新華社北京4月11日電  4月11日,《新華每日電訊》“新華走筆”專欄發表記者桂濤撰寫的文章《怒江：從貧瘠洪流到希望之河》。

When I first met the Nu River, what I remembered was not its surging currents or rising mist, but its unique sound—a deep and primitive roar. The roar echoed through the steep valleys of China's southwestern border.

In the canyon, "the boo is all rain, and you are afraid of hitting the sky when you look up". Swimming upstream, the rushing river, known as "anger", made me feel more and more calm. Perhaps this is because the stories of the upheaval that have been heard along the way are comforting: the Nu River, which has left people on both sides of the river in poverty for generations, is now bringing them wealth.

The essence of human civilization will always flow in the story of people and the great river. Poverty used to be a shadow of the Nu River, and it was hard to go away. This great river cascades down the Tibetan Plateau, carving not only deep and rugged canyons, but also poverty wherever it flows.

In the Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, where the Nu River flows, 70% of the land is steep slopes and knife-like valleys, with most of the cultivated land sloped above 0 degrees and very little flat land. Farmers used to work the steep slopes to make ends meet. The slope is steep, some even up to 0 degrees, and when ploughing, you have to pull a rope, wrap one end around your waist, and tie the other end to a tree to prevent you from falling into a deep valley. "Farming is like rock climbing" – the jokes of the locals are steeped in bitterness and helplessness.

The Nu River is a moody neighbor, scouring its rivers and engulfing fields, triggering mudslides and landslides that often bury homes.

The river locks the road, and to cross the river from the isolated village, it has been possible to rely on ziplines for a long time. The traders used to walk along the cliff paths, which were only slightly wider than shoulder wide, and the mule teams behind them carried salt and medicine deep into the mountains. It was not until 1958 that the first cross-river highway bridge was ushered in on the Nu River.

The mother river nourishes life, but it also restricts development. The barren torrent is like a chain, which makes the people of Nujiang breathless. More than 100 years ago, the French explorer Henri Orleans wrote that the banks of the Nu River are "chilling, and there is a local proverb: 'If you want to cross the Nu River, your wife must be sold out first'", which means that the valley here is deep and rapid, the miasma is pervasive, and the people who cross the river rarely survive.

Born in Nujiang, 26-year-old Wang Ze is in charge of quality control at a local coffee factory. This college graduate from a Lisu peasant family told me about the moat where "the raging waves stop the boats": the peasants guarded a few acres of thin fields and harvested grain, but they could not transport it, and "no matter how good the harvest was, it would be in vain." When he was a child, Wang Ze's family was poor, and the house built of wood was leaky through wind and rain. Meat is a luxury, and you can only taste it once a week.

Yunnan is one of the main battlefields for poverty alleviation, and the Nujiang River is a "hard bone" to gnaw. Local poems: "Water is all angry stones." "Indeed, every stone here has been a respite from deep poverty. With a lack of arable land and a lack of transportation, the Nu River once had a poverty rate of 56%, making it one of the poorest areas in the country.

Targeted poverty alleviation has brought unprecedented opportunities to the deep mountains of the Nujiang River. Fellow travelers who have come here several times sighed: "It's always changing!" ”

More and more roads stretch out of the cliffs that once only walked by goats; The cross-river bridge threads the needle and leads the closed mountain village with the outside world; Drones began to shuttle between the canyons, delivering mail and supplies; Internet and e-commerce platforms have brought remote villages to the national market.

The roaring Nu River brings gifts. It has been found that the hot and dry climate of the Nu River makes pests and diseases reluctant to stay, and the cloud-shrouded canyon breeds abundant plant resources. What was once a barren hillside is now fertile ground for coffee and tea.

Wang Ze's family no longer planted bud grains. With the support of various subsidies and training programs, farmers like her father have switched from traditional subsistence farming to growing high-quality coffee beans – even though the elderly have never tasted coffee made from their own beans. On the hillside, the heavy sigh of the bud valley has been translated into a romantic poem of coffee beans.

The high-quality Arabica coffee produced in the canyon is supplied to the cafes of the Yangtze River Delta. The bitterness of coffee is brewed into the sweetness of Nujiang people.

　　王澤工作的咖啡廠位於怒江瀘水，碧羅雪山與高黎貢山夾怒江由北向南縱貫全市，3萬畝咖啡園沿著山坡鋪展開來。峽谷獨特的地理氣候條件和資源優勢推進了當地精品咖啡產業的發展，未來瀘水的咖啡產品將出口到新加坡和歐洲。

The "dialectic of the canyon" has allowed the water vapor and steep slopes of the Nu River to give birth to two different philosophies of poverty alleviation – coffee trees growing densely on the sunny slopes and clumps of "golden beans" growing on the shady slopes.

More than 20 years ago, on the slopes of Fugong County, Nujiang, Zhao Yufa's father bent over and planted the first batch of grass and fruit seedlings in the county in the damp forest. At that time, there were no hardened roads, so the spice could only be carried across the river on the shoulders of horses. Later, the sales of grass and fruits became better and better, and there were more and more growers, the road was opened, and the truck drove to the entrance of the village.

　　我見到36歲的趙玉發時，他正在加工廠里忙碌，看著自家種植的草果經過一道道工序，變成飲料和精油，銷到怒江之外。種草果每年為趙玉發家增收約20萬元。

　　怒江是中國草果核心產區，草果種植面積及產量都佔全國的一半以上。去年，被宋代詩人描寫為“香味極辛烈，果中第一流”的草果為怒江16.5萬果農人均增收3400多元。

Locals say: "The Nu River has changed from a former marauder to a presenter of gifts." ”

The once formidable river has also attracted many explorers. A canyoning route has been developed in the area, and the villagers have become elves to tell the story of the Nu River in their native voices. B&Bs are scattered on both sides of the canyon, and visitors sip Nujiang coffee on the terrace, overlooking the brave people fighting the waves.

The obsolete zipline on the Nu River has been transformed into a thrilling tourist experience. Traders pick up Nujiang stones from the riverside and sell them to tourists. The shape and pattern of the stone cannot be seen elsewhere, and the cheap ones sell for more than a dozen yuan, and the expensive ones sell for hundreds of yuan. The stones, which were once only used to build pigsty and ridges, were sold for money. A vendor asked me if I could afford to sell Nujiang stone online to Beijing and Shanghai.

Despite the dramatic changes, the Nu River remains one of the most remote places in China. Perhaps in the future, as more logistics chains penetrate the Nu River, it will be easier for these stones to cross the bends of the rapids.

The Nu River still roars, but the people here are no longer trembling.