Deep in the mountains lies China's first coffee village

The terraced fields of Zhukula village. The mountain of Hongsha rock in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province is magnificent and magnificent.

In the beautiful Zhukula village, the green plants that surround the village are coffee trees.

The two-story house is the ecclesiastical school in the village a hundred years ago.

On the banks of the Yupao River, a tributary of the Jinsha River, there is a picturesque but little-known minority village in Yunnan-Zhu Kula. Because this remote village has the oldest coffee forest in China for more than a century, it is called "the living fossil of Chinese coffee" by the outside world. Every family of Zhukula villagers grow coffee, grow, grind and brew their own. Men and women, old and young, drink coffee. They have integrated with coffee. The unique and rich original coffee culture has made China's first coffee village worthy of the name.

Beautiful pastoral landscape painting

Recently, we started from the Sancha River in the project department of Tiechuanqiao Power Station in Central South Hospital (the fourth stage power station developed by Yupao River), and the car moved slowly along the mountain road with steep walls on the left and rivers on the right. Finally, there is no road ahead, only the Yupao River flows quietly.

After climbing along a small path on the edge of the cliff for half an hour, we looked back on the way to come. The long Yupao River meanders at the bottom of the valley, and the mountain is as steep as a knife. On the other side is Dayao County of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, overlooking the mountains of the "red sand" rock and soil on the other side, with a light grayish red color, which is very magnificent.

After climbing for a long time, I finally climbed halfway up the mountain. The whole mountain is like a huge teacher's chair. I have reached the seat. On the left is the green tile and white wall building built by the mountain, and on the right is the winding terraces surrounded by the Yupao River, surrounded by a green barrier between the house and the terrace.

A beautiful pastoral landscape came into view: terraces, twos and threes of farmers and their children, as well as leisurely cattle, sheep, mules and dogs. Looking at the vibrant picture in front of me, I really can't tell whether this is the palace of the earth or the earth in the sky.

This is the magical village of Zhukula, where everything seems so relaxed, peaceful, pure, cozy and obviously full of vitality.

Mysterious church and coffee

A short walk to the west from the village road leads to the entrance of the village. the buildings in the village are mostly brick and wooden structures, simple and elegant, not far along the slabstone trail in the village, a wooden house on the left and a house on the right, two houses arranged vertically, sitting quietly in the cove, still bluestone, pink walls and tiles, plain and clean. Intuitively, the two-story wooden house on the left is supposed to be the former ecclesiastical school, while the building on the right is the church left by French missionaries.

I climbed the second floor of the ecclesiastical school and stood on the two-story wooden corridor, overlooking the gray-red mountains opposite Dayao County, thinking that there must have been a quiet party, an unspeakable gentleness, and all this may be known only by the mountains on the other side.

Coming out of the small door to the north of the church, you can see a row of coffee groves. The local fellow-townsman told me that a long time ago, Zhu Kula called "Ruokelai", which means a winding mountain road, and the locals vividly called it "99 bends and 88 ridges". More than 100 years ago, there was a big landlord in a neighboring village who bullied others and sold 72 girls and wives from nearby villages, including Zhu Kula, to other places. Zhu Kula could not swallow this breath, so everyone pooled the money and elected a young man surnamed Qi to complain in other places. After going through many difficulties and dangers, the young man came to Kunming. After several twists and turns, with the help of Catholic priests, he won the case. When the young man surnamed Qi returned to Zhu Kula, he brought back a coffee tree given to him by the priest. After the arrival of French missionary Father Tian in 1892, he built schools and churches, planted coffee beans outside the church, and brought the habit of drinking coffee to the village. Also gave the small mountain village a very romantic name-"Zhu Kula" (meaning "paradise on earth").

Today, every family of Zhukula villagers grows coffee trees, grows, grinds and cooks themselves, and drinks coffee for all men and women, young and old. Villagers have a special feeling for coffee trees, and they are reluctant to cut down a tree even when coffee beans can not bring them any economic benefits. therefore, there are 13 mu of the oldest coffee trees in China, of which 24 are more than 100 years old, preserving China's most original coffee culture and becoming a veritable first coffee village in China.

(responsible Editor: coffee Sound)