Ji Yong Yong at the mouth of Hill River.

Road is often the fundamental factor that determines the development of a place. Before the development of highway transportation, using natural waterways for transportation was the most important mode of transportation. Many villages have naturally emerged on both sides of the waterway, and Yongkou Village is such a village.

Yongkou Village is located in the southwest of Xibin Town, Youxi County, with Huangyan Mountain in the east and Lady Mountain in the west. Hualanxi runs through the whole territory from south to north, and flows into Youxi River at the end of the village, which makes Yongkou develop rapidly by means of waterway transportation and become the central post station of land and water transportation in Yangzhong, Tang Chuan, Xiwei, Zhongxian and Taixi. According to the record of Xibin Hometown, from the end of Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, business travelers gathered in Yongkou Street and the market flourished. There are four Suzhou-Guangzhou department stores (Yisheng, Yutong, Yang Shengli and Changshengmao) with a price of over 10,000 yuan, and more than 20 grocery stores. The old people in the village recalled that in the 1950s, there were 7 hotels, 7 restaurants and 5 butchers in Yongkou Village, so you can imagine the bustling scene at that time.

At the most, there were more than 40 surnames in Yongkou Village, and now there are 35 surnames. Most of their ancestors made a living in Yongkou, settled down and multiplied to this day. So many surnames also reflect the prosperity of Yongkou in those days. Some foreigners came here to set up shop and work, and found it easy to make a living, so they stayed. Up to now, there is still a saying in the village that "it is better to go east and west than to live in Yongkou", which means that it is better to stay in Yongkou to make a living.

There is an iron cable bridge in the middle of Yongkou Village, which was built in 198 1 to facilitate cross-strait exchanges. On the west bank of Tiesuo Bridge, villagers and village cadres told us that the coast is an ancient official road leading to Hualan Village. A closer look reveals that there is a stone road less than one meter wide on the shore, which was dug along the river bank. It's hard to imagine that the early ancestors ran around at both ends of such a narrow stone road to survive. If the village cadres hadn't told me, I would never dare to take this as a road. The village cadres also told me that there is an official road "opposite the mountain", which leads to Youxi County, about 15 km. Because it is uphill, businessmen from Fuzhou often have to spend the night at Yongqou after landing at Yongqou Wharf, so they can have a rest for one night and walk away vigorously. The "opposite mountain" in the mouth of village cadres is Lady Mountain, which is named after the Lady Palace on the mountain. Now Lady Palace has moved to the east bank of Tiesuo Bridge, and Lady Mountain has become an "opposite mountain" because it is opposite to the village.

Yongkouyin is the confluence of Youxi and Hualanxi. During the prosperous period of water transportation, it became the main road of land and water transportation and the port of material handling in the lower reaches of Youxi River, with an average annual transportation of more than 50,000 cubic meters of timber. The neighboring timber is transported to Fuzhou here, which is consistent with the shape of the raft in the village, so there is a saying that "the raft is shaped like a raft, and the storage of wood is sky-shaped". The raft went down the river from Yongkou Wharf and was transported to Fuzhou in five days. The workers put up tents on the raft, and they ate and lived on the raft for five days.

1957, in order to facilitate the transportation of timber, there was a flat track lane dedicated to pulling timber from Yongkou to Daning Village, Xiwei Township. This scene can be found in the movie "Lin Hai Xue Yuan". 1966 forestry highway is built on the basis of flat track. Now, the forestry highway has been hardened by cement, and it has become the traffic artery from Yongkou to Hualan, Yangzhong and Xixiwei.

Abundant water resources not only provide a convenient waterway for the gusher, but also provide power support for production and life. In the era when there was no electricity, villagers stopped Huaxi to build water conservancy projects, installed waterwheels, and shelled rice with carts, which has become an important tool for villagers' grain processing for hundreds of years. An inclined bamboo tube is installed on the impeller of the waterwheel, and a canal is set at the dumping place of the bamboo tube to receive water, so that the waterwheel can do work and scoop water to irrigate fertile fields.

As early as 1957, there was a hydropower station in Yongkou Village, with an installed capacity of 17 kW, which could provide lighting for the whole village for 3 hours at night and 2 hours in the morning. 1974, the lutouxia hydropower station was built in yongkou village, with an installed capacity of 125 kW, which can be used for lighting and processing in the whole village and entered the electric power era. This is very advanced compared with kerosene lamp lighting used by many rural families in 1970s.

Water transport has made Yongkou prosperous. Until the 1980s, Yongkou was a key village in the southwest of Xibin Town. There are township branches such as buying and selling stations, post offices, purchasing stations, credit cooperatives and grain depots on Yongkou Street, which is the first village in the county to be rated as a municipal civilized village. Later, Youkou Highway was opened to traffic, National Highway 3 16 was opened to traffic, Yin Fu Expressway was opened to traffic, and Xiangpu Railway was opened to traffic. The traffic pattern changed, and the once land and water traffic arteries and material loading and unloading ports gradually lost their former glory. From 65438 to 0993, with the completion of Shuikou Hydropower Station, the Yongkou Waterway became history, and the former Yongkou Wharf also became a submerged area. Now, we can only get a glimpse of people coming and going and rafts stretching from the old construction sites such as timber transport teams, timber yards and water transport stations.

This knife cuts bread and fingers. Five kilometers away from China Lanxi Tongyongkou, there is a "Three Gates" miracle, which consists of three dangerous and spectacular gates: Natural Longtan, Fantong and Dam Kou. Swarms of otters live here. In the past, many rafts were blocked and people were killed. The villagers thought it was an otter god, so they built a temple on the right bank of Longtan to offer sacrifices. When the raft passes through here, they will prepare three wine offerings to sacrifice to the otter god. 1957 when building a railway drift, the rocks along the coast were blown off, which was not as steep as before, but the danger still existed. Nowadays, travelers still have to sigh every time they pass a forestry highway.

Yongkou Street was originally set near a stream and suffered many floods in history. According to records, during the 1924 Jiazi flood, a large number of houses in Yongkou Street collapsed and were washed away. In June 1934, 1 1, 73 houses were destroyed in Yongkou Street, and 5 people were drowned. On June 1960, a catastrophic flood directly washed away all the houses in Yongkou Street. After this robbery, the villagers retreated to the foot of Huangyan Mountain to build houses and gradually formed the present Yongkou Village.

Prosperity has always been a battleground for military strategists. Yongkou village suffered not only floods, but also military disasters. 19 12 12 In February, bandits from Changyuan Chen broke into Yongkou and took away 2,000 taels of silver and 5 taels of gold. 19 14, Li Yuanji, the governor of Fujian, sent troops into Youxing to suppress Lu Xingbang and stationed in Yongkou. The next day, 50 soldiers and 20 regiments formed a death squad. When they arrived, they were attacked by Lu, causing casualties 18. 19 17, Lu Xingbang sent Xiao Yuanxin, an adjutant, to Yongkou with a donation of 3,000 yuan, 5 pigs and 50 chickens and ducks. 192 1 year, Chen Rongbiao bandits 100 people attacked Yongkou, 8 of them were killed by militia in the bunker, and 54 houses along the street were burned when retreating. 1925, Zhou Yinren, a warlord stationed in Fujian, sent a northern soldier to Yongkou, and anyone who was suspicious was shot. /kloc-in August of 0/2, seven people died in one day. 1926, Lu Xingrong of Lu Bu attacked Yongkou, and the northern soldiers retreated without fighting. When they left, they robbed three shops and took six women with them. 1930, Lu Xingbang went to war with Liu Heding, and Lu was defeated and returned to Youxi, passing through Yongkou, asking the local people to build stretchers, send porters and provide accommodation, which made the villagers uncomfortable. On May 1949, 13, the Kuomintang Fifth Army was defeated and plundered by Yongkou.

The hardships of the villagers in Yongkou have honed again and again, which has created their perseverance. After the founding of New China, they started a new journey, building Yongkou into a star village from generation to generation. As early as the 1980s, Yongkou Village was rated as a municipal civilized village, ranking first in the county.

Russula is a specialty of Yongkou Village, and is known as the favorite of Fujian people. Stewed chicken with red mushrooms is a famous dish in Fujian and a home-cooked dish of Yongkou people. Russula is a rare wild edible fungus, which requires high soil and climate, and can not be cultivated artificially at present. Scarcity is the most precious thing, and russula is rich in nutrition and delicious, so it has the reputation of "king of mushrooms". Nowadays, it is popular in central Fujian to eat stewed chicken with red mushrooms in confinement.

Thanks to the excellent ecological environment in the surrounding mountainous areas, Yongkou has been rich in russula since ancient times. However, russula did not increase production because of its rising value, nor did it decrease production because of long-term picking by villagers. It blooms calmly every day according to the laws of nature and happily faces the villagers' picking.

Good ecology makes natural people live long. Yongkou Village is a well-known longevity village. According to the records of Xibin Township, there were two centenarians in the village in the 1980s. A song, Wang Zhi, often teaches his relatives and friends: "Be aboveboard, honest and selfless. Although I am a village woman, these principles remain unchanged at 100",1kloc-0/year. Alin Xiuying, 100 years old, can still go shopping by herself, and spent a long time 104. According to the village cadres, there are more than 20 elderly people over 90 years old in Yongkou Village.

Maybe it's because red mushrooms eat too much. Yongkou people live a leisurely life. No matter how many disasters have been experienced in the past, no matter how the traffic pattern changes, Yongkou people don't care or complain, and always strive to build their hometown better. In recent years, Yongkou Village has successively implemented street lighting, landscape nodes, sidewalks, wooden plank roads and other projects, and built a forest family park, which greatly improved the village appearance and became a well-known beautiful countryside.

Recently, in Yongkou Street, beside the stream and at the foot of the mountain, a leisurely figure appeared. He is Xu, an expert in environmental science. After he left home as a teenager, he was obsessed with the mountains and rivers in his hometown after studying. So he gave up the generous treatment abroad and resolutely returned to China to serve the motherland, having more time to live in his hometown. He always walks around in the early morning and evening, regaining childhood memories, taking out a camera in his pocket, and recording the striking moments of the rising and setting of the sun and moon in his hometown, as well as the clever figures of various animals such as birds and snakes.

Yongkou Village has a long history, which can be traced back to the 23rd year of Kaiyuan of Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (735), earlier than Youxi County. With a long history, the traditional culture has been well passed down, and the Xu family instructions and Wu family instructions in the village still bind future generations after hundreds of years. Although there are more than 30 surnames in the village, all surnames can live in harmony and happiness.

Speaking of Yongkou, the most fascinating thing is the Xu Family Courtyard. JOE Institute was built in the 16th year of Qing Daoguang (1836). It is a large-scale defensive local residential building with earth fort architectural elements, which integrates residential building and defense. As can be seen from the building of JOE Courtyard, bandits began to wander in the rural areas of central Fujian in the late Qing Dynasty. JOE Courtyard is the only residence in the village that escaped the looting of the 1960 flood. After the catastrophic flood that year, all the homeless villagers moved into JOE compound temporarily. With an open mind, JOE Courtyard used 228 rooms to accommodate the whole village and help them through that difficult time.

Stepping into the JOE compound, flying over the courtyard of the house, and looking at the white wall and blue tile woodcarving, it seems that it is expected to wear the prosperity of that year and overlap with the glory of history. What interests us most is that many big red characters were found on the transverse wall on the south side, and we can vaguely distinguish the handwriting such as "bright spring", "cool breeze and bright moon" and "lucky stars shine high". Calligraphy is not an art, I don't know when it was written, but we can see its people's pursuit of elegance and hope for a better life. On the east side of the podium, I found the handwriting of "Huangshi, the division commander of Fujian Second Division", which was crooked and illegible. It should have been left by the garrison during the warlord scuffle in the Republic of China. The tolerance of courtyards in JOE has its historical tradition.

There is a former Notre Dame in Houmen Street, Yongkou, dedicated to Mrs. Chen, Mrs. Lin and Li Furen, also known as "Mrs. Linshui". Lady Linshui is a goddess worshipped by Fujian people and regarded as the patron saint of the village. Notre Dame was destroyed in the catastrophic flood of 1960. In 2009, believers donated money to rebuild and renamed it "Notre Dame".

It is said that the original Notre Dame was dedicated to Zhang Shengjun. There is a former Zhang Shengjun Temple in Yongkouweitang, which was built in the 11th year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty (125 1). Later, the temple in Zhang Shengjun caught fire, and the statue of Zhang Shengjun was basically intact except for a slight injury to his leg. So everyone put the statue of Zhang Shengjun in Notre Dame, which was washed away with Notre Dame in the catastrophic flood of 1960. 1995, Sino-Singapore Xerox donated money to build the Liantai Palace and recreate the statue of Zhang Shengjun at the branch of Zhentoushan, which is 0/km away from Yongkou Village. Since ancient times, temples have been built in prosperous times, and so has Yongkou.

There is a place in Yongkou, and I want to go when I know it-Fairy Valley. There is a story about Tie Guai Li practicing here. In fact, Fairy Valley is a secret place that has just been discovered and has not been developed, so not many people know it. In the Fairy Valley, the streams are gurgling, birds are singing, and waterfalls are flowing down, just like roaring dogs, frogs, fairy footprints, overpasses and other strange stones scattered in the mountain stream. It is a natural oxygen bar, which is praised as Jiuzhaigou around by the villagers.

In recent years, Yongkou attaches great importance to cultural construction, and has built a cultural activity center for immigrants in the reservoir area, a Harmony Square and a new theater, providing a good environment for local people to carry out cultural activities. When the Spring Festival arrives in the village, a Spring Festival Gala will be held to let farmers take to the stage to welcome the Spring Festival, and cultural and sports activities such as basketball, chess and table tennis will also be held.

The good cultural background makes Yongkou villagers stick to the harmonious spirit of the village name, and write a new chapter of sustainable development in the code of conduct of respecting tradition, being diligent and trustworthy, being frugal, being good to neighbors, cultivating filial piety, poetry and calligraphy.