-Feng Wu Jun Yu -
Heart of Zhejiang
Star of China
"Jinhua" must be the most poetic place name in China one.
Unlike most cities that are named after mountains, rivers, topography, etc., the name "Jinhua" comes from the sky. This is the place where the goddess Wu and Venus compete for beauty. Whether it is the ancient name "Wuzhou" Whether it is now called "Jinhua" or "Jinhua", both have a poetic flavor derived from the starry sky.
The humanistic traditions here are deeply rooted in the heart of Zhejiang, and it is well-deserved as the “Heart of Zhejiang”. However, "inverted fame" has also become a prominent symbol of Jinhua. Locals often jokingly claim: Jinhua in Zhejiang, Yongkang in China, Hengdian in Asia, and Yiwu in the world! But behind the joke, it is undeniable that making big achievements in a small industry and dreaming up big dreams in a small town are the talents of Jinhua people.
Jinhua is located in the geographical center of Zhejiang, surrounded by Hangzhou and Shaoxing in the north, Quzhou in the west, Taizhou in the east, and Lishui in the south, making Jinhua the only place in Zhejiang Province that is neither coastal It is also not adjacent to cities on provincial borders.
Located in the heart of Zhejiang, Jinhua has become the “spokesperson” for Zhejiang’s landforms. Zhejiang Province is not large in area, but it can be divided into 6 physical geographical units. Jinhua, as a city, spans 4 of them, becoming one of the areas with the richest landforms and landscapes in Zhejiang.
The major rivers in the central part run through the Jinqu Basin, and are surrounded by small mountain basins such as the Wuyi Basin and the Yongkang Basin. These basins have become the main areas for urban development in central Zhejiang. The urban areas and counties within the city are concentrated here, nurturing the historical city of Jinhua, the small commodity capital Yiwu, and the Asian Hollywood Hengdian...
The northern part of Pujiang County belongs to In the hilly area of ??Zhongshan Mountain in the northwest, Xianhua Mountain here is known as "the most beautiful area between heaven and earth". According to legend, it is the place where Xuanyuan Huangdi's girl Yuanxiu attained enlightenment and ascended to heaven.
The eastern part of Pan'an County belongs to the eastern hilly area, with Dapan Mountain running from north to south. "Looking at the thousand-layered waves in the north of the sea, you will never believe that the first peak in the south of the Yangtze River" is known as the Ancestral Mountain in Eastern Zhejiang and the Medicine Valley in the South of the Yangtze River. It is not only Shankou covers half of the province and is also an important producing area for five of the traditional Chinese herbal medicines "Zhebawei".
Wuyi County and the southern part of Yongkang City belong to the southern Zhongshan District. The Niutou Mountain here is 1,560 meters above sea level and is the highest peak in central Zhejiang.
The location in the heart of Zhejiang also makes Jinhua a classic representative of Zhejiang’s “seven mountains, one water and two fields”.
Jinhua’s 10,942 square kilometers of land are dotted with 208 peaks over 1,000 meters tall. Hidden under the mountains of Jinhua and Lanxi are karst landforms such as Shuanglong Cave and the long underground river of Liudong Mountain; in the mountains of Yongkang there are also fiery Danxia such as Fangyan.
Numerous rivers such as the Wujiang River, Dongyang River, Wuyi River, and Puyang River pass through mountains and hills in the mountains of central Zhejiang. Although they are not considered big rivers, they save the trouble of major floods. The precious basin nurtured by the river has become the "two-part farm" for Jinhua people to cultivate intensively. The small terraces near the river in the basin have become the earliest land in Zhejiang that gave birth to the light of culture.
As early as more than 10,000 years ago, on a small highland called Shangshan by the Puyang River, people had already begun to build houses, make pottery, and grow rice. Archaeological discoveries in 2005 proved that Shangshan was The earliest area in the world where rice was artificially cultivated, this is one of the origins of rice culture in the world.
In Zhejiang, where there are many famous cities, Jinhua’s presence is far less high than that of Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, and Shaoxing. But when it comes to cultural inheritance, this is the real “Light of Zhejiang.”
The 10,000-year-old Shangshan site is not only an important origin of rice farming culture, but the remains of the "Shangshan culture" named after this site are spread throughout central and southern Zhejiang, opening up the origin of agriculture in the cultural history of Zhejiang and even East Asia. the prologue.
In 2019, the Qiaotou Site in Yiwu, which also belongs to the Shangshan Culture, discovered a trench settlement dating back 9,000 years ago. This is "an important step from caves to basins" in the history of human settlement. The painted pottery unearthed from the Qiaotou site is one of the earliest remains of painted pottery in the world. More archaeological discoveries have yet to be confirmed. It may even push the world's winemaking history from Mesopotamia to 6,000 years ago. The mountain culture dates back 9,000 years.
Whether it is rice, painted pottery or wine making, these achievements that are inseparable from the soil have established Jinhua's strong local tradition, and the "enterprise-level understanding" of soil continues to bear fruit.
The Wuzhou kiln of later generations was ranked as one of the six famous kilns of the Tang Dynasty. Although it was not as famous as the Yue kiln, which also belonged to Zhejiang, it did not fall behind in showing off its skills and was ahead of the times: This is one of the earliest kiln systems in the world to develop the art of underglaze brown color decoration, the first to use cosmetic clay to decorate the carcass, and the first to create opacified glaze kiln changes.
This exquisite pursuit of decorative art is a concentrated expression of Zhejiang’s traditional culture. Since the Tang Dynasty, Dongyang wood carving has ranked first among the four major wood carvings in China, ushering in the "Baroque era" of the Chinese people and can be called the pinnacle of Chinese residential decorative art.
Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "Dongyang Gang" represented by carpenters, plasterers, and carvers has become one of the three major construction gangs as famous as the Xiangshan Gang and the Ningbo Gang, and has a very wide influence.
In fact, quite a few of the famous Huizhou folk houses were built by the Dongyang Gang. Professor Shan Deqi from the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University believes that "the origin of the so-called Hui-style architecture is Dongyang's traditional construction techniques. Most of the traditional Huizhou houses in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were built by Dongyang gang craftsmen."
Not only that, the Dongyang Gang even "entered the palace" and became the construction force of the royal palace. When the Forbidden City was rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, the Dongyang Gang became an important force. Between 1736 and 1795 alone, more than 400 Dongyang woodcarving artists responded to the imperial edict and came to Beijing. In 2007, a copy of the "Qianlong Throne" carved with 900 dragons was made in the Huangji Hall of the Forbidden City in Beijing. It was made by Huang Xiaoming, a master of wood carving in Dongyang.
The "hometown of hundreds of industries" has been passed down to this day. To this day, Dongyang still ranks first among counties and cities in the country in terms of the number of construction companies with special qualifications.
Starting from the rice husks and rice grains of Shangshan Culture, it is this "two-part field" in Jinhua that has created a wonderful food tradition.
There is no doubt that as soon as "Jinhua" is entered in the brain of any Chinese person, the first associated keyword that pops up must be "ham". As one of the three largest hams in the world, Chinese people are both familiar and unfamiliar with Jinhua ham.
The so-called "familiar" means that everyone has heard of this Jiangnan specialty, and it can be found in the writings of literary connoisseurs such as Wang Zengqi, Liang Shiqiu, and Jin Yong from time to time. But the feeling of "strangeness" always follows, and many people don't understand the difference between "ham" and "ham sausage".
The real Jinhua ham is made from the dried and fermented hind legs of locally produced "Liangtouwu" (a pig with black head and tail) pig legs. This kind of pig leg is medium-sized, thin-skinned and It has a small frame and a plump center, making it an ideal choice for making ham. The preference for "stinky, rotten, moldy and salty" is one of the important characteristics of Zhejiang cuisine, and Jinhua ham, which features fermentation, is undoubtedly a classic among them.
Hanging a whole pig leg in a cool room is a common sight in the homes of many "old Jinhua" people. Jinhua people who are studying and working abroad often feel helpless when friends from out of town tease and ask for gifts - —If you really want to give a whole pig leg to your classmates and colleagues, you must be the most popular guy on campus or in the company.
Jinhua ham has also had a profound impact on Chinese cuisine. Let’s talk about the famous Zhejiang cuisine “Honey Sauce Hot Fang” first. The most important raw material is large cubes of Jinhua ham. But apart from this extravagant practice of using ham as the main protagonist - the soul of Jinhua ham is often to enhance its freshness.
The other two major cuisines in China that are famous for their exquisiteness can be said to be the essence: The soup stock with the participation of Jinhua ham basically constitutes the base flavor of Cantonese cuisine and Huaiyang cuisine. Therefore, even if you think you have never eaten Jinhua ham, you may have tasted it in other cuisines.
Cao Xueqin's "A Dream of Red Mansions" can be described as an encyclopedia of ancient aristocratic life. Among the famous ham dishes written in it are ham stewed elbow, Arhat jumping over the wall, ham and fresh bamboo shoot soup, etc., because the taste is so delicious, it is also The anxious Jia Baoyu was burned. Zhang Dai of the Ming Dynasty was well versed in the customs of the south of the Yangtze River, and he also praised Jinhua ham as "the best flavor is pork, Jinhua got its name early. Coral is as soft as meat, and amber is as bright as fat." It makes people drool.
In addition to ham that can bear the name of Jinhua, another local specialty that is worthy of pride is Jinhua shortbread. The shortbread filled with prunes and pork is crispy and delicious. There are also shortbread filled with Jinhua ham. Joint combination. Jinhua soup dumplings are also known as "Jinhua No. 1" and are the best soup dumplings in the south.
Another unique aspect of Jinhua cuisine lies in its preference for pasta. Although it is the first place to grow rice in the world, Jinhua people are also full of creativity in pasta, making it the Zhejiang version of "Little Shanxi".
In Pujiang County in the north, a popular snack called "rice sieve crawling" is made by crawling, pressing and rolling small pieces of dough on a rice sieve to make small cat-ear-shaped pasta. Pan Zhoujia Village in the same county is also popular in "One Noodle". Using tens of kilograms of flour to pull out a noodle hundreds of meters long has long been a routine operation in the village.
In Yongkang City in the south, Yongkang meat and wheat pancakes are popular. People in Lanxi eat chicken cakes. People in Dongyang like Wo noodles. There are so many kinds of pasta that they are so different from each other. People in Jinhua eat a Zhejiang-specific dish. Wheat Road. This is also related to several large-scale immigrants from the north since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which brought the pasta tradition from the Central Plains to the hinterland of Jiangnan.
The hills of the basin and the local folk customs complement each other. Jinhua, which is famous for this, is not actually the main player in Zhejiang's economic development. Therefore, central Zhejiang once lacked central cities, but small and medium-sized cities and towns were replaced from generation to generation.
Located in the heart of Zhejiang, Jinhua has long become an important transportation hub in Zhejiang. Historically, Jinhua was the only way to connect southern Zhejiang and northern Zhejiang. Transportation and trade methods in different eras also contributed to the rise of different regional centers.
In the waterway era, the Jinhua River and Qujiang River merged at Lanxi to form Lanjiang River, which is the largest tributary of Qiantang River. Lanxi, which has convenient access to water and land, once became the most important industrial city in central Zhejiang. 70% of Jinhua's industry and more than 50% of its fiscal revenue were concentrated in this water and land hub. It also became the first county in Zhejiang with a fiscal revenue of 100 million yuan in 1985. Became the first county-level city in Zhejiang.
In the railway era, Jinhua was the intersection of the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway and the Jinhua-Wenzhou Railway, becoming the most important railway hub in Zhejiang besides the provincial capital Hangzhou.
The construction of the Jinwen-Wenzhou Railway has distinctive Zhejiang characteristics: this artery connecting central Zhejiang and southern Zhejiang was once "discussed seven times up and down seven times without making a decision", and was finally completed under the auspices of Zhejiang scholar Nan Huaijin Completed and opened to traffic in 1998, it became China's first joint-stock local railway and pioneered the introduction of foreign investment in the construction of local railways. It was built by literati with lofty ideals and managed and operated by private forces. It can be said that it has the "Zhejiang spirit".
In addition to making good use of existing geographical conditions, Jinhua people are better at breaking through the constraints of natural geography. The vigorous development of small and medium-sized towns here is inseparable from the spirit of the times that dares to venture and dare to fight - Jinhua's road to breaking through is particularly exciting.
Due to the large population, narrow land and lack of materials, the limited basin could not support such a dense population. Jinhua’s business spirit became a light that broke through the agricultural era.
As early as the 1960s in Yiwu No. 23, some people had smelled the smell of small profits and established the first-generation small commodity trading model through the form of "chicken feathers for sugar". Even in the era of "speculation" and "capitalism" "Tail" still retains its vitality despite the critical attack.
Everyone knows the subsequent story. Yiwu, which started out by exchanging chicken feathers for sugar, has continued to iterate and update after the reform and opening up, and has now become the largest small commodity trading and distribution center in the world. In the markets of Yiwu, it is not uncommon to find small vendors who speak multiple foreign languages. You can also eat authentic Central Asian, Turkish and even Lebanese food in the streets.
In 2020, 1,399 Yixin-Europe freight trains traversed Eurasia, accounting for 11.3% of the total number of China-Europe freight trains. Almost 40% of the passengers at Yiwu Airport are foreign passengers. This proportion even exceeds that of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, ranking first among airports in the country.
International Yiwu has become the most magical modern story in central Zhejiang. The order volume and cargo direction here have even become important parameters for studying the international situation. In international events thousands of miles away, such as the U.S. election and the World Cup, the "Yiwu Index" has become an important reference.
Yiwu may be the most well-known county-level city in China, but in addition, various counties, cities and towns in Jinhua are also full of martial arts masters with unique skills.
Hengdian in Dongyang is known as the Hollywood of Asia. The street performers here may be able to tell you a few words about Stanislavski or Brecht. "Noon Sunshine", which is rooted in Dongyang, frequently produces hit TV series, such as "Love between Mountains and Seas", "Nirvana in Fire", "Parents' Love", etc. Yongkang's hardware, Dongyang's construction, and Pujiang's crystal all have impressive leading positions in the industry.
Even in the challenging Internet era, Jinhua can lead the way: among the top ten counties and cities in Zhejiang Province for cross-border e-commerce, Jinhua accounts for half, with Yiwu and Yongkang ranking first and second respectively. Bit. According to data released by the State Post Bureau, Jinhua has even surpassed the traditional commercial center of Guangzhou and ranked first in the country's urban express delivery business volume with its strong private enterprises.
The C position of a small town is no longer enough to describe Jinhua today - the "Jinhua-Yi Metropolitan Area" which does not have obvious geographical advantages is becoming the fourth pole in Zhejiang, becoming the third largest city alongside Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou. It is one of the four major metropolitan areas that leads Zhejiang to participate in global competition.
In the small village next to the "Ferfentian", some people hang up hams, some light the kiln fire, and some carve out the ideal world in their imagination. This ideal world:
is the trench guarding the ancient residence,
is a handful of rice in the field,
is the vernacular building with the aroma of food. ,
It is a commercial market with mixed sounds,
It is a bizarre movie and television city,
It is a hardware store that is pervasive in daily life...
This is not only a natural gift from natural conditions, but also a myth of "creating something out of nothing" written by Jinhua people who broke through the constraints of geography.
In the heart of Zhejiang, the “Star of China” shines brightly enough to illuminate the world!
- END -
Text | A person who loves Jinhua
Editor | ZZZ
Picture editor丨Wang Jiale
Map Editor丨Wu Pan
Cover Photography丨Visual China
Reference Materials
Lu Haiming's "Wuzhou" Kiln Research"
State Post Bureau "The State Post Bureau announces the operation of the postal industry in 2020"
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