Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point Reporter Ma Zhiyong, Guo Huachun, Correspondents: Zhang Dawei, Xin Kai, Wang Ding, Li Chao.
The national tide is rising, and the intangible cultural heritage is renewed. On February 17, the eighth day of the first lunar month, the 2024 "Pingyuan Encheng Pigeon Club" was grandly opened. The biggest feature of the Encheng pigeon club is: the pigeons catch the meeting, once a year, for 500 years. This is due to the history and landform of Encheng, Encheng has a long history, was founded in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Tang Dynasty set up a state, and the Song Qingli was named Enzhou in eight years. Pigeons have an instinctive desire to nest, are collective, and are good at flying long distances and orienting themselves through magnetic fields. The city is a high terrain, with a relatively strong magnetic field and swamps as a natural habitat for pigeons, and pigeon breeding is very popular in the area. Encheng pigeon club originated from the Ming Dynasty Zhengde years, every year on the eighth day of the first month, pigeon fanciers, businessmen, tourists, etc. from all over the world will gather in Encheng to carry out activities such as pigeon watching, pigeon racing, pigeon trading, etc., which has become a grand event.
Once a year, it is the need for pigeons to breed. "Nationally, most of the pigeons are concentrated in the New Year. The pigeon generally chooses a mate in the first month, our local vernacular is called 'hugging pigeon', the pigeons are monogamous, paired in the first month, and then bred and breeded, in the summer and autumn to watch the game. Wang Zhi'an, vice president of Shandong Pigeon Association, introduced.
After 500 years of inheritance, the millennium pigeon township and Encheng pigeon will become a unique city brand in Pingyuan County. In October 1992, the first "Pingyuan Pigeon Festival" was held in the Great Hall of the People, and the country's first pigeon-themed movie "Pigeon Hometown" was launched, attracting nearly 1,000 merchants at home and abroad to participate. In 2021, the Encheng Pigeon Club was successfully selected as a provincial intangible cultural heritage project. At its peak, there were more than 40,000 pigeon farmers in Pingyuan County, forming a complete pigeon industry chain and becoming a "rich pigeon" for the masses.
From "Pigeon Pigeon", "Rich Pigeon" to "Flat Pigeon". Since last year, the Pingyuan Encheng Pigeon Club has been upgraded to increase the national tide element. Pingyuan County has successfully held a series of activities to release 10,000 pigeons in Pingyuan Millennium Pigeon Township, and was awarded the honorary title of "China's Millennium Pigeon Township" by the China Pigeon Association. Facing the province to collect and release the "flat pigeon" series of pigeon ** dolls. Integrate pigeons with beer and tourism to create a "pigeon +" cultural brand and inject new vitality into traditional pigeon culture.
On the eighth day of the first lunar month this year, the pigeon will further upgrade its "play". At the opening ceremony, Zhang Zhigang, vice president of the China Pigeon Association, was awarded the honorary medal of "Shandong Province Ornamental Pigeon Breeding Demonstration County", and Lu Mingpeng, deputy secretary of the Pingyuan County Party Committee and county magistrate, received the medal on behalf of Pingyuan County, and the national and provincial pigeon aces came to the stage to send blessings. The city and county leaders awarded the honorary certificate of "Double Recruitment and Double Introduction Ambassador" to the representatives of outstanding talents from Pingyuan, and awarded the honorary medal of the 2023 National "Four Good Chamber of Commerce" to the Encheng Chamber of Commerce and the Taoyuan Club Youth Entrepreneurship Alliance.
The pigeon club is full of excitement and excitement, and the farthest pigeon fancier is from Xinjiang, with a radius of more than 6,000 miles. "The pigeon club is huge, and we come almost every year. Ms. Wang, a professional pigeon breeder from Tianjin Win Lingxiao Pigeon Association, said that as of 10 o'clock in the morning of the same day, Ms. Wang had completed the transaction of two carrier pigeons. On the other side, Zhang Zhiyi's booth from Linqing, Liaocheng, was filled with dozens of trophies, large and small. "My pigeons have been racing every year and have won good results, but this time I didn't even get half of the trophies! Zhang Zhiyi said proudly. He has been participating in the Encheng pigeon club for thirty or forty years now. According to Zhang Zhiyi, the carrier pigeon was known as the flying slave in ancient times, as a breed with high IQ and strong endurance, it enjoys the reputation of "the strongest in the wind and rain, never lost in the clouds", in the eyes of industry insiders, it is usually evaluated for its advantages and disadvantages, and the most important thing is to see the awards it has won.
Li Yibing, from Xingtai, Hebei Province, is the first year to participate in the pigeon club, and this time he brought more than a dozen kinds of ornamental pigeons. "Encheng pigeon fair is a relatively large pigeon fair, pigeons are divided into three categories: ornamental pigeons, carrier pigeons, carnivorous pigeons, this time I brought more than a dozen varieties of ornamental pigeons. Li Yibing introduced.
In addition to these old faces, Douyin Internet celebrities have become a new force in the Centennial Pigeon Club. Walking on the scene of the pigeon club, you can see Internet experts with ** poles everywhere sharing their experiences in the pigeon club through their mobile phones. Among them, the American Internet celebrity Lei Ge, who has millions of fans, checked in for the first time at the Pingyuan Encheng Pigeon Club, and it was the first time in his life to watch the pigeon market. "Douyin is a person who catches up with the market, and the pigeon club is very different from other traditional big sets, more like a communication platform. In addition to delicious food and fun, I also gained a lot of pigeon expertise, which is very fresh. Internet celebrity Lei Ge said.
Intangible cultural heritage takes the stage, the consumer economy sings, and the city brand is out of the circle. Wang Yudong, secretary of the Pingyuan County Party Committee, introduced that the Encheng pigeon meeting lasted for five days, and seven areas such as ornamental pigeons, carrier pigeons, and meat pigeons were set up by classification, covering more than 2,000 booths such as pigeons, pigeon medicines, pigeon equipment, and intangible cultural heritage exhibits, displaying 56 intangible cultural heritage projects such as local Lubei drums and steamed buns, and integrating elements such as talent recruitment, benefiting the people and enterprises, and promoting the business environment. The number of participating merchants increased by more than 50% compared with last year, and a number of Internet celebrities were invited to live broadcast and conduct online transactions. It is expected that there will be more than 100,000 tourists on the day, and the transaction volume is expected to reach more than 5,000. With the pigeon as the medium, Pingyuan County will present the centennial Encheng pigeon club with a more standardized, higher specification and more sustainable attitude, and polish the brand of the millennium pigeon town.