Lost in the castle of time: Lianxiang Pass (Part I)

In the cold winter morning, we set off from Kunming by car, looking for the unforgettable image of Lianxiang Pass on the ancient Yixi Road imprinted in our minds. Starting from Anning City, taking the old road of National Highway 320, the car spirals like a snail on the first international passage of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau - the Burma Road, also known as the Stilwell Road. The mountains and valleys are dangerous, the valleys are deep and the walls are steep, suddenly up and down, from the top of the mountain to the deep valley, walking in the valley or the mountainside, the car enters and exits in the clouds, occasionally a horn sounds from the opposite side, rumbling, a truck like a train, occupying the road and coming head-on, scaring the three souls to only one soul, so we have to stop by the road to let it pass. Carefully and nervously driving past Luduan and Tuguan, we saw the whole view of Lianxiang Pass in the red canyon at the highest point of Yanglaoshao. Lianxiang Pass, also known as Waist Station, is the third pass in the 'Nine Passes and Eighteen Shops' of the ancient Yixi Road. From Yanglaoshao, it is high at both ends and low in the middle, a street runs through the whole city, the whole city is less than a square kilometer, no wonder the ancients vividly called it 'Waist Station'. The city tower of Lianxiang Pass in winter, slowly lifts the fog shrouded on it under the sunshine, the small river under Yanqing Bridge, the waves are quietly flowing without surprise. Although it is a 'pass', there is no noisy howling, it is like a fossil standing quietly at the head of the ancient city, basking in the sun, completely silent. I really doubt if I went to the wrong place - is this a grand pass? I always thought that a 'pass' is majestic and tall, whether it is the official or the common people, when they come to the pass, they must dismount, they have to bow their heads. When I really came to the ancient pass, the expected hustle and bustle, the horse teams were purely nonexistent, which inevitably made people feel surprised or disappointed. From the fork of Yangjiazhuang on National Highway 320 to Lianxiang Pass is only 2 kilometers, but these two kilometers seem like two different worlds, as if time has stopped here. Everything in Lianxiang Pass is quietly sleeping: quiet streets, quiet residents, quiet temples, quiet city towers. Lianxiang Pass