The river starts from the Beijing Zoo Gate in the west, connects to the Gao Liang River, and ends at the Songlin Gate at the west end of the North Moat in the east, which is an artificial river in the Tonghui River system.
In fact, the Turning River was originally part of the Kaoliang River. Speaking of the Kaoliang River, here are a few stories first.
Let's start with a story about building Beijing. Yan Wang Zhu Di originally lived in Nanjing, then was sent to defend Beijing, in order to better show their status, they intend to rebuild Beijing, to build a more grand and beautiful, they looked for the minister Liu Bowen, to ask for advice on the location of the construction of the city of Beijing.
Liu Bo Wen said, "You can let the great general Xu Da do this." So King Yan ordered to find Xu Da.
Liu Bo Wen said to Xu Da: "With your divine power to shoot an arrow to the north, where the arrow falls on where to build the capital." Yan Wang thought: Xu Da, even if he has a great ability, it is impossible to shoot an arrow to Beijing ah, this is Nanjing ah. Just want to say, see Xu Da without saying a word, came to the outside of the temple, opened the bow and arrow, shooting toward the north. At the same time, Liu Bowen rushed to bring people to chase after him. Xu Da that arrow also really did not shoot out much farther, but in the will fall not fall when, suddenly came a big bird, picked up the arrow flew away to the north, has been to the present day Beijing more than 20 miles south of the South Park before stopping to a branch to rest, and at this time Liu Bowen and others on board the boat, along the Grand Canal is also rushed to the north.
At that time, Nanyuan lived eight large wealthy families, saw the big bird landed here panicked. They thought, "What is this big bird doing here with an arrow in its mouth? I'm afraid there's something bad coming, right? Hurry up and blow it away! So they thought about it and had an idea: let's blow the bird away, right? So the big bird with the arrow and fly north, to the back door of the bridge now this place, the big bird a loose beak, the arrow fell there.
It is said that there is a stone monument under the back door of the bridge, engraved on the "Beijing City" three words, under the stone monument is the place where the arrow fell. Liu Bowen chased them to the South Park, pinch a finger count, know that the arrow should fall here. He came to the eight large property owners to explain the situation, forcing the arrow. Seeing that they couldn't hide it, they begged, "As long as you don't build a city here, you can have whatever conditions you want." LiuBoWen thought about it, said: "well, can spare your life, but the money to build the capital must be paid by you." Wealthy masters thought, we have a lot of money, build a capital is nothing, agreed.
The construction of the project began, the first built is the East Gate tower, but I did not expect the tower just finished, the rich has been a fortune. How to do? Liu Bowen and finger counting, ordered his men to find a person called Shen Wanshan.
A few days later really found a Shen Wanshan, but this Shen Wanshan is a beggar, dirty and broken, armpit under a broken tile pot. I heard that the King of Yan Zhu Di is looking for their own money to come, scared, shivering, said: "I'm a poor beggar, where is the money ah!" Zhu Di eyes glared: "No money can not! Come on, give me a beating!" The men immediately picked up sticks and beat Shen Wanshan up. At first, Shen Wanshan also begged, and then hit the anxious, the foot stomped and said: "There is silver under the ground, you dig it."
Zhu Di rejoiced, sent a person to dig, the ground really has a big cylinder vat of silver. Repair of the city continued, but not long after, the silver and run out, then pick up the baton to beat Shen Wanshan. Shen Wanshan was beaten sharply, and pointed to the ground, said: "here is silver." The group dug, and indeed there is silver. In this way, again and again, the city of Beijing is finally repaired.
This story is a bit far. The story is a bit of a long story, but I'm going to tell you another story about the Kaoliang River.
According to legend, when Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and Liu Bowen chose Beijing as the place to build the city, Beijing was a sea of misery at that time.
Liu Bo Wen called the Dragon King in charge of the water in Beijing, and ordered him to move the water in the Sea of Bitterness to other places, or else to build a Hadamen to put him under the pressure. The Dragon King had no choice but to comply. After the construction of Beijing, the Dragon King hated Liu Bowen, they stole the city's wells in the water are drained, put in a water bag and the mother of the dragon with a push cart to escape the Xizhimen.
Liu Bowen knew that the gas changed face, quickly sent general Gao Liang on a fast horse, out of the Xizhimen towards the north to chase. Gao Liang fast horse whip, flying horse caught up with the Dragon King, he poked a gun to the Dragon King car water bag. Immediately landslide a sound, the water in the sandbag rushed out.
Gao Liang saw the ferocity of the water, and hurriedly turned his horse to run back. Only to see the flood rolled, white waves, Gao Liang almost to the city gate, the monstrous flood caught up with him, a wave of him even with a horse into the Yangtze River. The water slowly eased down and flowed down the Yangtze River all the way to the east, while Gao Liang never came out of the water again.
Gao Liang saved the water for the city of Beijing, and the Beijing people built a small white stone bridge in his honor where he was drowned, and named it "Gao Liang Bridge". Later, people changed it to "Gaoliang Bridge" according to its sound, and the long river was also called Gaoliang River. Until today, some people still call this river long river.
In fact, what made the Gaoliang River really famous was a famous battle that took place nearly a thousand years ago, called the Battle of Gaoliang River. This battle was a decisive battle between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty, but because of the Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi overconfidence, hastily promote the war, the wrong command and failed miserably, 300,000 troops were lost, blood stained the Gaoliang River. Zhao Guangyi, who originally wanted to seize Youzhou, ended up in a miserable situation of running away with a donkey cart. The point is that this war ended the pace of unification of the Song Dynasty and began to be militarily inferior in general.
Kaoliang River was originally directly connected to the western end of the North Moat, flowing Kaoliang River to 1905, her fate changed once, her body was twisted a few bends, and twisted her body is the "father of China's railroads" Zhan Tianyou.
Speaking of Zhan Tianyou, let's talk about his story. The first two stories are legends, not real, but the story of Zhan Tianyou is real.
Zhan Tianyou was born on April 26, 1861 in Nanhai County, Guangzhou Province, Guangdong Province, when he was a child into the private school learning, good learning. At that time, China had just experienced the Second Opium War, due to the weakness, corruption and incompetence of the Qing government, the war ended in China's defeat. During the war, the British and French allied armies were burning, looting and plundering wherever they went, and they ransacked and burned down the Yuanmingyuan, the Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens, which is the essence of Chinese and foreign architectural arts, which made the Chinese nation suffer from a heavy disaster once again, and the Chinese society was further semi-colonialized. The Chinese society was further semi-colonized. With internal and external troubles, the country was in deep trouble, and the people were in dire straits, struggling in the midst of deep water and heat. Many people sought to save the country and the people. At this time, the patriotic innovation thinker Yung Ma-teung wrote to the Qing government, proposing to send some young children to study abroad, hoping to achieve the purpose of social innovation through learning advanced Western ideas and technology. His request was approved by the Qing government and he then recruited 120 young children in Hong Kong. In 1872, at the age of 11, Zhan Tianyou was admitted to the preparatory class for young children to study abroad, and in August, he went to the United States with 30 other students to become the first batch of young children to study in the United States at China's official expense. And that Yung Ma-te is the first Chinese student graduated from Yale University in the United States, is the pioneer of the cause of Chinese students, known as "the father of Chinese students".
? In 1873, Zhan Tianyou was admitted to West Haven Elementary School in the United States. In 1873, Zhan entered West Haven Elementary School in the U.S. At a young age, he knew that his thin English background was not enough, so he memorized English words every day like reciting the Four Books and Five Classics, and then grinned as he pulled on his foreign classmates to chat and strengthen his conversation skills. 1876, he was admitted to New Haven High School with excellent scores, and in 1878 he was admitted to the prestigious Yale University, where he furthered his studies in the Railroad Specialty in the Department of Civil Engineering. In the hidden dragon and crouching tiger, Zhan Tianyou never say later, study hard, all subjects are very good, especially in mathematics, in the first and third grade, was awarded a math scholarship. 20 years old, Zhan Tianyou outstanding undergraduate courses, become that year returned to the United States of America in 105 students only two bachelor's degree recipients one of them.
In 1905, the Qing government decided to build the Beijing-Zhangzhou Railway for commercial development. Zhan Tianyou was sent to preside over the construction of the road, first as Chief Engineer and Councilor, and then promoted to Chief Engineer and Chief Engineer. The road from Beijing to Zhangjiakou, through the Jundu mountain range, the terrain is steep, the project is exceptionally difficult, about 200 kilometers long, for the key road to the northwest. In order to compete for the right to build the road, Britain and Russia were at loggerheads, and the Qing government decided to build the road on its own, but it lacked confidence. Foreigners have argued that China is incapable of completing this road construction project. Zhan Tianyou said: "China's land is vast and vast, but in all the way to the work, must borrow foreigners, take it as a shame!" He faced the ridicule of foreigners, with fearlessness, led all the road construction personnel, know the difficulties, and work together for the glory of the country. Zhan Tianyou led the workers to overcome the difficulties, and finally in 1909 the Chinese people designed and constructed the first railroad line was completed. It is the glory of the Chinese people and Chinese engineering and technology, but also a victory of the Chinese people's anti-imperialist struggle in modern Chinese history.
Zhan Tianyou construction of the Beijing-Zhangzhou Railway, due to the construction of the Xizhimen Railway Station, the original high beam bridge east of the river diversion, northward folded a kilometer, bypassing the Xizhimen station, and then south and the western end of the northern moat, forming a "several" shape. From then on, this section was twisted and bent downstream of the original Sorghum River was renamed the turn of the river.
Later, due to the needs of Beijing's urban construction, the river has been refurbished several times.
In February 1977, because of the construction of the subway, the Beijing Municipality of the upper section of the North Moat governance, to the turn of the river on the cover, turn the river from the ground disappeared, and became a dark underground river, in the underground silently flowing for more than twenty years.
Until 2002, which meets the Beijing Olympic Games, the Beijing Municipality to carry out large-scale municipal construction, began to turn to the river for another round of rectification, the water sector based on the "people-oriented, less artificial traces of the desirable wide, desirable to the wide, the bend is curved, people and water are close to each other, and harmony and nature" of the new concept of river, in order to improve the flood control, water supply standards, to restore the historical turn of the river, and to restore the river to its original condition. In order to improve the standard of flood control and water supply, the new concept of river management is to restore the historical turn of the river, to open up the North Ring water system, to realize the three rings of blue water around the capital built by the cityscape river, re-excavate the river, to build locks, bridges across the river, culverts, piers. September 30, 2003, Beijing city water system to the river management project completion, turn to the river to see the light of day, to a new look. After the transformation of the turn of the river, through the construction of the historical and cultural park, ecological park, stacked stone water features, waterfront promenade, waterfront homes and green waterways and other six scenic spots, showing her culture of the river, the river of ecology, the landscape of the river, the river of the water conservancy of the stature of the river, become a bright pearl, a bright landscape.
? Turning the river's six scenic spots, from west to east, downstream. Among them, west of the railroad has a historical and cultural park, ecological park two attractions, in the jurisdiction of the North Shimonoseki street area. East of the railroad has a stacked stone water features, waterfront promenade, waterfront homes, green waterway four, in the jurisdiction of the North Taipingzhuang Street.
The design of the Turning River is based on the theme of "Dream of the Long River", in order to realize the dream of connecting the Turning River to history and to the future.
The first two attractions in the area of North Xiaguan Street are:
The first attraction is the Historical and Cultural Park: from the back lake of the Beijing Exhibition Center to the Gaoliang Bridge, it is the source of the dream, the place where the dream begins. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the folk party of "Changhe Guanliu" was once very popular here. Nowadays, the water surface of this section of the river is glistening, the trees on both sides of the river are shadowing, the willow branches are hanging low and swaying, and the fragrance of the plants is refreshing to the heart, and the historical "Long River Willow Watching" has once again become a custom and a kind of fashion here. In the historical and cultural garden, there is also an old-fashioned Qihong Hall. According to legend, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, in order to celebrate the birthday of his mother, Empress Dowager Xiaosheng, built the Qihong Hall on the south bank of the Yangtze River as an imperial dock for boat tours of the Imperial City's water system. Later emperors of the Qing Dynasty traveled between the Imperial Palace and Wanshoushan Mountain, taking rests, meals, and summoning ministers to deal with state affairs here. Emperor Guangxu stayed here and knelt down to receive Cixi. Now there are three parts of reliefs on the background wall of the new pier of the newly built Qihongtang. The middle one, using high-temperature color glaze technology, with "spring water tour of fortune" as the theme, with the form of pictures showing the lively scene of the emperor's trip in the past. The left and right sides are made of white nephrite, with the theme of "the excavation of the water system" and "the picture of the people", which tells the origin of the water system in Beijing, excavation and dredging. The three different images allow people to understand the history and feel the history and culture, so as to achieve the purpose of deepening the intention.
The Gaoliang Bridge has been replaced by a newly constructed one-way detour, and the old Gaoliang Bridge has been preserved intact and retired from carrying heavy burdens. Gaoliang Bridge was built in the early Yuan Dynasty, more than 700 years ago. It has been built many times. Preserved in the Qing Dynasty is a single-hole arch bridge with a carved parapet of blue and white stone, the bridge is simple and thick, durable.
The second attraction is the Ecological Park: from the Gaoliang Bridge to the Beijing North Railway Station and then turn north until you get to the Cross River Railway Bridge. Eco-park is an ecological river as the theme of the landscape park, in accordance with the "appropriate width is wide, appropriate bend is bent" principle, the river banks with a large area of trees, shrubs and grass cover; slope steepness and embankment distance from the water's edge of the width of the slope with the bend. The deeper part of the river is the main channel, and the shallower part is paved with pebbles and planted with aquatic and wild plants, which ensures navigation and expands the water surface. With shallow bays, people can get closer to the water and nature. Both sides of the river also retained the bunkers left over from the Liberation War period, the river is planted with a thousand wild plants, including lotus, reeds, water lilies, calamus, groundnut, cichlids, Chichiba, wild montana, and more than a hundred kinds of aquatic plants suitable for growth in the Beijing area, which are either standing, or dancing, and showing their charm in the rippling river, and these aquatic plants not only beautify the river but also purify the water quality. These aquatic plants not only beautify the river, but also purify the water. With the formation of wild plant communities, many wild animals and insects can also live and reproduce. Thousands of years old trees made of cement have become immortalized as berms, and the light rail line 13 crosses the river from here.
Entering into the area of Beitaipingzhuang street there are the last four attractions:
The third attraction is the stacked-stone water feature: from the Railway Bridge to Wenhui Bridge. This section of the waterway is very difficult to transform, the north is Tianzhao home, the south is the Jinyun building, the lot is crowded, the designers to adapt to the local conditions, transformed into a stacked stone water feature. The use of man-made rocks will be stacked rocks and water features combined with free-falling water and pressure water as the main technique to create a wall view of the fusion, singing waterfalls, water steps, gravel stacked waterfalls, waterfall caves and other attractions. On both sides of the river, a variety of rocks and a variety of plants formulated by the small stone cut water flow with a drop of several meters into the water, exposing the surface of the stacked rocks to the falling water into countless water splashes. The whole landscape is natural and harmonious, just like the Jiangnan water town, constructing a fairy tale of picturesque green mountains and beautiful water. Unfortunately, there is a gap between the design and reality, the scene of the Happy Falls, so far, has not been fully displayed.
The fourth attraction is the waterfront promenade: from Wenhui Bridge to the west exit of Huijing Road. This is a modern version of the waterfront, including a cultural promenade, a pebble sculpture wall, a sunken plaza, a water-friendly platform, and a green landscape cultural sculpture wall. The sunken promenade is about 100 meters long and 3.5 meters high, and is well-built, saving space and allowing people to get close to the water and shelter from the wind and rain. Nowadays, the sunken square has become a platform for fishing and wild swimming, even in winter, when the river is frozen, there are still some winter swimming enthusiasts of grandparents' generation, splitting the waves in people's envy or jealousy. Waterfront platform for people to provide a good place for recreation, pebble sculpture wall is made of pebbles of varying sizes were put together on the wall, rounded pebbles seem to come from distant years and distant places, there is a kind of wind and rain and the deposition of that kind of vicissitude. The pebbles fixed with reinforcing mesh also form a rectangular pattern, deliberately reflecting the novelty of nature. The pebble sculpture wall and the imitation of the bow of a stone boat hanging high above the promenade convey a peculiar atmosphere of cultural life. The publicity drawings posted on the cultural corridor are now gone, and the original sculpture of the all-copper lotus flower and leaves is also gone. Only the opposite wall of the gallery shows a celebrity calligraphy carving, telling the history of Beijing's water or water-related poems and quotes.
The fifth attraction is the water-friendly home: from the west exit of Lianhui Road to the east exit of Lianhui Road (under the bridge in front of the former Taipinghu Market). The south bank of the river is a green park, stone paved paths, or winding around the water's edge, or pick up the stairs, imitation wood cement piles arranged along the path, a little bit of countryside or fairy tale between the flavor of the grove. In spring, summer and fall, flowers of various colors are always open, and the reeds of the simulated wetland sway in the wind, which is natural and easy-going. Standing on the platform near the south bank, you can see the reflection of Haiyunxuan Apartment Building and Xicheng Apartment Building on the other side of the bank in the turquoise blue water, which is a very attractive view. The view is so attractive that young people from nearby companies often stay here to take pictures and play. Of course, there are always anglers on the south bank. On the north bank is a sculpture wall with the theme of "Dragon Rhyme through the Ages", carved with 56 dragon patterns, from the primitive period similar to the totem symbols of the dragon, to the Qing Dynasty period of the full-bodied and gorgeous dragon, reflecting from the "folk dragon" to the "royal dragon", and the "royal dragon", and the "royal dragon". "Royal Dragon" evolution process, showing the evolution of the image of the Chinese dragon, or perhaps a symbol of the Chinese Dragon's heirs, the Chinese dragon's spirit from generation to generation.
The sixth attraction is the Green Channel: from the east exit of Lianhui Road (under the bridge in front of the former Taipinghu Market) until the northern moat of Xinjiekou.
The Green Channel is more than 1,000 meters long, with climbing plants and aquatic plants planted along both sides of the river to shade the gray concrete bank wall through vertical greening. Many different varieties of trees are planted on the bank, and in spring and summer, weeping willows sway and pick up to the water surface, and all kinds of flowers open one after another, competing with each other. Whether you look east from the bridge at the market side of Taiping Lake or stand on the small bridge at the east exit of Drinking Horse Slot Road and look west, you can see the blue water and blue sky, flowers and willows, which is refreshing and relaxing. In the fall the ginkgo tree leaves golden yellow, hanging on the bank of the climbing vine leaves are ripe, red and yellow, a string of the river on both sides of the beautifully decorated. There is no lack of rest area along the bank, often there are nearby communities of the elderly in this song, summer also has that leisure people in the shade of the willows, flowers and vines under a small nap. After crossing the north bank of the drinking trough road, you can find the small park that I mentioned in "Memories of Taiping Lake". The south bank of the river is the Beijing subway company's courtyard wall, in the courtyard wall of the paintings I invited the students of the Northern Jiaotong University paintings, more or less to this section of the river bank to add some cultural and artistic elements.
Speaking of this, I have to mention some unpleasant things. It is this section of the river, there have been interpreted some wild swimmers drowning, love-struck young people jumped into the river martyrdom tragedy, the idea of the fragility of life, so people can not help but sigh some sighs.
In fact, this section of the green channel in accordance with the original design, is to be and the entire turn of the river, as well as the Gaoliang River together to become a water tourism channel. The original concept was to be able to take a boat from Xinjiekou upstream, all the way to the view, up to the Summer Palace Kunming Lake. It may also be due to the Jingbao Railway and the 13th line of light rail there, nowadays do not see any yacht shadow. Instead, sometimes see the water management department employees to clean up the river and rafting in this, that small boat, although not as gorgeous as the yacht, but when it plows through the blue water, drawing geese on the surface of the water waves, the scene is as fascinating as intoxicated.
Just as the original designer of the "dream of the Yangtze River," the original intention, as long as you walk along the turn of the river seriously, there may be some through time and space, through the feeling of history, but also will find more wonderful landscape. As Rodin said: "Life is never short of beauty, but the lack of eyes to find beauty". What's more, the Turning River is indeed a beautiful and cultural story of the river.