Ailao Mountain, where 100 million people have visited, is more than just the "Yunnan Insect Valley" shrouded in mist.

Ailao Mountain, known as the real-life "Yunnan Worm Valley", suddenly became popular during the National Day holiday this year, frequently appearing on hot searches, causing traffic jams in related scenic spots, and video bloggers camping in restricted areas. Recently, the Chuxiong Management Bureau of the Ailao Mountain Nature Reserve issued a document to once again clearly emphasize: It is forbidden to enter the Ailao Mountain Nature Reserve without permission.

In fact, there are two Ailao Mountains: one is the Ailao Mountain Range that has become the focus of public attention today, and the other is the Ailao Mountain, which is the origin of the ancient Ailao Kingdom and Ailao culture and is located in the east of Baoshan City, Yunnan Province.

"Exploring the Origins of Place Names in Yunnan" says: "The mountains in Yunnan today that are called Ailao are: one is the Ailao Mountain 20 miles east of Baoshan County, which is the southern extension of the Nushan Mountain Range; the other is the Ailao Mountain Range west of Lishe River (i.e. Yuanjiang River) and east of Wuliang Mountain and Babian River, which is one of the southern branches of Yunling Mountains." During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the generals of the Chinese Expeditionary Force called the Yunling Ailao Mountain the Big Ailao Mountain and the Baoshanba Ailao Mountain the Small Ailao Mountain.

There are stories behind the two Ailao Mountains.

The bigger Yunling Ailao Mountain became popular during the National Day holiday. As the southern branch of the Yunling Mountains, it runs northwest-southeast and is 400 kilometers long, starting from Chuxiong Prefecture in the north and ending at Luchun County, Honghe Prefecture, on the China-Vietnam border in the south. The main peak of the Ailao Mountains, Damaoyan, with an altitude of 3,166 meters, is located in Xinping County. In 1988, the Ailao Mountain Nature Reserve was upgraded to a national nature reserve, and the forest coverage rate in the reserve reached 85%.

The Ailao Mountains are located on the boundary between the Hengduan Mountains and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Not only are the mountains high and steep, but the climate also has a distinct vertical distribution, with a dramatic transition from the tropical zone at the foot of the mountain to the cold temperate zone at the top of the mountain. Because the mountain range is perpendicular to the southwest monsoon, it is very easy to cause orographic rain brought by warm and humid air currents rising along the mountain range, which may cause a sudden drop in local temperature even in summer.

Due to the complex terrain and vast virgin forests, walking in the Ailao Mountains is often very difficult. A cliff may be right next to you without you noticing it. Contrary to popular belief, wild animals are not a top threat, because large and medium-sized wild animals such as black bears and wild boars often choose to actively avoid human voices when they hear them.

The most deadly dangers come from disorientation and sudden drops in temperature.

Tang Dynasty poet Luo Binwang followed the army into Yunnan and participated in the suppression of rebellion in Yaozhou (now Yao'an County, Chuxiong Prefecture). In his poem "The Difficulties of Journey in the Army", he described the hardships of marching in the Ailao Mountain area: "Going and going, we point to Ailao, and we march into the barren land. The cliffs are thousands of miles long, and the mountains are high in all directions."

There are geomagnetic anomalies in some areas of Ailao Mountain, which can cause compasses to malfunction. Coupled with the heavy fog, getting lost is a common occurrence for outsiders.

In the story "Pear Blossoms on the Post Road" by writer Peng Jingfeng, which was selected into the Chinese textbook for middle schools, even experienced old hunters can get lost in the mountains of the southern section of the Ailao Mountains. "I am from the Yao ethnic group who lived in the rocks by the Red River. I usually like hunting. Last month, I was chasing a group of muntjacs, wandering around in the old forest and lost my way. I don't know how I ended up on this hilltop."

Because of its frequent rain and fog, the Ailao Mountain Nature Reserve currently has the country's largest, least human-disturbed, and best-preserved subtropical mid-mountain moist evergreen broad-leaved forest ecosystem.

"Wetness" indicates that humidity is the main feature of the Ailao Mountain forest, but the sudden drop in temperature caused by rainfall may be the most deadly danger to those involved. In November 2021, four geological survey personnel, Zhang Jinbang, Yang Min, Liu Yu, and Zhang Yu, lost contact when they entered the hinterland of the Ailao Mountains to carry out a forest resource survey. After seven days of search and rescue, it was found that the four had died, mainly due to instantaneous strong winds and sudden drops in temperature in the area of ​​the incident, which caused human hypothermia.

Complex terrain, changeable climate, extremely low visibility, and difficulty in determining directions... these are the reasons why the Ailao Mountain Nature Reserve prohibits unauthorized entry.

In this area, in addition to the threat of hypothermia caused by the cold climate, there is also the threat of miasma caused by the tropical climate. When animals and plants die in hot weather, they are decomposed by microorganisms in low-lying areas, which will produce difficult-to-degrade and toxic substances. If the water body has poor fluidity, miasma will form, and miasma will be produced when it evaporates in the heat.

The Ailao Mountains were the eastern boundary of the ancient Ailao Kingdom, while the Ailao Mountains, now located in the east of Baoshan, were more frequently visited by the ancients. Marco Polo of the Yuan Dynasty wrote about this small Ailao Mountain in his travel notes, "During the summer, there is a mountain mist and miasma, which is depressing and unhygienic. Therefore, merchants and other outsiders are forced to leave here to avoid unnecessary deaths." The Ming Dynasty poet Yang Shen wrote a poem, "Teng Snakes swim in the mist and miasma, and peacocks drink from the river in the clear smoke. Lanjin crosses the Ailao Kingdom in the south, and Pu Sai connects Zhuge Ying in the west" ("Lanjin Bridge"), which also describes his experience in Baoshan and recalls what he saw and felt when Zhuge Liang "crossed the Lu River in May and went deep into the barren land" during the Three Kingdoms' expedition to the south.

The earliest records of the Ailao Kingdom were in Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" and "Biographies of the Southwestern Barbarians". In 122 BC, Zhang Qian returned to Chang'an after his mission to the Daxia Kingdom in the Western Regions. He reported to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that he saw Qiong bamboo sticks and Shu cloth produced in Sichuan during his visit to Daxia, which were traded through the "Shu-Shendu Road". Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty therefore decided to open up this route to India via Yunnan, which is the Southern Silk Road recorded in history.

Baoshan is located in the largest basin in the southern Hengduan Mountains, with an area of ​​150 square kilometers. The plain in this mountainous area also became the capital of the ancient Ailao Kingdom. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to Yunnan, the capital of the ancient Ailao Kingdom moved west to the vicinity of today's Tengchong, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Buwei County in Baoshan, which was managed by Shu County together with Dali and Kunming.

Although it occupied the most important plain land of Baoshan Basin, most of the surrounding areas were actually controlled by the Ailao Kingdom. In the 12th year of Yongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (69 AD), Liu Mao, the king of Ailao, led 550,000 people to submit to the Han Dynasty. The entire South Hengduan Mountain area with Baoshan as the core became Yongchang County in the southwest of the Han Empire, which was also the second most populous county at that time. Today's Baoshan City is also named Yongchang, and the road connecting Yunnan and Myanmar is also called "Yongchang Road".

Although it was officially included in the empire, Yongchang was not under the direct control of the central empire for a long time due to the high mountains and long roads and the frequent changes of dynasties in the central empire. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, Nanzhao and Dali have successively established regimes in Yunnan, and Yongchang has become a part of them. It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that Yongchang was reincorporated into the central empire. In the Ming Dynasty, Yongchang Prefecture was established here. Because of the long distance and rampant miasma, it became a place of exile. Yang Shen was exiled here by Jiajing at the age of 36 and died in Yongchang at the age of 72. His poem "Linjiangxian·Rolling Yangtze River Eastward Flowing Water" was also written during his stay in Yongchang. Xu Xiake's travel notes mentioned that he passed through "Yongchang and Ailao Mountain", and he also visited the Ailao Mountain in the east of Yongchang City.

Although the Ailao Mountain may not be as famous as the Yunling Ailao Mountain Range today, it was a must-pass place on the Southern Silk Road and the Ancient Tea-Horse Road in history. In 1938, the Yunnan-Burma Highway passed through here and the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma to fight against Japan. This ancient road with a long history is still the only way from southwest China to Burma, India and other places. The Ailao Mountain climbed by Xu Xiake, which is recorded in "Xu Xiake's Travel Notes", is also closer to the two thousand years of Chinese history than the Yunling Ailao Mountain.

When Ailao surrendered, Yang Zhong, a Han official who was familiar with the affairs of the Southwestern Yi, presented the "Ailao Biography" to Emperor Ming of Han, which is also one of the earliest records of the name "Ailao" in official history. However, whether the mountain was named after the country or the country was named after the mountain is still unclear.

Researcher Geng Deming believes in his book "Ailao State and Ailao Culture" that "the name of Ailao State originated from Ailao Mountain in Yongchang (now Baoshanba)," and that "Ailao State" is associated with Ailao Mountain in the east of Baoshan today in many Wei and Jin historical books, from "Huayang Guozhi" to "Shui Jing Zhu". In other words, "Ailao" was originally the name of a smaller mountain, then became the name of a nearby ancient country, and now has become the name of a larger mountain.

In Chinese, "Ailao" easily reminds people of sadness and imprisonment, which is ominous. Therefore, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, some people thought that "Ailao" was a transliteration of "Anle", which caused confusion. In fact, "Ailao" has been the original name since the Han Dynasty. In the Dai language, the pronunciation of Ailao is close to "Ailong", which means "big brother" or "big brother", so some scholars believe that "Ailao" is the transliteration of the ancient name of the ancient Ailao Kingdom at that time. In addition, there are also people who support the view that "Ailao" is the Yi language for "tiger residence".

The people of the ancient Ailao Kingdom consisted of three groups: the Diqiang people who came from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau via the Lancang River and Nujiang River corridors, the ancient Yue people who came from the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, and the local Pu people. After thousands of years of integration, the ancient Ailao people became the ancestors of many ethnic minorities in Yunnan today.

As early as more than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Ailao people had a developed bronze civilization, and the unearthed cultural relics near Baoshan even include chime bells. In ancient times, mountains were a huge obstacle to communication. Even if the straight-line distance was not far apart, the level of social development between the two places could be very different. Today, modern civilization has almost eliminated all mysteries, but in the current era of information development, we should still maintain a respect for nature and not rashly go to the foggy Ailao Mountain.