Blooming rape

Every March, the valley is festooned with golden blooms from slopes to plains and from fields to brooks.

The end of winter and the beginning of spring is the fallow period for rice plantation when farmers cultivate large quantities of rape. The seeds are sown early in the year before Spring Festival. From late February to early March, when the weather gets warmer, they rapidly flourish and seem almost overnight to gild the green valley.

Anyone traveling south by train from frigid northern China during this season experiences joy at having escaped. While the North China Plain is still suffused in a haze, the banks of the Yangtze River are already carpeted in boundless golden blooms. Weary from a solitary night journey, the sight through the train window of golden spring lifts the traveler’s heart and spirits.

Rape flowers in the Kaiyuan Village valley display an infinite variety of shapes. Plants in the pasture at the valley entrance grow in all directions, sometimes hanging from hillsides and ridges. It is only upon arriving at the village that you wade through the sea of flowers that flows over plains and hills.

People often compare Kaiyuan Village with Wuyuan, a tourist attraction in the same province that shares similar geographical features. However, our village does not feature the typical Hui architecture of white walls and black tiles. It is impressive instead for its simplicity and tranquility.

Butterflies and bees dart and hover over the fields at spring time, and local residents labor while children play hide and seek in fields bedecked with flowers. Some children roll up their trouser legs and catch fish and shrimps or pick water fennel from the river. When tired of this, they just lie in the golden fields and gaze at the clear blue sky, breathing the fresh, fragrant air.

Late March to early April is the peak season for these glorious blossoms. On Tomb-sweeping Day in early April, spring rain often scatters the field borders with petals. This is when people return to their homes to mourn and pay respect to their ancestors. To children, visiting their forefathers’ graves is not a sad occasion. They happily follow the rituals, under their parents’ instruction, of burning paper money, lighting candles and incense to pray, setting off firecrackers, and kowtowing in obeisance. They are then permitted to enjoy their leisure time in the woods, where they find treasures like huge mushrooms, yellow azalea bushes, and tasty chapao.

Kaiyuan Village is currently undergoing changes. Houses are constantly refurbished, and young people often leave to find work in cities, but generally return. I will nevertheless always cherish the memory of profusions of golden flowers when I think of my old home.