(Taoyan): An Obsession with the Distant, Driven by an Unexplained Fascination

Sept. 23, 2025, 10:32 p.m. Travel

This is the early start today, the main itinerary is to visit Taoyan Township to see Taoyan making. Taoyan Township is 80 kilometers away from Zhuoni County City, the road is rugged and mountainous, and the traffic is extremely inconvenient. The feeling is always circling in the mountain ditch. It took 5 hours to drive, shaking and swaying, and I was afraid it would fly out of the seat like a spring. It's an unusual trip to Taoyan Township.

The weather is very gloomy and cloudy, with thick mist, and after several consecutive days of travel, the body has started to feel tired. As soon as I got on the car, I started to feel sleepy, but I kept muttering in my heart, 'Please, please let the weather be good.'

The change in weather is quite obvious. As we approached noon, the clouds and mist dispersed, and the weather gradually cleared up.

Zhuoni is the most worth visiting, I think is on the way, you can stop and enjoy it anywhere.

We don't need to go to Menyuan, which is crowded, to admire Taoni in Zhuoni!

The local people were busy on the road.

The diameter of the wheat fields, the circle where travelers have passed.

You take a picture of the distance, but you don't know you've become a landscape.

The old gentleman was engrossed in a chess game by the roadside.

Let's visit a Taoyan processing plant in Taoyan Township, where they are also transforming products. Besides stone tablets, sets of tea sets around 500 yuan are currently selling well.

These are the products that cater to the market needs, and the workmanship is very exquisite.

Looking at the finished products, we continued to the back yard, which was the processing area. There were piles of raw stones after preliminary processing here, which were used to make consumer-grade tea sets.

This three or four-person workshop is considered a large processing plant in the village.

The workers in the processing plant work about 8 hours a day. They stand or sit and polish the stone. Although it is a mechanized process, it is also achieved through the use of skillful hands. You can see the focused expressions of the workers show that this is a laborious job.

Sponsored by isok.co Shorten the links behind every story Use isok.co to create clean URLs, QR codes and real-time source analytics for campaigns. Create tracked links

The working environment is still very difficult, but I think the craftsmen are like photographers. They will be patient and persevere.

After leaving the processing workshop, we returned to the entrance. The sun was dappled, and the local people were sewing quilts. The scene was beautiful.

The stone shows a greenish-blue color, and there are not many tea sets with this color.

A young man looked lost in the distance.

Let's visit a Taoyan master craftsman's house in another household in the village. Here is where the master craftsman works.

Handmade Taoyan tablets are as meticulous as jade carvings. They are a difficult and meticulous technical job, which requires patience. Starting from design to completion of the process, there must be no mistakes.

An entire tablet is poured into the craftsman's heart. The process is very complex: first, according to the natural shape and size of the stone, determine the pattern to be carved, then design the tablet structure, style and decoration, and then according to the program to cut. First rough, then fine, from outside to inside, meticulous carving. The tablet consists of three parts: the ink pool, the water pool and the cover. Besides its use value, it also pays attention to its aesthetic value. Therefore, the craftsman poured his energy into the layout and arrangement of the patterns, producing a scientific and natural artistic beauty.

Every knife cut accumulates the experience of the sculptors over a long period of creation.

Looking at these precious finished products, it's truly amazing how a master craftsman could create it. Mountains and people, from knife technique, from shallow to deep, the image is vivid and lifelike, the relief is made by carving through the relief, forming a strong sense of reality and integrity.

Taoyan's greatest value is embodied in the stone, which is actually the craftsmanship. The best stone for making Taoyan tablets is 'old pit stone'. The best of the old pit stone is 'Duck Head Green', which is greenish blue, feels like baby's skin, and the quantity is very small. It has been discontinued since the end of the Song Dynasty. It is unknown whether it can be recovered. Today, every piece of Duck Head Green is considered a thousand-year-old antique. The hardness is about 3.1 on the Mohs scale, suitable for grinding, the particle diameter is less than 0.01mm, the ink dries quickly and the particles are fine, the density is about 3.05, it stores ink for a long time, is easy to clean and does not leak ink. Old pit stone other stone items, such as Green Ripples, Parrot Green, and 'White-blooded Eagle', the market quantity is still less than 2%, which is the fundamental reason for Taoyan's ranking among the Four Great Stones. Especially today, when Duan Stone and Shi Stone old pit stone are exhausted, 'Old Pit Taoyan' is highly sought after.

Little Bean obviously didn't like Taoyan very much. The pears and apricots in the courtyard let her have a feast. As soon as she heard that she could pick and eat them, she immediately took the initiative.

The courtyards in the village were lush and green, with light and shadow.

Please remember this traditional craftsman, Mr. Zhang Kehong, to maintain this profession in this era is really a difficult and persevering profession, cheering for him.

Let's take a picture of his portrait.

Let's take another look at his work.

Sponsored by isok.co See which shares bring real readers Compare traffic by channel, geo and device with stable short links from isok.co. Explore analytics

After leaving Taoyan Township, we headed to Jiliquan. Along the way, we passed through Zhuoni Gorge Water Conservancy Project.

We arrived at Jiliquan around 4 pm. Jiliquan is located in the south of Zhuoni County, Limian County, Gansu Province. It was an important gateway into the Tibetan area and an important trading channel for tea and commerce in the Gansu area during the 3rd to 7th centuries when the Tuubo Kingdom ruled. It was named after the 7th district of the 'Jili Seven Districts' ruled by the Tuubo Kingdom in the 3rd to 7th centuries. It was upgraded to Jiliquan National Level AAAA Scenic Area in 2006. We stayed at Green Home Country Inn. After settling in, we went out to explore the surroundings. The environment here is like Lijiang. There is a small stream flowing through it, and the sunlight is bright and fragrant with birds and flowers. We estimated that the time was still early, and we didn't want to waste time in crowded tourist attractions, so as the leader, I organized everyone to go to Huangya Mountain, which is near Jiliquan. Huangya Mountain near Jiliquan is not as famous as Huangya Mountain in Shandong, but I decided to give everyone a high tide during the trip.

It took about 50 minutes to climb the mountain from the bottom to the top. The first three-fourths of the mountain road is very convenient and has a clear direction. The last quarter of the road is without a road, only bare rock, so you need to be careful to pass. Some female members gave up on this section of the road. I think it's nothing, in travel, safety is the first thing, and it's important to know your limits.

After reaching the top of the mountain, with the dyeing of the sun, all the mountains were stained with gold. It's true that standing on the top of the mountain and looking into the distance makes me feel that this moment belongs to me.