Everyone looks forward to taking a trip to say goodbye. Nowadays, the convenience of transportation is one of the most important reasons to realize this wish. So if we want to go to Guangzhou to eat Canton tea and Beijing to taste the authentic Beijing duck, how much time will it take according to the present conditions?
The straight line distance from Guangzhou to Beijing on a pair of Chinese maps measures about 6 cm, while the actual straight line distance from Guangzhou to Beijing is about 1900 km, and the driving distance is about 2100 km. It takes 23 hours to travel by car, 8 hours by high-speed rail, and only about 3 hours by air.
Then in ancient times and not as we now have a variety of various types of transportation can choose, the ancients can choose the most is water and land, land can also be divided into walking and horseback riding. So how much time did it take for the ancients to travel from Guangzhou to Beijing in ancient times? What is the faster way of transportation?
Waterways are too dangerous
A closer look at the map of China shows that Guangdong is a coastal area and the Chinese water system is well developed, so it is perfectly possible to reach Beijing by shipping. So let's pick up the map and see how to go. First of all, it sails from the coastal area of Guangdong, passes through the South China Sea, crosses the Taiwan Strait, then passes through the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea in turn, finally docks at the port of Tianjin, and then takes a land route to reach Beijing, and it is more than 100 kilometers from Tianjin to Beijing.
When the technology of navigation in the inland water system was not yet developed, there was only this one sea route, but you can see that it was a route that went around far. It is worth noting that the sea weather is unpredictable, if the voyage on the sunny, it can also blow the sea breeze along the way, enjoy the sea scenery. But sailing inevitably will not encounter bad weather, the ship is blocked can not act before the small, in case of a storm ship was overturned that can really be "called the day does not answer, called the ground does not work".
In addition, in ancient times, sea pirates were prevalent in the coastal areas of China, and they robbed and looted at sea. Although every generation of the imperial court has initiatives and troops to fight against pirates, such as the Ming Dynasty General Qi Jiguang is a capable person to fight against Japanese, but you can't expect to be rescued in time when you meet pirates at sea. This is simply to live with your head at sea, so the safety factor of taking the waterway is too low.
Besides, the waterway is not as fast as you might think. In the TV series "Knowing that you should be green and red", the heroine went back to her hometown by water to pay respect to her ancestors, and chose the land route in order to get to the capital quickly after the event. This shows that the speed of the waterway is actually average, and it takes more than three months on the road.
Horseback riding is not enough
The spring breeze is so fast that you can see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day. Riding a horse to explore the great rivers and mountains is an elegant thing in the eyes of the literati. But in ancient times, horses were a kind of "luxury", and these famous families were well educated, had a high status, and had enough capital to travel on horses. They could travel freely on horseback and rest at the official post with their noble status. The average commoner was not qualified to ride a horse and was envied for having a donkey to ride.
We often see in the film and television drama "eight hundred miles expedited letter", is to encounter an emergency, by riding a horse to quickly convey information to the destination, of course, eight hundred miles is some exaggeration of the data. In ancient times, when delivering urgent letters, the messenger would ride a horse to deliver the letter, set up many stations along the way, the messenger every station to change people or horses, so the process is often horsepower exhaustion and death, the cost is huge, and only the official can afford it.
In fact, a horse can run up to 300 kilometers a day, according to this limit speed to calculate, and then take into account the actual road conditions in ancient times, it will take up to 8 days, but does not guarantee an unobstructed road. In ancient times there is no highway, even the pipeline station is not all big roads flat and wide, from Guangzhou to Beijing, the terrain is complex, winding paths, mountains, rugged mountain roads are common. So it would take at least a month or more to ride a horse.
Walking is not easy either
I can't do this, I can't do that, I can always walk. As the saying goes, there is no road on the ground, but more people walking has become a road. Also said, all roads lead to Rome.
Yes, walking is the most common and would be the most simple way of transportation in ancient times. Considering the encounter of bad weather and mountain bandits can not pass normally, then from Guangzhou to Beijing normal people also need to walk a three, four months.
In the episode of "The Return of the Pearl", Ziwei went to the capital to find her father, we should be familiar with it. Ziwei walked from Jinan to the capital for six months, and from Jinan to the capital there are about 400 kilometers, so on average, Ziwei walked two to three kilometers a day at most. This speed is still because Ziwei is a woman, walking pace is smaller resulting in. In addition, the complexity of road conditions, some roads winding, it is easy to get lost, ask for directions and find the way to spend a lot of time costs.
However, the walk to make friends with three or two friends, talk about the world and everything, along the way to enjoy the natural beauty along the way, the mood to make a poem, but also some fun. And walking, although slow, but compared to the other two modes of transportation, walking in ancient times is the most cost effective way of transportation, but also more flexible to take other faster shortcuts, the safety factor is relatively higher some.
Therefore, in ancient times, walking was not the best way to get from Guangzhou to Beijing.
With the change of time, now we have more and more convenient way to travel, and the ancient comparison is certainly a great need. Therefore, we need to cherish the life of the moment, more good at finding the fun in life, thanks to the invention of today's fast and safe transportation, enjoy our good time.
