travel starts with photography

Chapter 322 Long time no see, my system friend
Go, go, Mogao Grottoes!
For outsiders like Chen Xing, Dunhuang is Mogao Grottoes, and Mogao Grottoes is Dunhuang, but in fact these are two places, Dunhuang is the name of the city, and Mogao Grottoes is the well-known scenic spot.

The connection is so close, but also because the two places are not far away.

Chen Xing saw that there was a direct bus nearby, so he went downstairs to the stop sign and waited for a while but didn't see the bus. It happened that a taxi came, and Chen Xing took a taxi and went there.

The price is not outrageous, more than 20 yuan.

Chen Xing felt that when visiting a scenic spot with a lot of tourists, he must check the low and peak seasons of this place on the Internet. Not only is there a huge gap in tickets, but the main reason is that there are too many tourists in the peak season, and you have to queue up to enter the gate of a scenic spot.

But if you just like crowds and excitement, then Chen Xing didn't say anything.

I believe that many people have the impression that Mogao Grottoes are full of caves, but in fact... there is not much difference.

But the length of the scenic spot was beyond his imagination.

If there are fewer tourists here, then this is an archaeological site that is still working, with ladders built everywhere, and there are some modern stairs and corridors outside the cave. These things are not only convenient for tourists to walk and visit. It is estimated that it also has the effect of stabilizing the mountain.

Some places can't be said to be caves, they are beautifully built, like a kind of pavilion built on a mountain, but only half of the wooden building. After all, the 'lounge' here is mainly to protect the cultural relics in the grotto.

These grottoes are all excavated in the middle of the mountain, and the entire mountain wall is everywhere.

But only a few grottoes with different numbers are open every day.

The ticket Chen Xing bought this time allows him to watch eight caves, which is still a full ticket. There is a ticket that only opens four caves, which is half cheaper than the one Chen Xing bought.

There are hundreds of grottoes in Mogao Grottoes. If you can only see eight small grottoes in each visit, how long will it take to see them here?Not to mention reading it, if you don't work here, you can visit one-fifth of the Mogao Grottoes in your lifetime.

He was queuing up to go in and visit, and he did some mental calculations halfway.

After 1 minute he chose to give up.

I think too highly of myself.

Chen Xing is becoming more and more proficient in literature, but in mathematics, he can only know Arabic numerals, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, that's all... Now he even has to use a calculator for multiplication and division within one hundred.

The former math teacher probably wanted to kill Chen Xing.

Chen Xing finally lined up to the door.

It's too busy in peak season, there are so many people...

Grotto number, 323.

When you walk in, you can see that the area inside is not bad, and there are modern lamps for lighting, but in fact, it is quite bright even without these lights, as long as there are not so many things at the entrance to block the sun.

Everyone lined up to come in and went around a place, constantly pushing forward.

Chen Xing didn't do his homework when he came, so he didn't know what they were looking at.But this also happened to allow Chen Xing to visit other things first, and then go to see what they are doing later. Could it be that the first place he came to won the lottery?

It can't be a flying mural, right?

Chen Xing suppressed his thoughts of crowding people over there, and studied the Buddha statue in a prominent position with a few people at close range.

There was a couple next to him, and the man kept talking: "Exquisite, so beautiful, is this color restored by us in modern times? It looks so beautiful now, and I don't know what it looked like thousands of years ago."

Chen Xing looked at the introduction with small words below.

You can’t stop reading it because the characters are too small. This Buddha statue was only built in the Qing Dynasty, so it’s certainly new.

The shelf life of the sculpture is still very long. Time will first destroy the outermost layer of oil or paint, and then slowly erode into it.But let alone a few hundred years if someone maintains it, it will not make people lose sight of his original appearance after another few hundred years.

There is a famous Venus with a broken arm in the Louvre Museum. Doesn’t it look good after so many years?

A well-preserved ancient artifact can tell a lot about the history of that period.

Still using Venus with Broken Arms as an example—although she lost both hands, her face and figure just reflected that people in that period were also pursuing such dignified, beautiful, and plump women.

Look, even a layman Chen Xing can see so many things, let alone those professionals.

Closer to home, Chen Xing looked at the other murals and turned his attention to the crowd.

Why are there so many people.

It seems that they can't wait until they leave, even if some people leave, there will be other people who just came in around here, so Chen Xing also walked over.

He was a little taller than these people, so he didn't have to squeeze far enough to see the mural they were visiting.

This mural is very clear. At the bottom is a man on a horse walking forward, followed by other people. On the mural, there is a stone tablet in front of this man, but Chen Xing is too far away to see clearly.

There are people at the front to help read.

"What is written on it is what makes Zhang Qian go west, alas, I can't see clearly."

"It's Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions. This is the only place in the world. You guys don't understand what you're doing here. Can you let me go up and take pictures?"

Many people still can't understand this mural, but the label was blocked again.

Chen Xing also heard the name of this mural from others. After knowing the story of Zhang Qian’s envoy to the Western Regions, this painting will be easier to understand. The man riding the horse must be Zhang Qian. The middle and even the top of the painting are all Huaxia painting techniques. The painted mountain peaks express the feeling of long distances and long roads.

There are many stories interspersed in between.

The places where these stories take place can be distinguished from the architectural styles on the murals, and there are stone tablets in each story, but the handwriting is really unclear.

If you really want to identify what is written on it, you probably hold a flashlight and look at it.

But if you really want to do this, maybe this tourist will not even think about coming to Dunhuang for the second time in his life.

After reading this, Chen Xing hurried to the next place. I haven't been to the National Day recently. Why are there so many tourists here?Everyone wants to ask for leave in advance to travel, and travel with tourists who came after the official holiday?
But now there is no peak shift, there are so many college students.

I watched a few of them on the way, and thought they were so-so, not as exciting as the first one I went to, 323, but when it was time for dinner, Chen Xing came to the grotto numbered 285. As soon as he entered the line, Chen Xing's eyes were shaken.

What a beautiful cave!

The first thing that comes into view are the three niches carved in the center of the west wall.There is a large circular coupon-shaped niche, with a small niche on each side, and a painted clay sculpture inside.

The clay sculpture should be a Buddha statue, but the face cannot be seen clearly.

This is related to the geology of Dunhuang. The grottoes here are all excavated on loose conglomerate, which cannot be carved carefully, so the art form of clay sculpture and painting is adopted.

But the inability to see the face does not affect the temperament of this clay sculpture.

Thin and thin, with a strong character.

The clothes pattern of the clay sculpture is close to the body, the cassock is double-collared and drooping, exposing the monk's branches inside, the underwear has knotted belt decorations and is exposed outside, and the hand is incomplete for some reason, which is a pity.

There is that kind of Buddha light around the clay sculpture, which is also very handsome.

In modern temples, the Buddha's light is basically fixed, just like the picture Chen Xing took in Wuyuan, that is, the setting sun shines on the stone wall at just the right time, and the reflection becomes a dazzling Buddha's light.

But the Buddha's light shown here is like in many games, the character is gathering energy, blue and white airflow emerges from the whole body and gathers on the top of the head.

The clothes were not the monk's robes worn by monks, or the monk's robes in Chen Xing's impression, which made him look too handsome overall.

The statues that Chen Xing saw before, no matter Buddhism or Taoism, were all built with solemnity. Chen Xing's photography style was also famous for its solemnity and strongness at first, which has to be said to be influenced by ancient Chinese architecture.

But this grotto is decorated with a lot of colors.

These colors paint the buildings, the birds, and the cranes...Looking around, the cave is full of murals with strong lines, alternate shades of colors, and exquisite skills, without any gaps.

Chen Xing saw a line of writing on the side, which was left when the grotto was first built, and it read: "Da Wei Da Tong of the Great Dynasty was built in the middle of August in the fourth year of Wu Wu."

There is no other presentation of time here.

Chen Xing searched on his mobile phone and found that Datong was the year of Emperor Wendi of the Western Wei Dynasty, which was from 538 to 539 A.D. This means that this grotto should be one of the earliest grottoes built, and it is considered a veteran.

This hole is covered with a bucket roof, which is a triangular roof, and the sharp corner is smoothly cut off on it.

Ancient China was also so proficient in structure.

The more you study ancient buildings, the more you will know the wisdom of the ancients. If there is such a person who first enlightened industrial thinking in China, then the current China does not know where it has soared to the sky.

The murals that Chen Xing saw today include the murals of Zhang Qian's envoy, the Asura of the Three Kingdoms holding the sun and the moon with both hands, and the murals of Mount Wutai during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

Chen Xing has not seen the painting of Feitian now, but from the style in the No. 323 grotto, he can also infer that the religious culture in the Western Regions was completely different from that in the Mainland.

The culture of the Western Regions is rooted in the Western Regions, and later the Chinese culture was passed on.

The two cultures merged, and the poor ones were gradually abandoned in the tide of the times, leaving only the best and most beautiful part, forming the appearance of the modern Western Regions.

This is the last of the eight caves that Chen Xing can go to today.

Walking out of this grotto, what Chen Xing faced was not the colorful ancient world in the room, but a vast desert. Yellow was the main theme of this world, followed by so many tourists.

Chen Xing was taken aback when he saw so many people.

I have been immersed in the culture of the Western Regions for too long, and I have been thinking about how to use photography to express this culture and stories of the Western Regions.

When I walked out and saw such a lively scene, I was really not used to it.

The key is that there is still arguing at the door at this time, saying that translation is not counted as jumping in line...

Disgusting!
The location of this grotto is relatively high. Looking at the decoration here, you can know that this should be the most important place among the places Chen Xing went to. It is estimated that the popularity is only the first one that Chen Xing went to. The murals of Zhang Qian's mission can be compared. .

Chen Xing arrived at nine o'clock in the morning, and it was already past lunch time.

I visited a total of four hours and eight grottoes.

Experience it, a lot.

At the beginning, I didn’t feel any experience. I just felt that it was not easy to preserve some murals and some Buddha statues. After all, these things were destroyed by foreigners.Foreigners don't know anything about Chinese culture. They just think that everything that looks beautiful will be removed, and if it can't be removed, it will be destroyed.

There are also some things that Chen Xing said before.

Chinese people a few decades ago didn't know anything about cultural relics protection, or there were too few people who knew about it.

There are so many scenic spots in the country that need to be protected, what is the Mogao Grottoes?

But until Chen Xing saw that distinctive Buddha statue, although it was an old-fashioned Buddhism, it showed the chicness of Taoism in Chen Xing's mind, and he realized it all at once.

Who said religion has to be serious.

No one stipulates that Buddhism must be rigid.

Why use some dogmatic things to flaunt something?

Religion can also be handsome and charming.

Chen Xing probably knows how he is going to shoot, now it's better to go to Yanjing earlier to meet Tang Jie, and decide on the makeup first.

Fashion may not be suitable for a while, it can only be seen whether there are good fashion designers in Yanjing.

If it doesn't work, we can only ask the school to introduce a few Chinese designers.

When he came back to his senses, Chen Xing had already walked a long way past the Mogao Grottoes.

There are only some people who are far away from the Mogao Grottoes and take pictures, because the environment here is a desert, and the dry sand keeps flowing into Chen Xing's shoes. If he takes off his shoes and shakes down now, he may be able to See flying sand like an hourglass.

The people who took pictures here valued that this place is easy to produce and has the feeling of a big desert, but Chen Xing only now realized that the place where Mogao Grottoes is located is so barren, and when he walked out of the slightly modern scenic spot, there was nothing outside.

This is a desert.

The Mogao Grottoes occupy only a small corner of this desert.

In the 21st century, from the city of Dunhuang to Mogao Grottoes, it only costs 20 yuan by car, and [-] yuan by bus, and the journey takes [-] kilometers in an instant.

But in ancient times, people may have to walk for half a day or a whole day to walk these [-] kilometers.

There are no towns around Mogao Grottoes, and the nearest one may be Crescent Lake. I heard that it used to be a post station or something. Anyway, it is a small place, a small oasis in the desert, insignificant.

There should be no one here, because the surroundings are so desolate, there is only a piece of sand and stones, and the vast desert is like a wall.

however

But countless people come here

They form a thousand-year human picture scroll.

Chen Xing's eyes became hot, a familiar feeling made him feel that the system knew him best.

[Fortunately, there is still Dunhuang in the world]

[The 1600-meter art gallery, the rise and fall of 1600, the honor and disgrace, are all hidden in the eyes of the Buddha statues overlooking all living beings in the Mogao Grottoes.And we obey the call of beauty, to understand, to admire, to protect and retain]

Long time no see, my system friend.

(End of this chapter)