In October, the flame lighting ceremony of the 1st National Student (Youth) Games was held in Hepu County, Guangxi. At the ceremony, the flame collector boarded the ancient ship of Shanghai Silk First Port with a fire-collecting stick in his hand, and successfully collected the flame symbolizing civilization and exchange. Why did you choose this seaside town for such an important moment?
Today's Hepu, south of the Beibu Gulf, Guangxi's first river that flows into the sea - the Nanliu River passes through here, and the last road flows south into the vast sea, and the name of Hepu, which has been in ancient times, means the place where the rivers converge. 
In the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty of the Han Dynasty (111 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up Hepu County after pacifying the secession of the Nanyue Kingdom, which had five counties under its jurisdiction, and Hepu was one of them. Prior to this, Zhang Qian had opened the Silk Road after his mission to the Western Regions, but this passage was often disturbed by the Xiongnu, so the talented Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set his sights overseas, hoping to open a new channel connecting China and the West from the sea. China has a long coastline, why did the starting port of the Maritime Silk Road in the Han Dynasty choose Hepu, which is thousands of miles away from the Central Plains?Hepu has convenient transportation and a good bay, the sea depth is gentle, the sea surface is open, and the monsoon and ocean current conditions are very ideal, which is very suitable for ships to dock and sail. 
Due to the limitations of shipbuilding and navigation technology, the flat-bottomed ships of the Han Dynasty could not resist strong winds and waves, and could only sail along the coastline, so it became inevitable to choose Hepu Port as one of the departure ports of the first ocean route in China's history.
The envoys and recruited merchants sent by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty went out of the country from Hepu with silk and **, cleaved the waves, and arrived in South Asia and Southeast Asia. After the opening of the Maritime Silk Road, the "Lianzhou Mansion Chronicles" recorded the first grand occasion of the bustling Sino-diplomatic integration in Hepu at that time: "Emperor Wu's prestige is far away, the thin sea is from the wind, and the foreign countries are all out of the sea, all of them come out of the sea, and now they are the first prosperous place in the sea frontier." ”
The shadow of the sail is boundless, and the sound of the waves is more than a thousand years. After 2000, have you ever imagined how prosperous Hepu was back then?Nowadays, the first port scenic spot of the Maritime Silk Road, located on the shore of Lianzhou Bay and near Qianti Port, reproduces the grand scene of the Han Dynasty's Maritime Silk Road departure port and boat exchange. 
Here, merchants come and go, and the market is bustling and bustling. When girls in Hanfu, fishermen, and vendors walk past you, monkey tricks, acrobatic performances, and fireworks full of reverie make everyone who sets foot here have the illusion of time travel. 
At the beginning of the day, a panoramic interactive performance about "Pearl Returns to Hepu" is being staged. 
Is Zhuhuanhepu a real history or an apocryphal legend?The Taishou in the performance is named Meng Wei, and there is indeed a person in history. According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Biography of Meng Wei", "(Hepu) County does not produce grain, but produces jewels from the sea. "When I talk about jewelry, I mainly mean pearls. Pearls are an ancient organic gemstone. Research in geology and archaeology proves that pearls existed on Earth 200 million years ago. Hepu is a city full of maritime atmosphere, with vast beaches along the beach and rich in pearls. People refer to the pearls produced in Hepu as "Nanzhu" or "Hepu Nanzhu". This kind of pearl is delicate and heavy, jade smooth and round, and its luster is long-lasting, and it has been an important tribute to Lingnan as early as the Shang Dynasty and is deeply loved by the ruling class. 
In the Han Dynasty, after thousands of years of pearl diving, the sea area under the jurisdiction of Hepu gradually formed a stable pearl production area - "Pearl Mother Sea" (now commonly known as Pearl Pond). The local people make a living from pearl diving, and use it to exchange food and daily necessities for neighboring counties.
The idiom "Zhu Hui Hepu" is to describe things lost and regained, or people go and come back. Meng Wei also went down in history because of this.
More than 2,000 years ago, in addition to attracting a large number of domestic business travelers, some exotic people also came to Hepu through this ocean-going route. In the Hepu Han Dynasty Cultural Museum, there are several cultural relics with special shapes, among which this live chain beam bronze lamp is particularly special. It consists of a light tray, a handle and a hook. There are three legs at the bottom, and a hook is set at the top, which can be placed on three legs as a lamp or hung as a chandelier.
The bronze lamp handle is decorated with five maids, who are either sitting, or **, or holding the sheng to play, and the form of playing and singing seems to be a band. Looking closely at the face of the figurines, the bridge of the nose is high and straight, which has the characteristics of the typical "Hu people" of the Nanhai Zhudao race in the Han Dynasty. In addition, there is a peacock on both sides of the bronze lamp handle, and the peacock spreads its wings in the air and dances with its long tail. With the opening of the Maritime Silk Road route, crystal agate, spice glass, strange stones and foreign objects, and even foreign populations have continued to enter the hinterland of the Central Plains. As a port of departure, Hepu was undoubtedly a multifaceted city in the Han Dynasty. Nowadays, the construction of the first port of the Maritime Silk Road closely follows the theme of "Maritime Silk Road", and uses the language of architecture to present the historical origin, such as the name of several stone bridges ** Yuhepu Guzhu Pond, and this teahouse was built with reference to the shape of the pottery of the Han DynastyAll the Chinese-style roofs in the scenic area adopt the structure of the Han Dynasty pottery warehouse hanging on the top of the mountain;The design of the trash can is inspired by the pottery wells of the Han DynastyThe exterior wall of the landmark building of the scenic spot, the Gangsi Building, adopts the color of the clay pot with green glaze in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
More than 2,000 years have made the ancient port of Haisi fade away from its former prosperity, but the waves crashing on the shore, the sound and ripples of history will not be annihilated with the loss of time. This thousand-year-old county with profound cultural heritage will inherit the important spirit of thriving towards the sea and becoming strong towards the sea, and continue to write a new chapter in the Maritime Silk Road.
This Saturday (December 9) at 21:20 Guangxi Satellite TV's broadcast of "Guangxi Story: The First Port of the Maritime Silk Road, Dreaming Back to the Millennium" is welcome to watch.