Renowned Chinese writer Alai gave a lecture featuring the impression of Shudao in Tang Dynasty (618-907) poetry on Jan 13 in Guangyuan, Southwest China's Sichuan province.

Shudao is an important section of an ancient passageway that connects Guanzhong Plain with the Sichuan Basin. The numerous transportation relics of Shudao retain traces of historical changes and are known as "living fossils of ancient land transportation".

Alai (C), a Sichuan-based writer and vice president of the China Writers Association, takes a trip to Jianmen Pass in Guangyuan, Sichuan province. [Photo by Tang Biao]

Shudao is famous as a place difficult to access, as it passes through the Qinling Mountains-Daba Mountains. The famed poet Li Bai once wrote the lines: "The road to Shu is harder than scaling the sky afar!"

In the lecture, Alai used another Tang poet Cen Shen's five poems as clues to trace back what the poet saw and heard when he entered Sichuan in 766 AD, the overall situation of the Tang Dynasty at that time, and the historical changes of Shudao. Alai believes that the most important feature of Cen's five poems is that he takes in the scenery along the way and has an appreciation of its beauty.

Alai (wearing dark-blue coat and red scarf), a Sichuan-based writer and vice president of the China Writers Association, takes a trip to Cuiyun Corridor in Guangyuan, Sichuan province. [Photo by Tang Biao]

Prior to the lecture, Alai took a trip to see the cultural relics along the Shudao section. He marveled at the craftsmanship of nature after climbing up to the lookout tower at Jianmen Pass, a natural barrier outlining the roads of Sichuan province.

At Cuiyun Corridor, a spot boasting the best-preserved ancient artificial cypress forest in the world, he said that protecting ancient trees requires not only cultural and institutional guarantees but also scientific methods, and only in this way can truly achieve the harmonious coexistence of man and nature.