Aolu Guya

On September 22, 2022, this is the penultimate stop of our autumn tour, Aolu Guya. In the morning, we started from Hailar District of Hulun Buir and drove on the road to Gen River. This time, the original destination was actually Gen River Forest Park, which recorded the last autumn colors of Hulun Buir. But I went to Gen River several times without going in to see the Aolu Guya reindeer tribe, so I went to Aolu Guya with my friends this time.

The first time I heard of Aolu Guya and Ewenki was at the end of 2021. Brother Zhang told me the history of Hulun Buir's culture. When I first knew Aolu Guya, I was filled with mysterious imagination. And the names of Zhaoluozi, reindeer, hunting Ewenki, mysterious tribes in the mountains, these are full of mysterious fairy tale color printed again and again in my mind. When I recall why I came to Hulunbeier, in fact, I just wanted to explore and record the traces of these civilizations that were about to disappear or had disappeared.

Finally, success or not, but the whole Hulunbeier journey, for me personally is a great harvest.

To tell you the truth, Aolu Guya's tickets are good value for money. There are a lot of rabbits and birds around the entrance to the park. We bought a big bag of melon seeds for a photo with them. But there is a saying that this melon seed is really fragrant. Feeding birds is the second best. We ate a big bag as we went along.

It was the first time I knew whether the rabbit was a melon seed or not. They would crack open the seeds and eat the kernel. Action such as take off the rabbit is not at all wrong, the rabbit runs very quickly, movement is extremely much, I feel the manual focus of the rabbit on me a sneer.

Now that the last tribe of reindeer has arrived, it is impossible not to photograph reindeer. Taking pictures with reindeer is also an inevitable process. To feed the friends must buy dried moss, reindeer park for sale, the price is not expensive, 20 yuan a basket, enough to take your picture. Do not take their own food to feed, the scene was fed cake and bread, etc., was Ewenki villagers to stop; really, go out, do not take it for granted, do not feel right. Fellow villagers told me that reindeer might choke on chunks of bread, but even so, many uncles and aunts secretly threw their snacks to the reindeer in places where they could not be seen.

It's not the first time I've seen a reindeer, but it's the first time I've seen a reindeer in the woods. Normally there's a fire and smoke. But this time there's no fire protection. But the thin fog in the woods adds a bit of mystery.

Reindeer here are mainly white and brown, with gorgeous antlers on their heads and long legs. They were once the main production and transportation tools of the Ewenki people, and have the title of forest boat. Even today, much of Ewenki life revolves around reindeer. People outside say that there are no older Ewenkis in the mountains, but the villagers here tell me that they can't even find them themselves. I believe that the original Ewenkis still live in the mountains, and they live in seclusion in this vast forest according to the way handed down from generation to generation.

In fact, I like this picture best. My friend was stroking the moss-eating reindeer, and the sun was shining right on top of the reindeer's head. The petted deer bowed its head and ate the moss with its eyes closed. It was a very natural feeling of peace. At this moment, I felt as if I was not recording, but that I was feeling the real and all around me, feeling the breath of nature.

White reindeer are rare, and the entire reindeer park sees only one white reindeer, a mythical creature clothed in white fur that fills the imagination. When I was traveling in Dunhuang, I dreamed that a white deer was staring at me in a desert, full of colorful light. The day was windy and sandy, and I could not even see the outline of the grottoes clearly, but the light of the deer seemed to penetrate everything, illuminating one side of the world in my dream.

As we were about to leave, two reindeer suddenly started fighting. I had never seen them at the scene. When I was a child I saw pictures of deer fighting in the animal world of CCTV. After a long standoff, they walked away from each other as if nothing had happened.

Small animals eat melon seeds in the forest not only rabbits, birds and squirrels, squirrels see us eating melon seeds with the same, as if waiting for the opportunity to us ready to launch the melon seed defense.

Little squirrel is still quite alert, unlike the rabbit at the door to see people have no wonder, little squirrel from our hands after the melon seeds will run away to hide secretly look at us, and then feel no danger and will run out.

Little squirrel in the melon seeds all stuffed in the mouth, this time to another friend, a bird in the stir, the picture is very harmonious, shooting people and shooting objects are free to exist for a moment. Why I want to emphasize that they are all free? Because I think of an old magician I met a few years ago who told me that there are some places where birds are photographed, and the business places tie up birds and fix them on various plants for birders to photograph.

Flying melon seed shell scattered around the small squirrel, it from the beginning to eat a melon seed, melon seeds into the mouth, I watched it two cheeks more and more bulging.

Finally he took the melon seeds from our hands and ran away, never to return. Good-bye, strange little squirrel.

With the little squirrel left, we also set foot on the return steps, out of the Aolu Guya ethnic township, we went to the city of Genhe hotel rest, tomorrow will again go to Genheyuan Wetland Park record Hulunbeier last autumn.

Good-bye, my friends from afar. I'm Snow.