For Litang people, Cordyceps is a gift from the plateau
Cordyceps "Gold Digger" on the mountain at an altitude of 4500 meters
Litang, Sichuan, the "Highest City in the World" on National Highway 318.
From the end of April to the end of June every year, Litang people have their own unique season: "Cordyceps Collection Season".
Cordyceps sinensis, together with ginseng and deer antler, is collectively known as the "Three Treasures of Traditional Chinese Medicine".
On the Internet, well-packaged dried Cordyceps are sold on the gram. On the mountain, the Cordyceps that have just been picked are sold on the root, and a good quality one can sell for hundreds of yuan.
Cordyceps, which is more expensive than gold, is a gift from the plateau to local farmers and herdsmen. After more than a month of hard collection, they can often earn enough for a year's expenses.
Litang County is the largest Cordyceps production area and trading center in Sichuan. At this time of year, everyone is talking about Cordyceps.
The trading market in the county seat is crowded with people, creating the myth of the city's wealth.
As a result, more people poured into the mountains, set up camp in the silent valley, and then went to the mountains above 4,500 meters above sea level to crawl to search for the thin, dark-brown "golden grass".
The reporter investigated and learned that in Litang County, which has a population of less than 80,000, nearly 50,000 people will pour into the mountains to collect Cordyceps.
Most of them are from Litang County, and there are also "gold diggers" from surrounding counties and cities.
Even though Cordyceps is getting harder to collect, nearly 20,000 people have entered the mountains this year, and there are tens of thousands of people in the largest producing area, Ajiagou.
Cordyceps producing area
Ten-thousand-person camps trade with millions of yuan per day in Cordyceps
There are 8 Cordyceps producing areas in Litang County, and Ajiagou is the largest.
The infrastructure in this valley has been "good", the camp road cement has hardened, and two dirt roads have been built into the mountains at an altitude of 5,000 meters.
The main field of Cordyceps "gold diggers" is in an open valley, surrounded by mountains on three sides and covered with a layer of light green meadows.
For Litang people, Cordyceps has always been the main source of income for most farmers and herdsmen.
Although the number of people collecting Cordyceps this year is not as good as in previous years, there are still tens of thousands of people in Ajiagou.
On the afternoon of June 8, some foragers had already descended the mountain. There were still hundreds of tents in the camp that were scattered on the grass on both sides of the road. People went to the mountain, and the whole valley was silent.
Only at six or seven o'clock in the evening did people gather from the mountain like snow, and the place became steamy.
Hundreds of Cordyceps traders have already been at the intersection.
Cordyceps that go down the mountain are directly traded in the camp according to different specifications and grades. The most expensive ones can be sold for sixty to seventy yuan or even hundreds of yuan, and the cheap ones can be as low as ten yuan.
"There are millions of dollars in transactions in this valley every day." Wujin Tashi, deputy head of the Ajiagou Police Station, told reporters that a person collects an average of more than 10 cordyceps per day, and there are tens of thousands of cordyceps in total every day. The average price is 30 yuan per piece, which is at least 3 million in running water.
After selling the cordyceps, people got into their tents to make a fire to cook.
The commissary in the camp also became lively.
In the camp in Ajiagou, there are at least 10 canteens.
There are also sporadic roadside stalls stocked with vegetables, meat, clothes and barbecues.
It has become a large-scale temporary community. Most of them are farmers and herdsmen from Litang, and a few are from other counties and cities in Ganzi Prefecture.
Cordyceps pickers
"Like fishermen, many people in Litang make a living by digging for Cordyceps"
Gongxia Luozhu is a herdsman in the Ajiagou production area.
He originally worked at the construction site in the county seat, but at the end of April, he returned from the construction site and drove into the Ajiagou camp together with the villagers.
Every day before dawn, Gong Xia Luozhu scattered in the vast mountains along with the gathering army.
His collection point is not far, but it still takes two hours to walk.
Some foragers have to travel more than 10 kilometers to reach their destination.
Gong Xia Luozhu was wearing a cotton jacket and rubber knee pads tied to her legs. She knelt on the grass with both knees and leaned over to search.
He was accompanied by the Enzhu and his wife from the village, who also lay on their stomachs, not letting go of every inch of the grass in front of them.
The weather in the plateau changes as soon as it changes. A dark cloud floats over and it starts to rain immediately.
There was no place to hide from the rain, so they let the heavy rain wet their clothes and continued to search.
After more than 10 minutes, the dark clouds dissipated, and it was the hot sun again.
Gong Xia Luozhu said that they experience constantly changing weather every day, rain and snow, hail, hot sun...
When he was about to climb up the pass, Gong Xia Luozhu found a cordyceps, and he cheered.
Enzhu and his wife also came over and sighed, and then watched him carefully collect, take out the Cordyceps, and hold them in his hands to examine them carefully.
That is a middle-to-top quality Cordyceps, which can be sold for more than 40 yuan.
After harvesting Cordyceps, Gong Xia Luozhu buried the soil again, he said that it would be harvested only next year.
The 27-year-old Gong Xia Luozhu has seven members in his family, but he is the only one who went to the mountains to collect cordyceps. His two younger sisters are still in school, and his parents are raising cattle in the pasture.
The hardships on the mountain are worth it. He usually works in the county town and earns three or four thousand yuan a month.
But picking Cordyceps for more than a month, he earned a total of more than 20,000 yuan.
Enzhu and his wife also collected more than 20,000 yuan, and they handed over their three young children to relatives.
On the mountain, they get out of the tent at 6 am every day, walk for two hours to the collection point, and descend at 6 pm.
With water and dry food in their backpacks, they could simply fill their stomachs at noon.
When they are lucky, the couple can dig up more than 30 cordyceps a day, and at least three or five.
"Last year was a little better, but this year there are fewer cordyceps." Enzhu told reporters that when he was not digging cordyceps, he ran cattle at home, and there were more than 10 yaks at home.
Because there are three children, the family has a lot of expenses, but the couple harvested Cordyceps for more than a month, which can barely cover the expenses for a year.
"Like the fishermen on the seashore, many people in Litang collect Cordyceps all their lives and do nothing else." The 38-year-old Cibo is one of the most skilled Cordyceps pickers in Mangkang Village, Cunge Township.
He went up the mountain to collect Cordyceps since he was a child, and has never done any other work except cattle herding.
Over the past 10 years, there have been fewer and fewer Cordyceps on the mountain.
Ci Bo told reporters that when he was seventeen or eighteen years old, he could pick three or four hundred cordyceps a day. Last year, he could only pick forty or fifty cords a day, but at the best time of this year, he only picked more than 40 cords per day. Only 20 or so.
Because it was difficult to find Cordyceps, the second wave went down the mountain on June 8, half a month earlier than last year, and his income was also cut in half.
"Last year, I made 50,000 yuan, but this year it's only 20,000 yuan. I wonder what will happen next year?"
Rules on the Hill
Do not drink or gamble, cross-border gathering is a taboo
In the Ajiagou camp, the swarming people spent more than a month simple and exhausting.
Here, they go out early and return late, busy every day.
"In the past, you could play mahjong, drink alcohol, and sing KTV in the camp..." Wu Jinqupi, director of the Heni police station, told reporters that this kind of life has changed more than 10 years ago, and alcohol is no longer allowed into the valley, and mahjong is not allowed either. Take it up the mountain.
"Drinking may cause altitude sickness, and it will also lead to public security cases. The problem of playing mahjong is more serious, and some young people may lose the cordyceps that they have worked hard for more than a month..."
Cordyceps is precious and scarce, and conflicts over resources have occurred from time to time in history.
Wu Jinqupi has worked in the grassroots police station for more than 10 years and is very familiar with the situation on the Cordyceps Mountain.
He remembered that the Ajiagou camp more than 10 years ago was in chaos and often caused serious traffic jams on National Highway 318.
The problem was solved through constant exploration. The police on duty 24 hours a day thought of queuing up to issue numbers.
On a piece of paper, write the number and give it to them, but this method also has loopholes. For example, if you write a number 23, someone will tear the paper in half and turn it into a number 2 or 3.
The police went a step further and drew a circle on each number, which could be identified at a glance.
Two years later, the policemen on duty let each township enter the mountain in batches, which greatly eased the congestion problem.
When entering the mountain, the police will routinely check, and dangerous items such as knives are not allowed to enter the mountain.
For the settled stores, it is not allowed to operate alcoholic beverages or mahjong parlors.
"For collectors from other places, we have to apply for a permit to enter the mountains." Wu Jinqupi told reporters that in the earliest days, because the alpine pastoral areas belonged to nearby villages, generally only people from the village could collect.
However, some villagers also bring relatives and friends, or charge some foreigners to enter the mountain, so there are conflicts between local people and non-local people, and even local people.
So getting a certificate into the mountain came into being.
Farmers and herdsmen in the Cordyceps production area can dig into the mountains for free, and foreigners need to pay a fee to apply for a certificate.
All the income from the certification is returned to the farmers and herdsmen in the producing area.
"This year, the county has issued tens of thousands of collection certificates, and the income from this alone is tens of millions of yuan." A person in charge of the Cordyceps Management Leading Group of Litang County told reporters that according to the Cordyceps resources in each mining area, a collection certificate is in 600 yuan to 1200 yuan.
"Crossing the border is a taboo, and it is also the most likely problem to cause conflicts." Wujin Tashi said that in the early years, in order to compete for Cordyceps resources, there were sometimes armed fights and even casualties.
However, in recent years, thousands of cadres in Litang County have escorted the Cordyceps army, relevant functional departments have conducted in-depth publicity, and the police have also invested a lot of cadres to maintain order.
"In recent years, there have been zero cases on the Cordyceps Mountain." Peng Jie, deputy director of the Litang County Public Security Bureau, told reporters that although disputes still occurred on the Cordyceps Mountain in the past two years, they were resolved through timely mediation.
"Highland Mounted Police"
Take care of Cordyceps Hill
It is also to take care of the security of the county
The mountain has been transformed into a large-scale temporary community, which is matched with an "accompanying" management and service system.
At this time every year, Litang County will set up dozens of temporary party branches in various Cordyceps producing areas, and set up service teams to go up the mountain to implement legal and policy publicity, conflict mediation, and temporary medical assistance.
The heaviest burden is on the local police.
The Litang County Public Security Bureau has set up a front-line headquarters for the collection and management of Cordyceps, with the chief of public security as the commander.
As the largest production area in Litang, Ajiagou is directly in charge of the police station by Peng Jie, deputy director of the Public Security Bureau.
Other production areas are under the responsibility of the chief of the police station under the jurisdiction, and town and village cadres also go up the mountain to sit in town to strengthen public security management and service work.
Wu Jinqupi, director of the Heni police station, is the person in charge of the D production area. There are three mining sites in Asagou, Sen Genglong and Segumma, and a total of more than 4,000 people have entered the mountain.
Everyone in the village went to the mountain, and the police from the police station followed.
Because of the lack of access to the road, each patrol only has to ride horses, becoming a veritable "Plateau Mounted Police".
Wu Jinqu commented that in recent years, the police and the people have had a harmonious relationship, and horses are borrowed from nearby villagers.
Wujin Tashi told reporters that Ajiagou Police Station has a total of 17 police officers, 4 police officers and 13 auxiliary police officers. They are divided into two teams to patrol the mountains every day to ensure the safety and order of Cordyceps collectors and provide services at any time. and help.
Auxiliary police Luorong Rob and several team members walk for six or seven hours every day, over a mountain of 5,000 meters above sea level, and patrol along the border of the collection point.
They carried more dry food, water and first aid medicines on their bodies, and also kept abreast of whether the Cordyceps collectors in the mountains needed help.
In mid-May, they were patrolling the mountains, and a Cordyceps collector from out of town had a serious reaction.
In an emergency, the eight team members had to take turns carrying the patient to the health station in the camp.
The plateau lacks oxygen, and normal people are out of breath when walking. They have to change their backs every 10 minutes on average. It takes nearly 3 hours to reach the destination after walking for nearly 3 hours. The 8 people are exhausted.
Luorong Rob said that this was the most stressful and difficult period of their year, and he had not been home for more than a month.
At around 10 p.m. on June 9, the reporter followed Wu Jinqupi, who had been busy all day, to drive back to Litang County to refuel. He also received news that a tourist vehicle fell into the roadside river and needed rescue.
After eating a bowl of noodles in a hurry, he drove to the scene again.
Heni Township is more than 60 kilometers away from the county seat. While driving, he understood the situation and contacted the tow truck.
On the way, I received feedback from the Asagou collection point that there was a dispute between a Cordyceps collector and a buyer, and it was not settled that day...
"For more than a month, I can only sleep for three or four hours a day." There are more than 30 kilometers of National Highway 318 and the famous Maoya Prairie within the jurisdiction of the Heni police station. The police station receives more than 100 rescues from tourists of various types every year. .
Recently, Wu Jinqupi has spent most of his energy on the Cordyceps Mountain, and his nerves are tense every day.
"To take good care of Cordyceps Mountain is also to take care of the security of the county." Wu Jinqu commented that, judging from his years of experience, farmers and herdsmen have earned money on the mountain, and there are no conflicts left, and various cases in the county will be greatly reduced.
Ye Qiangping Zheng Li Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter Yang Ling Jiang Lin