Songmao ancient road

Songmao ancient road

Songmao ancient road is the ancient road leading to the "barbarian area" and the only channel connecting Songpan and Maoxian in Chengdu Plain. The Songmao ancient road starts from Dujiangyan and ends at Songpan county and Maoxian ancient city in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, with a total length of more than 700 Li. Although it is impossible to verify when the road first started, numerous facts show that the Songmao ancient road was opened at the latest during the Three Kingdoms period.

A string of bell rings of the horse Gang seemed to ring on the long and narrow Songmao ancient road at the Yulei pass. The last touch of sunset will forever fix the figure of history on an ancient stone road, solemn and desolate.

It is inferred from the cliff statues of the Tang Dynasty at Jiaochang and Diexi earthquake sites in Maoxian county that the ancient Songmao road was already a major artery for merchants to travel in the 7th century. In history, Dujiangyan City and Songpan county are the material distribution centers of the inland and the northwest respectively. Songmao ancient road is not only an economic artery in the west of China, but also a main channel for cultural exchange. It once played an important role in China's history and was known as the "Silk Road in the South". If it extends further, this ancient road can communicate with Tubo and reach Nepal and India. This is the famous "Musk road". At the same time, the ancient Songmao road connects with the ancient Silk Road, and becomes an important part of the national transportation network with Xi'an as the center.

This section of the ancient road used to be a prosperous commercial thoroughfare. Merchants transported furs, tea and medicinal materials from the Tibetan area with mules and horses, and then exchanged them for the necessities of Tibetan people's life in the West Street of Dujiangyan City: food, salt, cloth and jade. Because most of the vehicles used were mules and horses, and most of the goods were tea and salt, Songmao ancient road was also known as "tea and horse ancient road"; because it was the only commercial channel from the south to the Tibetan area, it was also known as "Southern Silk Road". Today, Dujiangyan West Street is the starting point of the Southern Silk Road. On every trading day, the West Street is crowded with people and bustling. There is a lot of shouting and bargaining, and every business is negotiated on a narrow street. Tea, fur and medicinal materials are unloaded from the backs of mules and horses and replaced with bags of snow-white rice, beautiful cloth and much-needed salt. The goods were put back on the horse, the crowd dispersed slowly, and the voice of the people became distant After a short period of bustle, the noisy and bustling West Street regains its former tranquility and desolation. Only one or two light and crisp sounds of knocking jade from time to time bring mysterious imagination to this silent mountain side street.

What is becoming more and more lively is the Songmao ancient road. Teams of mules and horses, carrying goods, merchants and people in the mountains, walk silently on the mountain road. The sound of the horse's hooves becomes the most rhythmic music on the mountain road, beating the keyboards made of bluestones. The merchants began to calculate whether it was a loss or a profit, which goods were forgotten, and which goods could not be sold next time

However, it's a pity that the Songmao ancient road, which was more than 700 miles long, now only has less than 2 kilometers in Dujiangyan scenic area. Today, we can only stand on the mottled walls of the ancient city and look at the back of history. Deep in the mountains where the ancient Songmao road has long disappeared, there are a few residual sounds of Qiang flute. The passing years are as bright as the sunset, dripping in the deep and shallow memories of tourists.

Address: Dujiangyan scenic spot, Dujiangyan, Chengdu

Longitude: 103.61102918651

Latitude: 31.002432822979

Ticket information: no ticket required. Tickets are included in the tickets of Dujiangyan scenic area