Cultural China Tour丨Check in the Millennium Station to see the beauty of the intangible cultural heritage of the border town

Source: CCTV news client

Khorgos Port is located in Khorgos City, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, and the border between China and Kazakhstan is bounded by the winding Khorgos River, and Khorgos Port is also named after it. As the largest land port in Northwest China, Khorgos Port connects Chinese mainland to the east and five Central Asian countries to the west. Khorgos is a city born and prosperous because of the port, and tourists can experience the fusion of Chinese and foreign cultures. Let's follow in the footsteps of reporters and go to the country together.

CCTV reporter Wang Li: This is the Khorgos Highway Port located in Xinjiang's Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, this majestic building is the sixth generation of Khorgos National Gate, which is across the river from Kazakhstan, and is an important window for China's opening to the west and a "golden port" connecting the Eurasian continent. Thousands of years ago, Khorgas was an important post on the ancient Silk Road, more than 100 years ago, Khorgos highway port was officially cleared, from the first generation of the country in the 50s of the 20th century, to the sixth generation of the country today, the change of the country, witnessing the vigorous development of this border city of Khorgos.

Under the clear blue sky, the sixth generation of the national gate is dignified, "People's Republic of China Khorgos Port" several bright red characters shine, and the cornices on both sides of the national gate mean that the economy of China and Central Asia will take off here.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the first wave of Chinese and foreign merchants and tourists poured into the port, which was very lively. Buy a bus ticket at the international bus terminal, take an international bus, and exit from here to Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, which only takes about 5 hours to drive.

As the first land port in Xinjiang where passengers and goods are separated, new energy vehicles drive from here to Central Asia and Europe, and heavy-duty trucks loaded with products from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries shuttle back and forth.

CCTV reporter Wang Li: From the sixth-generation national gate of Khorgos to the north, you will come to the fifth-generation national gate. Nowadays, although the fifth-generation national gate no longer assumes the function of the national gate, the local government has rebuilt it into the Khorgos National Gate Cultural Exhibition Hall, telling everyone about the changes of the national gate and the history of the port through words, pictures and videos.

Walked into the Khorgos National Gate Cultural Exhibition Hall, and followed the docent to the barren Gobi more than 70 years ago. In the 50s of the 20th century, the century-old port of Khorgos built the first generation of national gates, a row of five rooms connected into one bungalow, and few people came and went.

In 1983, the Khorgos port was officially reopened, and with the continuous internal and external exchanges, the narrow bungalows could no longer meet the carrying needs of customs clearance at that time, and the country also ushered in the first "upgrade". In 1987, the second generation of the relocated and expanded national gate was officially opened. With the rapid growth of foreign trade at Khorgos port, the third, fourth and fifth generations of the country have become a new window for China's opening up to the outside world with a more magnificent attitude.

On September 27, 2018, the sixth-generation national gate was officially opened for customs clearance, which has become a new landmark in Khorgos City, which integrates many functions such as customs clearance trade and cultural exchanges.

Gourd painting Mandarin duck piano to see the beauty of the intangible cultural heritage of the border town

On the border between China and Kazakhstan, there is a majestic red building in the cross-border China-Kazakhstan Khorgos International Border Cooperation Center, which is very eye-catching, this building is the Khorgos Chinese Cultural Center, full of Chinese elements, telling tourists from all over the world about the long and thick Chinese culture.

Walking into the Khorgos Chinese Cultural Center, Chinese calligraphy, silk, embroidery ...... Let tourists from all over the world stop and admire, on the exhibition shelf, a delicate and unique gourd attracts everyone's attention, with a soldering iron on the gourd to brand a delicate pattern, which is the first time to see in the eyes of many tourists.

Kazakhstan tourist Ainagul: I like this gourd very much, I think it shows the traditional culture of China, China has a culture of 5,000 years, I like it very much. This is my first time in China, and I will tell my family what I have seen and heard here, and I will come back in the future.

The gourd, taking its homonym "Fulu", represents auspicious happiness. As an intangible cultural heritage of Khorgos City, gourd painting has long been famous in the local area.

In Garsu Village, Xibe Township, Yiche Gashan, 48-year-old Cao Guangyao has been creating gourd painting for 10 years.

Each stroke is full of ingenuity, and as the fire pen burns the pattern on the gourd, the air is filled with a sweet smell. The small gourd encompasses all things in the world, and the gourds of different shapes and sizes have become a lifelike gourd painting artwork in Cao Guangyao's hands, with the beautiful landscapes of Xinjiang, the graceful folk dances, and the abundant flowers and fruits...... Nothing is indispensable.

Cao Guangyao, the non-genetic inheritor of gourd branding painting in Horgos City: I particularly like the characteristics of our Xinjiang, and the uniqueness is that it can show a natural beauty of hot painting, branding painting, and fire brush painting, and it also has an antique ancient rhyme, which is particularly down-to-earth. As the inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, we must pass on the good culture.

In Khorgos, there are many folk artists like Cao Guangyao, walking into Yichegashan Village, Xibe Township, Yichegashan, and following the sound, you can find the home of the local intangible cultural heritage inheritor Kong Yuchong. The big and small performances in the city are indispensable for the old man Kong Yuchong and his "Kashan Peony" band, and as long as they are free, they will get together to rehearse.

Mandarin duck piano, accordion, violin, electric blowpipe, national musical instruments and Western musical instruments are perfectly integrated in the "Kashan Peony" band, and the most distinctive is the mandarin duck qin in the hands of the old man Kong Yuchong and his apprentices.

Kong Yuchong, the intangible inheritor of the production of national musical instruments in Horgos City: The mandarin duck is very beautiful, it has two webs, and it can also be the back plate of each other. Its head is two mandarin ducks, which can be played on one leg and can be pulled while sitting, which is very convenient. If you carry such a violin, you will bring two pianos, because it also plays and plays.

The 83-year-old Kong Yuchong, who was a teacher at the Yichegashan Township Primary School in Khorgos before his retirement, has been obsessed with playing and making various musical instruments since he was a child. The old man said that when he was an ignorant teenager, he had always heard a local legend about the mandarin duck qin.

Kong Yuchong, the non-genetic inheritor of the production of ethnic musical instruments in Horgos City: 270 years ago, our older generation was guarding the frontier, a young man here, who also loves music. The Xibe people used to drink water with gourds, and he cut off both sides of the gourd, and a very simple double-sided piano came out.

What does a mandarin duck piano look like? No one has really seen it, but Kong Yuchong has always buried the legend of the mandarin duck qin in his heart until one day more than 20 years ago, an old man surnamed Wang found him with a drawing.

Kong Yuchong, the intangible inheritor of the production of ethnic musical instruments in Khorgos: The old man drew a picture, and he asked me, can you make such a piano? I saw that this was the legendary two-sided piano, and I said I'd do it, and that was how it began.

In 2005, on the basis of absorbing and learning from the advantages of Xibe traditional musical instruments and Western musical instruments, Kong Yuchong successfully developed the Mandarin Duck Qin, which is unique in the world, with one side pulling the strings and one plucking the other.

The timbre of the mandarin duck piano not only contains the solemnity of traditional musical instruments, but also integrates the brightness of modern musical instruments.

Kong Yuchong, the intangible inheritor of the production of ethnic musical instruments in Khorgos: My current idea is to improve the quality of this musical instrument to a very high level. We must go out and our voice will reach the whole world, and it will be a beautiful voice.

Khorgos: Come to the China-Kazakhstan border to experience the new vitality of cultural tourism

2024 is China's "Year of Tourism in Kazakhstan", and border tours, cross-border tours, and shopping tours are attracting more and more tourists. During the National Day holiday, when you come to Horgos, the China-Kazakhstan Khorgas International Border Cooperation Center is a must-check place, where you can not only enjoy duty-free shopping, but also feel the unique experience of "crossing the two countries in one step".

CCTV reporter Wang Li: In the joint inspection hall of the China-Kazakhstan Khorgos International Border Cooperation Center, you don't need to make an appointment, as long as you have a passport and other valid entry and exit documents, you can go through customs clearance procedures directly. It doesn't matter if you don't have a passport, as long as you use your ID card, you can apply for a one-time entry and exit pass in the visa hall, and you can also enter the cooperation center, the whole process is very convenient and efficient.

With his passport, the reporter went through the customs clearance procedures and entered the cooperation center in less than 30 seconds.

Zhang Liangbo, instructor of the sixth team on duty at the Khorgos Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station: At present, an average of 26,000 passengers enter and leave the park every day. We will also dynamically adjust our manual inspection channels according to the flow of passengers, and can add up to 12 channels.

The China-Kazakhstan Khorgos International Border Cooperation Center is the only cross-border economic and trade zone in the world that crosses national borders and consists of the land of two countries.

CCTV reporter Wang Li: Entering the cooperation center, the "one step across the two countries" at the China-Kazakhstan connection channel is definitely the first choice for tourists to check in. The place where the red and blue border is the national border, and the red area on one side of the line represents China and the blue area represents Kazakhstan. One second ago it was still in China, and as long as one foot crossed the dividing line, one second "went abroad" and came to Kazakhstan.

In this Sino-Kazakh co-ruled region, small shops selling a variety of goods stand side by side, and most of the shopkeepers can switch between multiple Chinese languages "seamlessly" to attract customers. Chocolate and wood carvings from Kazakhstan, honey from Kyrgyzstan, nearly 10,000 kinds of special products from China, Central Asia and European countries are dazzling, and tourists who come here can enjoy 8,000 yuan of duty-free shopping per person every day.

If you get tired of shopping, you can also enjoy the flavors of different countries at the cooperation center. Hainer, from Xinjiang, has opened a specialty restaurant at the cooperation center, with two chefs from China and Kazakhstan.

"Hurdak", which means "fried meat" in Kazakh, is a traditional food for Kazakh herders to entertain guests, rich in taste and nutrition, while horse meat and horse sausage are common dishes on the table of Kazakhstan people. Allowing diners to taste the authentic food of China and Kazakhstan is the original intention of Hainer's store.

Hainer, owner of Holking Gourmet Restaurant: I opened this restaurant, and the chefs from two countries brought it over to let the guests taste our Chinese characteristics, the characteristics of the Kazakh side, and we continued to work hard and continue to work.

Walking out of the cooperation center, you can also climb the Western Regions Pearl Sightseeing Tower located in Central Asia Style Street, the 108-meter-high tower can take in the panoramic view of China and Kazakhstan, and see the two countries at a glance.

As the night darkens, the pedestrian street of this century-old port also ushers in the most lively time of the day, with the brightly lit streets filled with the aroma of special snacks. Visiting the night market, enjoying the night view, enjoying the food, the prosperous nightlife has lit up the "night economy" of Horgos, and also injected new vitality into the city's cultural tourism consumption.

(CCTV reporter Bai Ma Yangjin, Li Wenjie, Wang Li, Miao Yimeng)