Qinpō Gully

Qinpō Gully

There are many streams and gullies on the northeastern slope of Yushan Mountain, including Taoyuan, Shiwu, Zhuishi, Polong, and Qinpō. Among them, Qinpō Gully is the most spectacular. The Qinpō Waterfall is listed as one of the Eighteen Scenic Spots of Yushan.

This gully is about seven li from the city. Exit the North Gate and head to Sanfeng Station, then follow a mountain path through a bamboo forest to reach it. The gully is over a hundred meters long, layered like a multi-story building, growing steeper as you ascend. Inside the gully, there are huge and oddly shaped rocks, piled all the way up to the mountaintop.

After rain, the rushing waters surge violently, crashing against the rocks in the gully with a sound like wind and thunder, audible several li away. The Ming Dynasty poet Ni Ju wrote in his poem “Qinpō Gully”: “After the rain, the waters of Qinpō surge, like heaven pouring down horizontally. It is neither wind nor thunder, yet it shakes the trees in the mountains.” Ming Dynasty’s Zhang Yinglin wrote in “A Brief Record of the Sacred Land of Yushan”: “Entering Qinpō, the path winds like a bird’s trail, amidst dense bamboo and thickets, where the deep, thunder-like sound is all the noise of the gully.” “The gully is filled with grotesque rocks, crouching and leaping, with turbulent streams twisting and flowing downward—it is arguably the deepest and most beautiful scenery on Yushan.”

At the top of the gully stand two towering peaks facing each other. The one to the east of the gully is called “Shicheng” (Stone City), and the one to the west is called “Shimen” (Stone Gate). From atop Shicheng Peak, looking down at the rocks in the gully, they resemble tens of thousands of horses charging up from the bottom of the gully, creating an especially majestic sight.

Beside the gully is a spring named “Yuxie Spring” (Jade Crab Spring). Next to the spring is a rocky slope shaped like a pool. The pool water is clear enough to see the bottom, does not overflow even in heavy rain, and never dries up in droughts. Fine bubbles often rise from the bottom of the pool, like foam spat by a crab—hence the name of the spring. The water quality is rich and the taste is sweet and refreshing. It has been praised by predecessors as the “Number One Spring of Yushan.” In front of the spring stands a seal-script stele, along with a travel guide stele to direct visitors, erected by Wang Qingzhi and Zong Jiashu in the late Qing Dynasty.

Below the gully lies a rectangular stone chamber called “Qīxīng Dūn” (Seven Star Mound), which is a cultural site of the Wu civilization from the Spring and Autumn period on Yushan Mountain. The name of Qinpō Gully is related to a local legend in Changshu. It is said that when Emperor Qin Shi Huang toured the east to view the sea, he found Yushan Mountain blocking his view. He wielded his mountain-moving whip to drive the mountain away, but Yushan was actually transformed from a divine ox and would not budge. Instead, its skin split along the mountainside, forming this gully—thus it came to be called “Qinpō.”