Beef Festival crowds gathered during the Chongyang Festival in Taishan

The Double Ninth Festival in the early September of the lunar calendar is a traditional Chinese folk festival. In ancient times, there were customs such as climbing high to pray for blessings, visiting chrysanthemums in autumn, wearing dogwood, worshipping gods and ancestors, and feasting for longevity. Today, we add the connotations of Thanksgiving and respecting the elderly and filial piety to their relatives, and enjoy a high banquet on the day of Chongyang to celebrate the elderly. In Taishan, a famous overseas Chinese village in Guangdong, most of the folk activities during the Chongyang Festival are related to filial piety and respect for the elderly. The most famous one is the beef festival in Shankou Ruins of Shuibu Town.

Reporter interviewed Taishan in Guangdong before the Double Ninth Festival. After visiting Shankou Ruins with the local people, he found that merchants were filled with commodities along the road from Shuibao Central School to the office building of Qiaoqing Village Committee. Apart from nearly 100 fixed beef stalls, snack stalls and big stalls in the center of Shankou Ruins, local agricultural products, fruits and stalls were placed on both sides of the road. Food, toys, arts and crafts, etc., only see the middle passage of tourists such as knitting, beef stalls crowded predecessors. According to Taishan local people, there was no beef Festival before. It was said that the flood in Hengshui area was often caused by the upstream mountain torrents. Local villagers proposed to raise funds for the construction of the Beidi Temple in order to reduce the flood and protect the people's safety. When the Beidi Temple was built, it happened to be in Chongyang. A cow was slaughtered at the mouth of the mountain to serve craftsmen with food. The rest was bought by the public. Cai Shi, a native of Shapu in a large river, bought a piece of beef and went home to cook. The fragrance of the meat caused the mouth of her old mother who had been sick for a long time. She risked to death (to avoid eating beef) and ate a few pieces. Unexpectedly, the disease was alleviated after eating, and then recovered. After this event spread, the following year, Chongyang Festival Shankou Ruins exclusive beef, people said to buy beef in Shankou Ruins can dispel illness and pain, from then on, it became popular, forming local folk customs.

"In the past, few people knew the specific location of Shankou Ruins except the villagers near Shuibu Town and the cattle dealers in the field. Every year, before the Chongyang Festival, the cattle vendors will send the beef cattle to the Shankou market in advance. Most of them choose to kill the cattle at 3:4 a.m. that day. Around 6 o'clock, some nearby villagers go to buy beef in the market. " Li Qihe, a Taishan man who has been engaged in cattle trade for many years, disclosed that he used to kill and sell cattle on the spot at Shankou Ruins. The scene was bloody and smelly, but now he is slaughtered intensively and the sanitary conditions are better than before. Nowadays, most of the beef festivals in Shankou market start from the first day of September to Chongyang Festival, not limited to the day of Chongyang Festival.

"These are the beef just slaughtered and delivered. Look at that piece of beef, it's still beating. It's very fresh! Influenced by pork prices, beef prices have risen slightly this year compared with last year, 100 yuan per kilogram (RMB, the same below), 70 yuan per kilogram of beef bones, relatively expensive bullwhip, a big three or four hundred yuan, a small two hundred yuan or so, miscellaneous cattle (viscera), head of cattle, feet and so on are slightly cheaper, if you buy more, you can bargain. The salesman of Shankou Ruins beef stall introduced that they are basically self-raised and self-sold on farms every year, mainly cattle and buffalo. The daily sales volume of beef Festival is about four or five cattle, depending on the flow of people and the best-selling level on that day.

"Just bought a few kilograms of beef and beef bones in that stall, the price is not much different from the usual price of the vegetable market, but the Shankou Ruins Beef Festival is an annual festival. During the Double Ninth Festival, accompanying family members to the Shankou Ruins, mainly want to dip in the spirit of"cattle"and have a good luck." Wu Jiaming, a Taishan native who has worked outside all the year round, told reporters that after going out to work, he would go to the Shankou Ruins to take advantage of the ruins almost every year on the Double Ninth Festival, and buy some beef and beef bones to go home to cook and share with his family.

In addition to some home cooking like Xiao Wu, there are also many tourists who like to enjoy cattle dinner in the teahouse restaurant near Shankou Ruins. According to local residents, during the beef festival, the nearby teahouse was almost full of seats from lunch time to dinner and night time, and there was an endless stream of diners.

Nowadays, visiting Shankou Ruins and enjoying cattle banquet have become an important folk activity of Taishan people's Double Ninth Festival, which attracts many tourists from the Pearl River Delta region to experience every year, and directly boosts the local catering, tourism and accommodation industries.