Cross Gaoligong to Qiu Gonggong Coffee Manor

More than 100 years ago, missionaries from the West followed the caravan team to grow coffee with pure Arabica ancestry on this land in Yunnan after climbing Mount Gaoligong. For me, coffee is a clue, and it is as interesting as the introduction of Catholicism, Christianity and wine to Yunnan.

The green river flows against the huge mountains, and its momentum reminds me of the Dadu River and its tributaries under Jinchuan, the size of western Sichuan. Lujiang Dam is such a place waiting for the water of the Nujiang River. the tall branches of the sloping banks are covered with red kapok, which acts as a messenger of spring like magnolia in many inland cities.

Xihu Village is a small Dai village on the dam of Lujiang River. The old people in the village said that at first, there were horse caravans from afar. After they crossed the Gaoligong Mountain, the Nujiang River was the first big river they saw. When they waved their arms along the riverside to celebrate their arrival at the Nujiang River, someone asked the passing farmers for Jiang's name. The farmer said, this is Lujiang. The traveler was so frustrated that he thought that he had not reached the bank of the Nu River for several days. In fact, in terms of pronunciation in the local dialect, outsiders just misheard it. At that time, the big river in front of the horses was the Nujiang River. According to legend, the two names of the Nujiang River have been preserved here.

Several tilapia stuffed with citronella are smelling on the charcoal fire rack. The best gift for people in spring is wild vegetables, probably because I have little knowledge. Here I have eaten seven kinds of wild vegetables that I have never eaten in my life. Brown bud, elephant tail grass, sour bag, white flower, kapok, small foot melon and spring sprout. In contrast to my delight in seeing wild vegetables, Tian Daihe, a 4-year-old Japanese girl, loves citronella grilled fish more than any other spring specialty. The villagers loved her, so they put the biggest fish on her plate. Of course, there is coffee, which is an indispensable drink in Lujiangba. I failed to meet Springfield Kao, who had been working here for eight years, and his next coffee farm manager, Tian Daisi, became my good friend. It may be a coincidence that there is a field word in the names of the three characters associated with coffee, and in any case they are destined to form an inextricable bond with the land of Yunnan.

Qiu Gongguan Coffee Manor has a mountain area of nearly 500 mu in Lujiangba to grow iron pickup coffee. Ten years ago, when the trip to Kaoshi City came to the end when it reached the foot of Gaoligong Mountain, he was excited to find that the farmers here were growing coffee with pure pedigree in the most ecological way. He wrote to his good friend Qiu Yonghan in Japan, saying that he had found the best coffee in Yunnan and decided to stay here to grow coffee with Nujiang farmers. The picking of coffee fruits is coming to an end in March and April, and the road to the farm is slightly busy. The only inconvenience of mountain farms is that cars and agricultural vehicles are not allowed on many roads, and fresh coffee beans are carried on mules and horses. Those cherry-like coffee fruits jumped off the farm in a bamboo basket and walked into the manor, and finally became fragrant black beans, the whole process full of fairy tale color.

Tian Daihe lived on this farm with his mother for nearly three years, and grew up with a coffee tree of the same age as her. On the farm, her greatest wish was to ride a mule and horse carrying goods. This wish did not come true until she was 4 years old, and she rode around the coffee farm all morning on a brown mule, shouting more and more without looking tired.

Through her relationship with the villagers, Tian Daisi is helping us get in touch with the horses everywhere. If the weather is fine, she is going to take her daughter to climb Gaoligong Mountain with us. Rain Water began to visit Lujiang Dam that afternoon. The women in Xihu Village practice Dai songs and dances in the wet evening, all to welcome the religious festival when spring comes every year. It is said that when I went to pray in a small temple next to Longtan on the edge of the village, my wish could come true, especially my fortune. Xiao Wang, who is in charge of roasting coffee at the manor, told me that the temple was not very effective. He prayed for his fortune every year and had not done anything for three years.