I deeply regret not visiting Fengyangyi, a small village on the Dali Tea Horse Road at the foot of Cangshan Mountain, ten years ago. Back then, it was an obscure place with only a few hundred meters of ancient stone path. Most of the stone-built courtyards were old and abandoned, and only a few outsiders who loved tranquility could rent a barely intact yard there.
But now, from the street to the alley, both sides of the ancient path are densely packed with stalls selling goods no different from those in Dali Old Town and Xizhou Ancient Town. The stone walls behind the stalls are completely obscured, and every reasonably well-preserved stone courtyard has been transformed into a commercial space, filled with noise. In front of the Windy Courtyard, tourists line up to take photos, and the stone walls without stalls are not left idle, adorned with beautiful pictures of Xu Hongdou.
We mingled in the crowded ancient stone road, with no chance to appreciate the sense of time and historical沉淀感 that the stone houses bring, nor to understand the traces left by the Tea Horse Road in Fengyangyi. The horse drivers, with their horses, constantly urged us from behind, as if the riders were ancient officials, demanding that pedestrians make way. Those who were slow to react were inevitably threatened. Nowhere is more commercialized than here. We could only pause briefly by a few remote stone walls, so as not to leave empty-handed.
