墨西哥迷與情

墨西哥迷與情

墨西哥是一個距中國非常遙遠的國家，這個距離曾造成我們之間的了解不是那么多。但事實上，早在16世紀的時候，中國和墨西哥之間就有交往了。而隨著兩地航班的增多，我終于有機會來到這個迷人的國度，體會它的熱情與神秘。

Multi Civilisations

After arriving in Mexico City, I got accommodation near Plaza de la Constitución. This is the third largest plaza in the world. On the east side of the Plaza is Palacio Nacional, while on the north side stands the biggest Cathedral in Latin America. Overlooking the modern Mexico City from the top of a Cathedral with hundreds of years' history, I saw all kinds of light coloured houses built from the foot of the mountain along to halfway up the hill. The Jesus sculpture on the top of the mountain is there looking down over the living beings in this city.

For anyone visiting Mexico City, Piramide de Sol and Piramide de la Luna are places which cannot be missed. Piramide de la Luna was built around in BC. 300, located in northern Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan. Piramide de Sol, which is the biggest architecture in Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan was built around in AD 100. Its volume reaches 1 million cubic metres, which equals roughly the volume of Khufu Pyramid in Egypt. The four sides of the tower are designed as equilateral triangles. The ratio of the base and the height are exactly the ratio of the circumference and the radius. What connects Piramide de Sol and Piramide de la Luna is so called Death Avenue. One saying is that it was named by Aztecs, for they believed that both pyramids were the tombs of their ancestors. Another saying tells it was named by Spanish people, because they saw the pyramids in Egypt and thought that all pyramids were tombs. But later,these two pyramids were proved to be used for sacrif i cial ceremony or for divination.

Piramide de Sol and Piramide de la Luna are identities of the Teotihuacan civilisation. Mexico, like China, has a long history, among which several civilisations have taken turns. Some faded and were not able to be completely written into history or recorded into fi les, so today Mexican history looks so lost and mysterious. However, even if in the most simplif i ed chronology, it's not diff i cult to see the important position of the Teotihuacan civilisation as a connecting link between the preceding and the following. It inherits the essence of the Olmec Civilisation. Mexican of this era loved to build overvolumed architecture. Two of three largest scaled pyramids in the world were built, among them is Piramide de Sol.

Great Temple by the Aztec is another historical spot that is located in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas , the Tlatelolc District in the north of the city. There are three groups of architecture: the grand alter ruins of Aztec Pyramid, the church built by Spanish colonists in the 16th and 17th centuries and the building of Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs built in 1950s. The three groups of buildings can represent three cultures in Mexico, the Aztec Civilisation of ancient Indians, European Culture brought by Spanish colonists and modern Mexican Culture. They appear wonderfully together on a plaza and become the image of Mexican nations and history.

The land of corn

“The corn is the base and roots of Mexican culture, also the symbol of the country, the endless inspiration for us. We created corn, and corn cultivates us“, said the Mexicans.

As history proved, corn originated 5000 years ago from a kind of wild millet in the Balsas River valley of Michoacán. The ancient Maya living in Mexico divided one year into nine seasons according to the position of the sun and the farming of the corn. The second season called “ripe“, at around the beginning of August, is the harvest and celebration season for people after one year's work. They harvest the fresh corn and hold some specif i c religious ceremonies and festivals. The Mexicans also created the Maya and Aztec civilisations during the process of corn farming. There are also many myths and folklores about the corn. Among the gods of the ancient Indians are also some gods of corn.

Nowadays, the Mexicans have developed a leading edge technology of corn farming and processing. The Mexicans fi rst cultivated and popularised colourful corn in shades of navy blue, dark green, violet, red, yellow, blue, white, and green. In supermarkets, all kinds of corn can really amaze people. The corn was regarded as the main food of the ancient Indians. Now, the Mexicans regard the taco as a main course. The Mexicans also specially set the last week of July as their national holiday, the corn festival, and hold a grand ceremony to commemorate their ancestors' great contribution of discovering the corn. During the corn festival, people dance and sing as much as they want, taste corn ice-cream, corn wine and various corn foods, such as burritos, nachos, quesadillas, tortillas, the most traditional tacos and so on. The festival can also be seen as an Expo of corn foods, where tourists can taste all kinds of corn.

交錯的文明

到達墨西哥城后，我住在憲法廣場附近。憲法廣場是世界上最大的廣場之一，它的東側是國民宮，北邊是拉丁美洲最大的天主教堂。從有幾百年歷史的教堂頂上眺望現代化的墨西哥城，各種色彩鮮艷的房子一路從山腳建到了半山腰。而在山頂的是一座耶穌雕像，仿佛在俯視著這座城里的眾生。

來到墨西哥城，太陽金字塔和月亮金字塔是必不會錯過的代表性景點。月亮金字塔約建成于公元300年，位于特奧蒂瓦坎國家公園北部。太陽金字塔約建成于公元100年，是整個特奧蒂瓦坎國家公園中最大的建筑。它的體積達100萬立方米，和埃及的胡夫金字塔體積大體相等，塔的四面也都是呈“金”字的等邊三角形，底邊與塔高之比，恰好也等于圓周與半徑之比。而將太陽金字塔與月亮金字塔連接起來的就是傳說中的亡靈大道了。關于這個名字，一種說法是阿茲特克人起的，因為他們相信大道兩邊的金字塔都是先人的陵墓。另一種說法是這個名字是西班牙人起的，由于西班牙人見過古埃及的金字塔，認為所有金字塔都是陵墓，于是把這條金字塔群中的大道如此命名。但后來證明這些金字塔其實是祭祀或占卜測量用的。

太陽金字塔和月亮金字塔是特奧蒂瓦坎文明代表性遺址。墨西哥擁有悠久的歷史，曾出現過數個文明的更替，一些消失的文明沒有被完整地記錄下來，因而整個墨西哥的歷史顯得失落而神秘。即使在這個極簡版紀元表里，也不難看出特奧蒂瓦坎文明承上啟下的重要位置，她繼承了奧爾梅克文明最為精髓的部分。這個時期的“墨西哥人”喜歡建造體量超群的建筑，世界上規模最大的三大金字塔有兩個是他們造的（埃及只占一個），其中的代表就有太陽金字塔。

阿茲特克大神廟遺址是墨西哥城另一處著名歷史勝地，它坐落在城東北部特拉特洛爾科區的“三文化廣場”。廣場上有三組不同時代的建筑物：阿茲特克大神廟遺址、16―17世紀西班牙殖民者修建的教堂以及20世紀50年代建造的墨西哥外交部大廈。這三種建筑代表了三種文化，即古代印第安人的阿茲特克文化、西班牙殖民者帶來的歐洲文化以及墨西哥現代文化。它們奇妙地共存于一個廣場上，成為墨西哥民族和國家歷史的濃縮。

玉米的國度

“玉米是墨西哥文化的根基，是墨西哥的象征，是我們無窮無盡的靈感的源泉。我們創造了玉米，玉米又造就了我們。”墨西哥人這樣說。

現代考古證實，玉米起源于一種生長在5000年前墨西哥米切肯州巴爾薩河流域的野生黍類。歷史上生活在墨西哥的古代瑪雅人，根據太陽的位置和玉米的種植將一年劃分為9個節氣。在第二個叫作“成熟”的節氣，大約8月初，是人們辛苦一年后開始收獲和歡慶的日子。人們收獲鮮嫩的玉米，舉行一些特定的宗教儀式和歡慶活動。墨西哥人還在種植玉米的過程中創造出了瑪雅文明和阿茲特克文明。墨西哥民間有許多關于玉米的神話和傳說，古代印第安人信奉的諸神中，也有好幾位玉米神。

現在的墨西哥人對玉米的種植和加工技術可以說是已經發展到了極致。墨西哥人最先培育并推廣了彩色玉米，有深藍色、墨綠色、紫紅色，還有紅、黃、藍、白、綠各色間雜的五彩玉米。超市貨架上，種類繁多的玉米食品足以讓人為之瞠目。玉米原是印第安人的主要食糧，現代墨西哥人仍以玉米餅為主食。古代墨西哥人還專門設有“玉米節”，每年7月的最后一個星期，都要舉行盛大的慶祝活動，紀念祖先為人類發現玉米的偉大功績。“玉米節”期間，人們盡情地唱歌跳舞，品嘗著玉米冰淇淋、玉米酒及各種各樣的玉米食品，如玉米卷餅、玉米餡餅、玉米粽子、炸玉米合、煎玉米餃，以及傳統的玉米餅“塔哥”等。這個節日也可稱為墨西哥玉米食品展覽會，游客們可以一次性將玉米美食“一網打盡”。

On April 10, 2017, China Southern Airlines launched a new service fromGuangzhou to Mexico City via Vancouver, operated by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This is China Southern's first flight to Latin America. If you log onto China Southern Airlines official website, APP or WeChat, you can search the keyword “Mexico City” to gain access to extremely great deals during the promotion period (April to June).

2017年4月11日，南航開通廣州—溫哥華—墨西哥城航線。這是南航第一條飛往拉丁美洲的航線，由夢想飛機波音787執飛。在南航官網、APP或者微信公眾號打開“南航假期”，搜索“墨西哥城”，就可以看到推廣期（4月到6月）極其優惠的打包產品。