Every trip is a stop for body and mind, coinciding with the Gongcheng Peach Blossom Festival – a journey to a wellness destination

Spring comes early in the south, with flowers blooming overnight. After enduring the long, cold winter, we finally welcome the warm spring. I believe many people have grown tired of staying at home during the harsh winter. So why not answer the call of a pink spring date? In March, Gongcheng still has lingering spring chill, and it's the perfect time for outings and encountering romance, because the peach blossoms in Gongcheng are about to bloom! Unable to go out during the pandemic, and coinciding with the Peach Blossom Festival, clusters of delicate pink blossoms vie for attention, captivating the heart... This time, I must come to see them.

Setting out from Nanning, traveling by bullet train, hiring a local driver, and returning at 6 PM on Sunday, we have two and a half days for sightseeing. The main flower-viewing spots are Taiping Village, Daling Mountain, and Lewan Village. In Gongcheng, we visit the Civil and Military Temples, experience the wellness resort Yaohan Yangshou City, and still have time to enjoy the river, play in the water, and take beautiful photos. It's truly a perfect spring trip!

Peach blossoms are a symbol of spring; they bloom delicately and attractively but have a short flowering period. If you want to see this flower of love and luck, you must come early, or you'll only see empty branches.

Preview: Beautiful photos of a lady in white will be posted one after another. If you're a beauty in Nanning who wants to take pictures somewhere, you can come to me!

Daling Mountain, once crowded with visitors

March 4th. There are quite a few stories today, full of twists and turns.

In the early morning, we climbed Daling Mountain. This place once had peach blossoms covering the mountainside, but now, due to aging trees and pests, large areas have been cut down and dug up. The newly planted plum trees have already finished flowering, and only a patch of peach blossoms remains in full bloom at the summit. Daling Mountain is located in Xiling Town and has been a main scenic spot of the Peach Blossom Festival for over a decade, renowned far and wide. Now, tourists are scarce; only a few of us quietly admire it.

I had just taken out my camera and snapped a few shots when suddenly a strong wind swept in, dark clouds gathered, and heavy rain poured down. I honestly thought a monster was coming, and my umbrella nearly blew away. The driver rushed over to rescue us. We remembered seeing a handsome young man hiking up the mountain on our way, and guessed he might be sheltering from the rain by the roadside. The driver reversed a few meters in the heavy rain, honked the horn, and sure enough, he picked him up.

Then we drove down the mountain, worried that the rain might ruin our plan for the day.

Heaven helped us. After the rain, the sky cleared, mountains surrounded us with lingering mist, and the scenery was boundless. My mood lifted again. I didn't pick any flowers, just a small blade of grass.

The peach blossoms became even more charming after the rain.

We became travel companions because of the rain.

The peach blossoms on Daling Mountain are a vivid peach-red, while those on the mountaintop are pink. Nearby, there is also a plum blossom grove, though the flowers have already faded, and the new leaves are sparse, but it's still worth a look.

The handsome young man we met (found) turned out to have great photography skills – lucky us.

A grove of ancient camphor trees, a sea of rape flowers, and the vibrant Lewan Village

In spring, a hundred flowers vie for beauty. If there's one flower that cannot be absent, it must be the rape blossom.

Lewan Village is located in the flat valley along the lower reaches of the Chajiang River, nestled against mountains and beside waters, with beautiful scenery. The village has a long history and rich cultural heritage, with many ancient buildings from the late Qing Dynasty preserved. Strolling along the riverside path, passing through a grove of ancient camphor trees, you are greeted by a golden expanse of rape flowers. The March sun is already scorching, but fortunately, the spring breeze passes through the woods, bringing cool greetings from the stream. I can't help but envy the people of Lewan Village for preserving nearly century-old ancient trees – a benefit for the present and a blessing for future generations!

Sheshan Village, leisurely strolling by the river

Gongcheng, Yaohan Yangshou City

Yaohan Yangshou City is a Guangxi worker recuperation base, focusing on three parts: medical care, wellness, and cultural heritage. Its medical equipment and health conditioning facilities are very comprehensive.

Here you can experience the health-preserving secret of the Yao people that has been passed down for thousands of years – the Yao Pool Yao Bath, experience quality life and high-end wellness at the People's Health System Engineering Conditioning Center, experience free pulse diagnosis, massage, and treatment from renowned elderly Chinese medicine doctors at the Yao Han Chinese Medicine Clinic, and finally, experience a massage by a master of traditional Chinese medicine, giving your whole body a thorough relaxation.

Before coming to Gongcheng, I heard from colleagues that this is a national wellness demonstration county. At Yaohan Yangshou City, the projects are also very rich. I planned to experience them, and coincidentally, they have eight free experience items – let me try them first!

There are free consultations from elderly Yao Chinese medicine doctors, high-tech equipment to check various body systems, and free meditation, tea ceremonies, and various wellness courses and expert lectures.

There is also a Chinese medicine and ethnic medicine clinic.

This is the high-tech examination equipment. You place your hands on the device, and in a few minutes, it will detect your preliminary health condition.

The Medicine King blessing activity.

In today's society, many young people don't pay attention to their physical condition. In fact, wellness should start from a young age. Listening to lectures is really beneficial.

Wellness meditation – cultivating the mind and character.

Next are the paid items~~

Yao Ethnic Characteristic Yao Bath

A folk rhyme widely spread among the Yao people: "If you want to live long and never age, take a herbal bath every day."

The Yao people are one of the oldest ethnic groups in China and also one of the longest-lived. The reason may be attributed to their ethnic medicine. The Yao have lived for generations in forests filled with miasma and poisonous insects. To survive better in such harsh conditions, they explored and accumulated experience generation after generation, eventually forming their own ethnic medical system. The most representative is the "Three Yao Baths," also called "Three Days Back to Work," which means that Yao women can go to work in the fields and chop firewood three days after giving birth, not afraid of wind or sun, and maintain a slim figure and ruddy complexion.

The Yao bath has many benefits! It cleanses the skin, enhances beauty, aids weight loss, regulates metabolism, promotes sleep, helps postpartum recovery, and regulates heart function, among others.

Yao ethnic medicinal bath is a thousand-year-old prescription formed by the Guoshan Yao people through countless practices and applications from their long-term coexistence with mountain grass, vines, and trees. Additionally, the medicinal bath has been included in the second batch of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection List.

On the third floor of Yangshou City.

The antique interior environment, with full wooden barrel Yao bath design, is a unique experience.

The antique interior environment, with full wooden barrel Yao bath design, is a unique experience.

Tai Chi Meridian Physiotherapy

The director of the Natural Therapy Research Institute is also the contemporary inheritor of the Dong ethnic Xuanma Dongmai. Xuanma Dongmai – natural therapy, is said to be inherited from thousand-year-old Dong medicine. After more than ten years of continuous research and practice, the natural therapy was founded and is very famous among the local ethnic minorities. They also created Tai Chi meridian physiotherapy and herbal plant essential oil external medicines. If you need it, you must try this.

Gongcheng, Civil Temple and Military Temple

The Civil Temple, also known as the Confucian Temple or School Palace, is a temple commemorating the ancient outstanding educator and thinker Confucius. It covers an area of 3,600 square meters with a building area of 1,300 square meters. It is the largest, oldest, most magnificent, and best-preserved temple in Guangxi.

Gongcheng Military Temple, also known as Guandi Temple, is a temple dedicated to Guan Yu, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms. It was first built in the 31st year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1603 AD) and has a history of over 400 years.

Gongcheng, ancient buildings, ancient trees, ancient villages.

I visited Fengyan Village in Lianhua Town two years ago. This is an ancient Yao village with over 480 households and more than 1,500 people, most of whom have the surname Feng. According to the Feng family genealogy, in the late Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the Feng family moved from Qianjiadong, the legendary birthplace of the Yao in Hunan, to Gongcheng, settled down, and built their homes.

Fengyan Village has many old houses, mostly built after the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty. They are all green-tiled white walls or green-tiled gray walls. Many old mottled walls preserve slogans, wall newspapers, and pictures from decades ago.

For convenience, let's call these slogans, wall newspapers, and pictures all slogans. I had seen such old slogans in some other villages before, but the number there was nowhere near that in Fengyan Village. What's more peculiar is that the remaining slogans elsewhere are mostly from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, i.e., the Cultural Revolution period. However, the slogans on the walls of Fengyan Village are mostly from the early days of the founding of the People's Republic, specifically from the early 1950s.

The content of the slogans involves land reform, bandit suppression, the Korean War, laws and regulations, etc. The largest proportion promotes land reform, such as "Abolish feudal land ownership, implement peasant..." and "Returning farmland to the family is justified." On an ancient blue brick wall, there is a doggerel titled "Landlord and Leech" that is very interesting: "Landlord and leech, both with venomous hearts... the blood and sweat of peasants are all sucked dry. The Communist Party came, the red sun rose, the blood-sucking leeches are wiped out..." Below the title of the doggerel, there is a name "Wang Zhanlong." Is this the author's name? If so, being able to mark his personal name here, this "Wang Zhanlong" must have been quite individual and had a strong sense of copyright in that era.

Passing in a hurry, returning another time.

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1. Major transportation:

To Gongcheng from other places, there are high-speed rail and highway options. There is a direct bullet train from Nanning to Gongcheng, but fewer tickets during school season, so I bought a ticket to Guilin for 108 yuan, then another ticket from Guilin to Gongcheng for 33 yuan. Gongcheng is not far from Yangshuo, and many tourists visiting Yangshuo also drop by Gongcheng to enjoy peach blossoms in spring and persimmons in autumn.

2. Local transportation:

From the train station to the county town or to various scenic spots of the Peach Blossom Festival, there are shuttle buses to the towns (there is a shuttle bus stop on the right out of the station), but you need to walk into the village, so hiring a car is more convenient. The driver we met said a one-way trip from the station to Taiping Village in Jiahuixiang costs 80 yuan for a 7-seater, but there were only two of us, so we bargained down to 50 yuan, and 60 yuan if including the return to the station. However, when we returned, we wanted to stay in the county town, which added more distance (30 yuan from station to county town), and it ended up being 80 yuan. You'll need to negotiate with the driver yourself. The second day we hired the car for a full day from 8 AM to 6 PM. Based on the route we wanted to take, the driver arranged everything, and the cost was 300 yuan for the day.

3. Gongcheng Yaohan Yangshou City Chajiang Art Residence Hotel:

Located in the development zone of Gongcheng county, the environment is great. Yangshou City also has a restaurant with good food. If you stay in Gongcheng, this is indeed the first choice. Taiping Village, the main venue of the Peach Blossom Festival, has no accommodation. The place with many B&Bs is Hongyan Village. Next time, I'll stay there to experience it.

Gongcheng oil tea is the most representative local delicacy, suitable for breakfast or late-night snacks. There is also oil tea hot pot, and you can have it four times a day. People who dislike greasiness or bitterness may not like it. Sour-spicy rice noodles and three-fresh hot pot are also good.

Besides flower viewing, the Peach Blossom Festival also has many folk activities held at the main venue and sub-venues. Follow "Palm Gongcheng" to see the route and schedule. In the county town, there are ancient buildings like the Civil and Military Temples, as well as ancient villages like Aizhai Village.

Yaohan Yangshou City Chajiang Art Residence Hotel

Inside Yangshou City, the environment and service are better than business hotels, with great value for money.

The view outside the window is charming, and the hotel's location offers a landscape painting just outside.