The ancient salt road of Bayan - a vicissitude road through time and space

The ancient Ba people called the salt "bar salt" and "salt bar". The Ba people used the "salt bar" to start trade with the surrounding ethnic groups and established the oriental paradise of "no ploughing, no weaving and clothing".

There are two ancient salt roads we saw today. One is the earliest ancient salt-salt road. It was formed at the end of the Neolithic period 5,000 years ago. From Chuandong to Hunan Fenghuang Ancient City, it is about 1,200 kilometers long. The first land route to the west. The other is the Shiyi Trail, which was formed in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. It started in the city of Enshi Liuzhou and arrived in Yichang via Jianshi, Badong and Changyang. It is more than 400 years old and has a total length of about 300 kilometers. Two ancient roads gather in Shimen River. Among them, only 10 kilometers are relatively intact, most of which are distributed in Shimen River, Gaoping Town, Jianshi County.

The Bayan Ancient Road is not only a salt road, but also a commercial road, an official road, and a military road. It has played an important role in promoting the development of politics, economy, culture, education, and military affairs in the southwest and Enshi.

There is also a Guanting Pavilion next to the ancient salt road. In ancient times, there was a strict hierarchy. When officials took office or passed through, local officials must go to the official booth on the border of the jurisdiction to meet and hand over the work. It is this ancient salt and salt road that has gone out of the earliest Communist Party members, Nie Weizhen, Kuomintang veteran Zhu Hezhong, Zhongchen Wu Jingming, and the mayor of Hankou, the mayor of Chongqing, the mayor of Shanghai, and the chief executive of Taiwan, Wu Guozhen, and other contemporary Chinese celebrities. .

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang government needed to move the Kuomintang Hubei Provincial Government into Enshi in order to resist the war. This is also the ancient salt road. During the War of Liberation, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army liberated Enshi and entered the Great Southwest, it also entered Enshi through this ancient road.