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written by | xiaowen

the national day is coming, and the tourist army is out in force. shanxi must have a place among the popular tourist destinations during the national day this year.

with the popularity of the game "black myth: wukong" in august, shanxi, which is the main filming location of the game, also followed suit, and its popularity has not diminished to this day.

picture source "black myth·wukong"

there are ancient buildings everywhere, colorful sculptures, pavilions and flying clouds, beautiful statues... 156,000 square kilometers of land are covered with historical monuments. netizens who were shocked by the extremely complex chinese aesthetics expressed their intention to visit offline, and even blamed shanxi people. "why are you so strict?"

the shanxi culture and tourism bureau planned the route overnight, and the scenic spots were urgently renovated and renovated. various places were busy renovating the city appearance. after zibo and harbin, this time, the surging traffic finally hit shanxi, which had been low-key for many years.

the author of this article, xiaowen, is a native of shanxi. changzi county, changzhi, where she is located, happens to have a game filming location, chongqing temple. during this period of time, xiaowen has personally felt the changes that traffic has brought to shanxi. from officials to ordinary people, people are ready to catch this "wealth from the sky", and the urgency and sadness behind it may only be shanxi people can empathize.

shanxi county with "peacock in full bloom"

"stop crowding, each person can only get one!"

the fat lady with a dark face in a jacket held a thick stack of "black myth" postcards and distributed them one by one. the narrow table next to it was already surrounded by several layers of tourists. i also got in and struggled to hand my phone to them. showing that i have followed shanxi cultural tourism’s xiaohongshu account and finally received a postcard. unfortunately, because there were too many people, it was not my turn to stamp the "customs clearance document".

i wasn’t the only one who didn’t get a stamp. the lady next door saw a stamp with the style “follow wukong traveling to shanxi” and excitedly shouted that she wanted to get it stamped too. however, her husband dragged her away and said, “we are here to visit, not to get a stamp.” of".

scenic spot marketing of chongqing temple | source author

it was about to rain, so my friend and i walked three steps at a time and two steps at a time, and hurried to chongqing temple. as a shanxi native who has lived in this county for a long time, i often see promotional videos shot by the county culture and tourism bureau in the elevator. i have heard of chongqing temple countless times, but i have never been there. who would have thought that my first time sightseeing would be to join in the excitement of games with friends from out of town.

during the visit, i found that this small county i was familiar with was indeed different.

in order to welcome tourists, a six- to seven-meter-high giant billboard was erected at the entrance to setou town, one of the filming locations of "black myth: wukong", with game scenes and attraction guides printed on it;

at the entrance of chongqing temple, the masters are urgently installing "tourist notices" and "chongqing temple introduction" signs. apparently it has not been regarded as an attraction before. no wonder i searched the entire internet before coming and couldn't find their ticket sales phone number. ;

what's even more exaggerated is that there is a lot of construction work on the mountain where chongqing temple is located, and trees are transplanted with excavators. the new sign also fabricates the legend of this forest and the local ancient tribal leader yao, shun, and yu. my friends and i couldn't laugh or cry. friends joked, "when the tree grows leaves next year, who will be able to tell the truth from the false."

the scenic spot is undergoing extensive construction work | source author

entering the scenic spot, the temple is crowded, and the small space is crowded with tourists taking photos with cameras and mobile phones. the staff in yellow vests were enthusiastically explaining the history of the temple to everyone. when i asked, i found out that they were all volunteers from the city. some were chinese and history teachers, and some were corporate employees. they all came after hearing about the fire in shanxi. , actively signed up to be a commentator, did not receive compensation, and just wanted to contribute to his hometown.

not only scenic spots, but local high-speed rail stations, airports, and hotels have also made a wave of publicity in line with the hot spots of the game: where can i get the "customs clearance document", which buses can i take to go to the game filming locations, and how many buildings have been built? every chapter can enjoy the airport vip room... even the luggage packing counter at the airport has the words "black myth·wukong exclusive packing counter" posted on it.

airport packing desk | image source author

i was very confused and asked the staff, can only people who play games use this table to pack? she smiled awkwardly and said, "it can all be used. isn't this just following hot topics for publicity?"

after living in this small county in southeastern shanxi for three or four years, this is the first time i have seen such a vibrant and lively side.

it is said that other cities in shanxi are even more affected. datong citizens have voluntarily hung up colored lanterns to allow foreign tourists to see the true face of "cyber ​​shanxi" which can only be seen during the new year; linfen next door has also invited the land boating team from the "tenth five-year plan to promote prosperity" and returned it to tourists food and delivery are included; jincheng in the south is urgently beautifying the city, and colorful lights are installed on the stone pillars; there is a suona performance on the bell tower street in taiyuan, and all kinds of cultural creations are dazzling...

the shanxi peacock spreads its wings and plays tricks. some people joke that outsiders travel to shanxi with "black myth: wukong", while shanxi people travel with outsiders.

various forms of county towns under traffic

shanxi’s overwhelming traffic came suddenly.

on august 20, the domestic 3a game "black myth: wukong" was launched, and its popularity instantly set off the internet. this game tells the story of a young monkey named "destiny man" who embarks on an adventure to collect the six sense organs (eyes, mouth, ears, nose, tongue, and mind) in order to resurrect sun wukong. the player is the one who is chosen to journey to the west again. the "destined man" of the road.

with its exquisite and shocking graphics and unique settings, douyin, weibo, official accounts, and moments were all discussing this game. even my old colleagues who never played stand-alone games all posted about it. breakthrough video.

everything related to the game has become popular, and the most eye-catching one is naturally the 36 game locations, of which shanxi has 27 exclusively - some scenes in the game are based on foguang temple, xiaoxitian, jade emperor temple, and tiefo temple and other famous cultural monuments in shanxi.

xiaoxitian scenic area in linfen, shanxi | source visual china

excited "destiny people" flooded into the comment area of ​​shanxi cultural tourism's official account, vying for ideas for the shanxi tourism bureau, calling on relevant departments to come up with a chinese-owned offline holy land tour - some people suggested issuing a "customs clearance document". some people suggested selling cultural and creative figures, while others suggested self-driving routes for “ancient architecture tours”.

i also saw the promotion of the shanxi culture and tourism video account in my circle of friends one after another. at first, it was spread by fellow shanxi people, but later it has developed into former colleagues in shenzhen, classmates in guangdong, and friends in beijing who are also forwarding it. on the same day, a friend asked me if i would be at home during the mid-autumn festival and wanted to come and play with me and take a look at the ancient buildings. i finally had a real feeling that shanxi was really popular.

how popular shanxi is, data is the most intuitive reflection. the ancient temple in cuntou, which used to have only a few dozen visitors a day, can now receive hundreds of people a day. if it is a "black myth" filming location like chongqing temple, the number of tourists will increase exponentially. the administrator in charge of cultural relics protection at the temple told me that during the mid-autumn festival holiday, there were at least 1,000 tourists every day, but there were only 400 "customs clearance documents" per day, and they were all distributed before 10 a.m.

among foreign tourists, there are more tourists from neighboring provinces such as beijing, shandong, and henan. however, there are also many people like me who live locally. i have heard of such a scenic spot before, but don’t know much about it. as there are more and more discussions online, , also decided to come and follow suit.

with the huge traffic, the daily life of local people has also changed. a few days ago, i was on a business trip by plane, and for the first time, i encountered local aircraft traffic control-the takeoff and landing aircraft exceeded the airport limit and had to wait for diversion. you must know that there are not many people here, and even the airport is used by both military and civilians. the first time i encountered the queue of planes, it really shocked me. in the airport newspaper, the local media also solemnly announced that during the mid-autumn festival, the number of tourists to chongqing temple reached a new high.

the entrance of the scenic spot is under emergency repair and a sign is erected | source author

i work in a local five-star hotel, and the leader also asked me to come up with some ideas to make the hotel popular. the mayor called us specifically and asked us to seize this publicity opportunity. after searching for a long time, i contacted a local internet celebrity with hundreds of thousands of fans, and asked him to shoot some videos to promote the hotel. as a result, the younger brother said to me, "sister, i'm really too busy. i have a lot of government work to do."

it turns out that the ancient buildings in shanxi he shot in the past have also become popular with this wave of traffic. in the past, the account only had more than 1,000 likes. however, the latest video he posted frequently received hundreds of thousands of likes, tens of millions of plays in the background, and was also major official media forwarded it, and xinhua news agency, people's daily, and shanxi cultural tourism all asked him for material. he was busy driving around shooting scenes every day and could not take care of other things for the time being. he also added that these are all free of charge and he just wants to make some contribution to his hometown.

i have a hunch that after ganzi, zibo, harbin, and tianshui, shanxi has finally waited for this huge traffic! like many fellow villagers, my emotions were both exciting and complicated. i was happy that my hometown was finally being seen, but i was also ashamed that as a local, we knew very little about the cultural relics and treasures of the county. i actually followed the guides of netizens from other places. i know that the county where i live has hundreds of cultural heritage sites.

history is something we take for granted.

taken history and poverty

“look at shanghai for a century of prosperity, look at beijing for a thousand-year city, look at shaanxi for a three-thousand-year civilization, and look at shanxi for a five-thousand-year civilization.”

this is a jingle that every shanxi child is familiar with. it contains shanxi people’s pride in the history and culture of their hometown. i remember the teacher told us that the first line in the dynasty song was "yao, shun, yu, xia, shang and zhou". the ancestors and leaders of these tribes were all from our shanxi province. it was just that they were young at that time and had no special feelings about it. it doesn't matter if it's built all over the place.

perhaps it has something to do with shanxi people's reverence for gods, buddhas and immortals. when i was a child, on religious festivals such as the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, the thirteenth day of the fifth month, the twenty-third day of june, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, there would always be music played at the entrance of the temple, and some villages with good conditions would raise funds. ask craftsmen to build new statues for worship.

we are also taught that we are not allowed to take pictures when entering the temple, we are not allowed to look at the gods, we are not allowed to point our fingers to "master", and even wearing short skirts, having menstrual periods, talking and laughing are all disrespectful to the "empress". the numerous rules have made me afraid of entering temples since i was a child, and i have never properly appreciated these lifelike sculptures.

my family lives in the urban-rural fringe of taiyuan, very close to the bustling city, and not many historical monuments are preserved. my mother’s natal county is a famous thousand-year-old county in shanxi. the gatehouse in the village comes from the ming dynasty, the small temple comes from the jin dynasty, and many villagers’ houses retain the original style of the qing dynasty and the republic of china. walking in the village, i have a strong sense of time travel. i feel like just changing into ancient clothes will bring me back to the life hundreds of years ago, and nothing has changed much.

cave dwellings in the ming and qing dynasties | picture source visual china

of course, the simplicity behind it also means slow development. these ancient monuments are scattered in the fields. the cost of protection and repair is too high, and the transportation is inconvenient. it is difficult to develop them into tourist attractions, and they will become abandoned over time. for example, the village where my grandma lives has a small temple from the song dynasty, which is a county-level cultural relic. the annual maintenance fee is as high as 700,000 yuan. the county had only been lifted out of poverty in the past few years, and there were dozens of cultural relics to be maintained. how could we spend so much money? we simply closed the doors and found someone to take care of them.

i met a temple guardian who was from the same village and whose monthly salary was only 600 yuan. the uncle told me that in the summer, he would come here to sleep at noon and night and "earn ten dollars at a time." the rest of the time he had to farm, otherwise he would not be able to live on this income; in the winter, he rarely came here. , if anyone wants to visit, they can only call him.

after more than ten years of guarding the temple, the uncle has not received many tourists. most of the visitors are scholars who study history and ancient architecture. listening to their discussions, i can learn something. he introduced it to us in a stylish way: "look at the front eaves and brackets above. there are seven floors in total, crisscrossing each other, and each shape is different. this is the only one in the country..." i was surprised by the richness of an old farmer in the mountains. i feel sorry for my hometown about the knowledge of ancient architecture. how come such a good thing is not promoted by anyone?

“begging for food with a golden rice bowl in hand” is what a friend of mine said about shanxi.

she has studied ancient architecture for many years and has been to shanxi dozens of times. she has been to all the villages and counties i have never heard of. when she came to my house as a guest, she talked about her views on shanxi people, who are honest, simple and down-to-earth. “like when i go to other places and hear that i speak with a foreign accent, the price of a meal doesn’t rise several times? but you guys shanxi people don’t know how much money should be paid.” she felt sorry that we did not develop great tourism resources and only kept our heads down to dig coal.

yes, the memory of coal is filled in the minds of every shanxi person, and it is also deeply rooted in the impression of shanxi by people across the country.

the blackened trees on the roadside, the tall and heavy coal trucks one after another, the potholed asphalt road, the giant chimneys visible when looking up, and the gray and foggy sky all together constituted my childhood. when i was a kid, i heard people say that if people in the south don't wash their socks for a week, their socks will still be white. i never understood it, because here, whenever we go out and come home, our faces are covered with dust. these details are all footnotes of the coal age.

shanxi's coal industry | picture source visual china

shanxi people are conservative at heart, want stability, and have little ambition. as long as they can make a living locally to survive, they will not choose to go out to make a living.

over the years, i have rarely met fellow villagers in other provinces. the business environment here is also relatively more conservative and is not very friendly to young people who have nowhere to go. economic development is slow, and per capita income has always ranked at the bottom of the country. occasionally, i see in the circle of friends "the prosperity of the fourteen southern provinces, the burning "this is my hometown" can also understand the feelings of fellow villagers.

fortunately we still have culture. everyone thinks that shanxi was accidentally hit by the heavy traffic, but in fact, this ancient land, which has been nourished by culture for thousands of years, has been preparing for development. this time, good luck comes. i hope the traffic will favor shanxi for a longer time, and i hope my hometown will usher in a new era.