On a cliff in Mianning County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, a dark-skinned man is pulling a rope. He bent slightly, with an electric light on his head, and constantly jumped over the steep cliff face.
He held his breath, his eyes measuring the length of the rope intently, slowly releasing the rope in his hand.
The secret of the bird's nest in the cave was discovered by Yu Chengming. The entrance to this cliff halfway up the mountain is where he can show his skills. He expertly jumped into the hole, and everything was just right.
Yu Chengming, a nest picker from Mianning County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, operates smoothly just to successfully collect the precious bird's nest in the cave.
Title: The Price of Life: The Story Behind Bird's Nest Content: When the world marvels at the high cost of bird's nest, how many people can understand the hardships and courage of the bird's nest pickers behind it?
Today, let's walk into the story of Yu Chengming, the last "swallow picker" in the Yalong River in Sichuan Province - Mianning County. Yu Chengming was born into a peasant family in Mianning County, Liangshan Prefecture, and he has always cherished the dream of helping his family improve their living conditions.
So, he began to participate in the dangerous business of swallow picking. In the cliff cave of the mountain, Yu Chengming, together with other swallow pickers, paid the price of his life for a meager income.
At that time, bird's nests only cost two yuan per tael, but some people risked their lives to pick them for this meager income. Yu Chengming is one of them, he used his life in exchange for the ** of bird's nest and people's praise.
We must not only see the best bird's nest, but also see the courage and dedication of the bird's nest pickers behind it. Let us respect everyone who works hard for life and cherish every hard-won wealth.
Yu Chengming became interested in picking bird's nest at a young age. He would secretly follow the old man when he went to pick bird's nests, ** how they operated on the cliffs.
Although there was no modern high-tech at that time, the wisdom of the ancient Chinese working people should not be underestimated, for example, the Summer Palace was built by the craftsmanship of the ancients, and the same is true of the nest pickers in Sichuan, who can complete the picking of bird's nest with only one rope.
Yu Cheng was born to eat this bowl of bird's nest picking, although he is young, but his mind is particularly clever, after a period of study, he has mastered the skills of picking bird's nest, so he decided to start his own bird's nest picking road.
Bird's nest harvesting is not a smooth sailing process that relies on skill alone, as there are countless unpredictable force majeure factors in nature. For example, the cliffs after rain can become slippery, and slipping and falling can occur if you are not careful, which undoubtedly increases the risk of picking bird's nests.
Factors such as weather and wind direction will also affect the length of the rope down, which needs to be judged by experience. Therefore, picking bird's nest requires not only care and physical strength, but also a little luck.
In fact, accurately measuring the length of the rope and landing safely inside the cave is only the first step in picking bird's nests.
In this dark cave, bird's nest pickers can only rely on the faint light of a flashlight to grope their way forward. And all kinds of dangers hidden in the cave threaten their safety all the time.
Especially in the hot summer, there may be small creatures such as poisonous insects and poisonous ants lurking in the caves, which makes the picking work more difficult. Therefore, in this lightless environment, pickers must be more careful to ensure the smooth collection of bird's nests.
Yu Chengming has strict requirements for the quality of bird's nest, and he will let the pickers pick out the bird's nest with good quality and complete shape, because these factors directly affect the quality of bird's nest.
He needs to come from the cave**, repeat the steps of the climbing rope, and carefully grope his way back. Only in this way can the bird's nest in the snakeskin bag become their household income and take on the burden of daily expenses.
However, if you often walk by the river, how can you not get your shoes wet? Yu Chengming has been picking bird's nests all his life, and it is inevitable that he will encounter dangers and cannot escape every time.
Once, when Yu Chengming was about to reach the cave, he pulled the rope and swung backwards, trying to use his inertia to send himself into the cave. However, climbing had already consumed most of his strength, and the moment the rope was released, he lost his strength and failed to enter the hole successfully.
Instead, he slammed into the steep face of the cliff, fractured his ribs, and fainted. Fortunately, he was rushed to the hospital in time to avoid death. However, the severity of the injury this time forced him to rest at home for a long time to recover.
After his body recovered, Yu Chengming, regardless of the danger to his life, picked up the tool rope again and went to the cliff to pick bird's nest. Why, one might ask, is he continuing to take risks? The answer is simple, for life.
Yu Chengming, a farmer, has no higher education and mainly relies on growing crops for a living, earning only a few thousand yuan a year. However, picking bird's nest brought him an additional income of 50,000 or 60,000 yuan.
If the bird's nests are in excellent condition each time, the income may be further doubled. Yu Chengming said that when he first learned to pick bird's nest, the ** of bird's nest was only two yuan a tael.
Ten years ago, the price of bird's nest rose to 200 yuan a tael. Nowadays, prices are soaring, and the ** of one or two bird's nests has risen to 1,000 to 2,000 yuan. Even, if the quality of the bird's nest is particularly good, the most advanced can also reach 2,600 yuan a tael.
In this way, a pound of high-quality bird's nest is as high as 26,000 yuan, which can be said to be "a drop of bird's nest, worth a thousand gold".
Behind the high cost of bird's nest**, does it really contain strong nutritional value? In ancient court dramas, we can often see the scene of offering bird's nest, and the emperor will also reward the mothers of each palace.
Ancient people believed that rare things were rich in nutrients, so bird's nest was regarded as an extremely valuable tonic at the time, and non-aristocratic people did not have the opportunity to taste it. Even in modern times, bird's nest is still regarded as a rare item, and one or two good bird's nests** can even exceed half a month's salary of the average young person.
However, with the rise of the Internet age, many streamers began to sell goods on the Internet. Not long ago, a well-known anchor sold bird's nest on his online platform, which was cheap and deeply loved by consumers.
So people bought it one after another, and the anchor's live broadcast room was full for a while. However, not all of these people who buy bird's nest are not knowledgeable, and it was soon discovered that the ingredients inside these so-called "canned bird's nests" were not real bird's nests.
It turns out that after ingredient analysis, it is just an ordinary glass of sugar water, which does not contain a little bit of bird's nest. After this lesson, people also pay more attention to the quality of bird's nest when buying it.
So is bird's nest really that nutritious? Isn't bird's nest just swallow's saliva? In fact, there are misunderstandings that need to be clarified. Those cliffside bird's nests are different from the swallow nests we see on the beams.
Bird's nests on the beams of the house are usually made up of twigs, dirt, swallow's saliva and feathers, etc., while edible bird's nests are formed by the saliva and other substances secreted by the swallows, such as mineral elements in the cave.
Some bird's nests that absorb iron have a blood-red color, and people also call them blood bird's nests. The main nutrients of bird's nest include protein, carbohydrates, and some trace elements and amino acids.
Some people compare bird's nest and eggs and think that their nutrients are the same, and some even think that eating eggs is enough. However, this is not the case.
Although eggs are rich in protein, bird's nests have much lower cholesterol content compared to bird's nests, making them kinder for people with high cholesterol. This is one of the reasons why bird's nests are expensive.
Bird's nest contains epidermal growth factor, a substance that helps women to repair, so as to achieve the effect of beauty and beauty. Scientific studies have confirmed that epidermal growth factor can promote the regeneration of human cells.
Therefore, bird's nest is not only recognized by modern technology, but also regarded as a beauty tonic by ladies.
Since ancient times, many noble ladies have loved bird's nest, no doubt because of the remarkable healing effects experienced during consumption. Otherwise, this delicacy would not have survived to this day.
Nowadays, with the improvement of material conditions, the number of people buying bird's nest has gradually increased. Although bird's nest cannot be used as a daily food, most young people can still choose to experience the petty bourgeois life once in a while.
In this era, eating bird's nest can not only help girls beautify their beauty, but more importantly, give people a sense of happiness and ritual. It is worth mentioning that Yu Chengming has been picking bird's nests on the cliff for nearly half a century.
And how to be inexhaustible, Yu Chengming has his own unique method.
Yu Chengming is convinced that this mountain has given him life, and everything in the mountain has spirituality. Every time he picks bird's nests, he will worship the mountain god and pray for a safe and prosperous journey.
Although this move is superstitious, for him it is a kind of spiritual sustenance and brings a sense of peace.
Sometimes, the strength of the spirit is enough to overcome the fear of the heart. And Yu Chengming, an expert in picking bird's nests all year round, has a rule that cannot be shaken: bird's nests in the same cave are only picked once a year, and if you encounter bird's nests laid by swallows, you will never touch them again.
This is his respect for the ecological environment and a way to bring convenience to himself. Only if the swallow can be passed down from generation to generation, the bird's nest will always exist and he will be able to make a profit from it.
Yu Chengming's practice reminds us that lucid waters and lush mountains are the real gold and silver mountains, and the ecological environment is the foundation of our survival.
Environmental protection is not only to protect the environment, but also to protect the survival and development of human beings. However, the conservation of bird's nest is faced with the problem of the disappearance of the bird's nest habitat that has been passed down from generation to generation and the lack of inheritance of traditional bird's nest harvesting techniques.
Yu Chengming, a bird's nest picking professional, is deeply saddened by this problem. Although both of his sons had the opportunity to inherit his skills, they both chose to give up.
This is because most of the previous villages followed the tradition of father-to-son, and Yu Chengming also wanted his son to inherit this craft, but they were unwilling. This situation made Yu Chengming feel very disappointed, but it also made him more determined to protect bird's nest and inherit the technology.
Yu Chengming is an expert in bird's nest picking, and in order to do this job well, he has purchased a large number of ropes. The ropes were carefully selected by him and had to be strong and resilient enough.
He spent several thousand yuan on the ropes alone, on the one hand, to facilitate his frequent replacement of the damaged ropes, and on the other hand, to leave them to his son.
When his son was a little older, Yu Chengming took him to the edge of the cliff and showed him the process of picking bird's nests using ropes. Although the father is an excellent rock climber, the son seems to be a little afraid of heights.
Yu Chengming has two sons, and he has tried to let them inherit his climbing skills, but the eldest and younger sons are too afraid of heights to accept it. Yu Chengming had hoped that they could try again when they grew up, but his wife was adamantly against it.
When she was younger, she witnessed her husband break two ribs while climbing, and the incident has always left a shadow on her. Although Yu Chengming's family has no other way to make money, his wife still doesn't want him to take this risk again.
Every parent has a deep love in their hearts and is willing to take all the risks for their children, both physically and psychologically. Just like Yu Chengming's wife, she carefully analyzed the danger of Yu Chengming's work, and combined the wishes of her two children to persuade Yu Chengming to give up the craft of teaching children.
As a father, he couldn't bear to see his children hurt, looking at the small wounds on his rough palms, and the calluses that had already been worn out on the tiger's mouth, he fell into deep thought and began to realize the danger of this craft.
He feels that his wife has a point, that in modern society, there are many different careers to choose from, and the road is no longer closed, and everyone can have more opportunities and choices. Safety and health are always paramount in this process.
Modern transportation is so developed that it only takes four or five hours to fly from a city in northern China to a city in southern China. More and more young people are choosing to leave their hometowns and go to the outside world to see and work to earn money to support their families.
Yu Chengming's eldest son, 33 years old, is not highly educated, but his strong physique allows him to earn about 5,000 yuan a month in the factory, or 200 to 300 yuan a day in the gig market.
They don't have to fight against nature and can have a stable income. Now with the development of science and technology, artificially cultivated bird's nests have also become popular. Although the nutrition is not as good as the wild, it is close to the people.
Most of the nutrients are retained, and the sales of artificially farmed bird's nests are excellent.
Artificially cultivated bird's nests can not only ensure the safety of picking, but also simulate the living environment of swallows, allowing swallows to build nests in a comfortable environment. This innovative way not only protects the swallows, but also makes it easier for people to pick, achieving the best of both worlds.
With the development of the times, Yu Cheng clearly realized that the older generation's idea of inheriting the father's business needs to be changed. While his traditional craft may fade away, he believes that this does not mean that there is a problem with the craft itself.
Like a well-known film brand, the last roll of film they produced before declaring bankruptcy is still the best in the industry. But this does not mean that the old object of film will be preserved, because people no longer need film because of the development of the times.
In the same way, the craftsmanship of the swallow pickers may disappear, but this is not a pity, because technology is advancing at a rapid pace and humanity is moving towards a better life.