppressed for thousands of years. It stretches at its own will, making a few deliberate twists and turns here and there, just like a pretty young lady. Zhuxi County covers an area of 3300 square kilometers. Except for rivers and patches of farming land, the whole place abounds in trees. The wood stock of all living trees adds up to 8 million cubic meters. The trees have become a gigantic green tent that harbors all the rivers and mountains under its roof. Looking into any direction, you just see endless greenness. Rivers, mountains and tress are all green-hued. They form a green sea without boundaries. Under sunshine, tender leaves of trees are clean and glittering. They are so soft and green that it seems they would ooze out dripping water if they you just give them a gentle press.
身临竹溪，你便有一种掉进绿色染缸的感觉，伸手可及的是各姿各态的绿色原野；吸吮消化的空气，清凉、芳香、鲜美、醇厚而又甜润，进入肺腑后，顿觉清新凉爽。不是置身其境，你恐怕是很难体味到绿的这种本意的。 When you are in Zhuxi, you are in a dying jar of green colors. Wherever you go, the green fields are always within your easy reach. The air around you is cool, fresh, fragrant, mellow and sweet. When you breathe in a breath, you feel a freshness and coolness going all around your body. However, you will never get this feeling unless you come to Zhuxi someday.
这里的山，是被美化了的山，就象山里的人，朴实、厚敦，周身紧紧裹着绿袄，生怕露出皮肤来让人笑话。一个个奇形怪状的山脊，似乎与生俱来就是繁衍树木的，如同一页页信笺，密密麻麻写满风情万种的树木花草，传递着大地热爱生活的情思。春夏秋冬，绿青黄红，满山的植被，翻过一页又一页。季节的更替，信笺的绿色底色并没有太大的变化，只是经过黄红色洗礼后，更绿更青了。 Mountains here are beautiful, just like people living in them, plain and simple. The mountains are covered in a green parker and they will not let out even a small part of its skin as if they are in fear of being laughed at for that. The mountains have grotesquely twisted ridges that are born to be good growing ground for trees. They also look like sheets and sheets of a long letter, written in all kinds of graceful trees and plants. Throughout the four seasons of the years, they first become green, then yellow and finally turn red. The vegetation of the mountains are thus like pages being turned during the course of time. The seasons may change, but the green background just stay. Having been yellow and red, they are just hued with more greenness in the following year.
这里的人，生活十分惬意，喝的是矿泉水，吃的是无污染的山野菜和农产品，全然不知环境劣化和食品污染的味道。一位新闻记者评价说：竹溪是绿色的故乡，山在绿中，镇在林中，路在树中，水在泉中，人在福中。 People in Zhuxi live a quite self-content life. They drink natural mineral waters and eat vegetables and farm produce that are unpolluted. Polluted environment and polluted foods are just unimaginable for them. As a journalist once put, Zhuxi is a hometown of greenness, mountains in greenness, towns among woods, roads under trees, water in springs and people in bliss.
森林，是世界上最大的环保型空调，它把竹溪的气候调节到人类生存的最适宜状态。一年之中，这里最低温度不过零下一两度，最高温度也莫过于三十五六度，偶尔超过，也只是一天半晌。森林还调节湿度，竹溪的年降雨量在一千一百毫米左右，空气的湿度常年在40%上下，潮而不湿，温而不燥，冬无严寒，夏无酷暑。这里几乎没有烟尘和噪音污染，能见度很高，人们目及之处，都是物质的本色，因而，地格外的绿，天格外的蓝。人生存在这样的环境里，不仅惬意而且富足。 Forests are the largest environment-favorable air-conditioning in the world. It is the forests that adjust the climate to an extent where people find living in Zhuxi is most desirable. During the course of the year, the lowest temperature is no colder than minus two degrees and the highest temperature is no warmer than 35 or 36 degrees. Sometimes it also goes higher than that, but it never lasts more than one or two days. The forests can also adjust the humidity of the atmosphere. The yearly rainfall in Zhuxi is 1100 millimeters, and the humidity remains 40% or so throughout the year. With the forests doing a big favor to people living in Zhuxi, we never feel too dry or too humid. We don’t have a super hot summer; neither do we have a super cold winter. Zhuxi is a place far away from smog and much noise, and visibility here is high. Wherever you go, you see the true color of things. The fields are particularly green and the sky is most blue. When people live in this environment, their life is nothing but comfort and affluence.
自然界的物种，同样青睐这样的生态环境。境内的维管束植物达1500多种，珍稀物种达500多个，国家一级保护动物就有金钱豹、梅花鹿等4种，二级保护动物30多种；国家重点保护植物达50多种，其中一级保护植物有红豆杉、珙桐、银杏等6种。竹溪茶叶内质丰富而又纯净，连年在荣获国家级金奖，唐代宫庭贡茶“梅子茶”就产于梅子茶场；被称为“东方魔粉”的魔芋，产量大，精粉含量高，被国家授予“中国魔芋之乡”称号；黄连覆盖全县高山地区，1958年就被国务院命名为“黄连之乡”……植物学家说，竹溪是亚热带已不多见的原始‘动植物宝库’，是研究我国珍稀动植物的一部天然‘百科全书’”。 Zhuxi is also rich in species. There are more than 1500 kinds of plants in Zhuxi, of which more than 500 are of rare species. The sate government has listed 50 of them as important for protection, with gingko and other five as first-class for protection. When it comes to animals, Zhuxi has four kinds listed as first-class for protection. Spotted deer are just one kind of them. Zhuxi is also the home to other 30 kinds of animals that have been listed by China as second-class for protection. Tealeaves produced here are clean and rich in elements. They have won golden medals for many years at the country-level. Mei-zi Tea Leaves, which were sent for the emperor’s consumption in Tang Dynasty, is produced in the Mei-zi Tealeaves Growing Garden. Konjak, called “Oriental Magic Powder” by some, is also a specialty in Zhuxi. The state government has even listed Zhuxi as the Hometown of Konjak. Yellow Ginger is another specialty in Zhuxi. They are grown along the hillsides of higher altitude. As early as in 1958, Zhuxi was listed as the Hometown of Yellow Ginger. The list of specialties in Zhuxi may go as long as several pages. We use what some botanists once said of Zhuxi to bring this topic to an end. Some botanists once said Zhuxi is a rare “treasury house of plants and animals”, which might act as a cyclopedia for studies and research on plants and animals in China.
这里，山岭和平地轮廓分明，绵绵青山将农田围成一个个盆地。一畈一畈的田野偎依着青青的山脚，每到收获季节，闪烁着金黄，阡陌尽头随意点缀的村舍，炊烟袅袅。青青的山，绿绿的树，蓝蓝的水，黄黄的麦，勾勒出人间美景。 In Zhuxi, there is clear distinction between the mountainous area and the plain area. The winding mountains surround the plains, making the latter thus look like basins. Patches of farming fields lie at the foot of the hills. When it is harvest season, the fields are glittering with golden rays. At the end of the fields, there are villages scattered around in a casual way. Twisting cooking smoke goes up from the chimneys of each house. It is a heavenly picture on earth with all those green hills and trees, blue water and yellow wheat fields.
这里，山川秀丽，如岱的山峦随意地伸展，安静地站在自然界里接受着人类的检阅；蜿蜒的公路穿行于山的肌肤之中，好似绿色血液中的褐色血管，传递着山里山外的信息。山与山之间则是条条黄金水道，流金飞银的泉水在山涧弹着琴，跳着舞，唱着歌，召集到一起，欢快地走向田野、流向村庄、奔向远方。听惯了泉水叮咚的山民，将溪水斩断，做成水库，建成电站，使泉水变成了“钱水”。有条万江河，全长不过30公里，人们在下游不足10公里的河段上，修了四座电站，水被重复利用了四次，真可谓是“飞流直下三千尺，疑是上天送钱财”。 In Zhuxi, rivers and mountains are elegant. The light black-hued mountains stretch around in a casual way, ready for a parade before the eyes of people. Winding roads run through the mountains, like blood veins in our body, by witch the outside world is connected to the inside world. Among the mountains are also found golden waterways. Water in creeks splashes like silver sheets. It flows along, singing and dancing until all creek water come together to form bigger rivers. As it flows in the mountains, it greets the fields and villages until it disappear in the distance. The hard-working people build dams across the rivers to make better use of the natural force. On these dams, they build power plants. Of all the rivers, there is a special one that deserves mentioning here: the Wan-quan River. It is no longer than 30 kilometers, but only along the lower part of it, which is less than 10 kilometers long, people have built 4 power plants on it. The natural force thus has been reused for 4 times. Just as many people say, when the river goes along, we are endowed with a treasury of electricity.
秀美的土地孕育出奇绝的山川。尚处于原始状态的旅游景点十八峡，传说惊心动魄，景色奇绝如画。相传，唐中宗李显被流放房陵时，途径此峡，携带的第十八个女儿月儿貌若天仙，美艳绝伦，被峡中妖怪抢走，幸被砍柴的樵哥发现，救下月儿。妖怪不服输，与樵哥展开生与死、血与泪的争斗。在山神和土地神的帮助下，樵哥最终战胜了妖魔。于是，就留下了虎口拨牙、香乳瀑、鬼门关、龙王洞、剑削峰、花轿顶等数十个传奇印记。峡谷深邃幽长，古木葱茏，天光暝暗，泉溪潺潺，景点密布，气势恢宏。 In this elegant part of the world, we also have many uniquely shaped mountains. The Eighteen Gorges remain under primitive conditions. They are rich both in legends that send you into awe and beautiful scenes that make you bow in admiration. One of the legends is about a young man who saved a princess from the outrage of a monster with the help of gods. The story took place in Tang Dynasty, which is more than one thousand years away from now. Emperor Li Xian once traveled with his eighteenth daughter in the Eighteen Gorges. The princess was so beautiful that a monster living in the gorges took her away by force. A young man saw all that. The young man then saved the princess. When the monster found out what happened, he requested a duel with the young man. The fight about survival was fought with much bleeding from both sides. Fortunately, the God of Mountain and the God of Earth delivered their timely justice. With the help of the two Gods, the young man defeated the monster. For this story, now we have a series of scenic spots that are named after the legend. The Eighteen Gorges are deep and remote, with ancient trees shadowing overhead. As creeks sing along, you can have a good taste of all the scenic spots, which present themselves before your eyes just one after another. The uniquely shaped mountains are hazardous but just great.
竹溪河是堵河的主源，堵河的出水口在丹江口水库。国家南水北调中线工程即将动工，竹溪的绿色之水将来大部分要北上河南、河北，进京入津，造福生活在平原和国际大都市的人民。为此竹溪人民进一步退耕还林，封山蓄林，将经济发展、资源开发与环境保护、生态建设结合了起来，使山更绿、林更茂、水更清，让更多的人共享绿色生活的幸福快乐。 Zhuxi River is the main source of Du River, which flows into the Danjiangkou Reservoir. When the South-to-North Water Transfer Project starts at the reservoir, the clean water of Zhuxi will run northward to Henan, Hebei, Tianjin and even Beijing. By that time, the clean water of Zhuxi will have also benefited people living on North China Great Plains and in metropolitans. People in Zhuxi have started given up farming lands for woods to make sure the freshness and cleanness of the water will not lost in future. They have also taken great efforts to balance economic development and exploitation of resources with the need to protect the environment and to preserve the delicate ecological system. In future, we believe the mountains in Zhuxi will be greener, the woods will be thicker and the water will be cleaner, and more people will be able to share the happy moments of a green life.
