Xingguo Tongtianyan

Xingguo Tongtianyan

The Tongtianyan in Ganzhou is one of the largest grotto tourist destinations in southern China, a cave temple excavated as early as the Tang Dynasty. However, the natural landscape also called "Tongtianyan" in Xingguo is relatively unknown. Xingguo’s Tongtianyan is located in Gaoxing Town, about 7 kilometers from the county seat. Nestled within dozens of kilometers of Danxia landform, Xingguo’s “Tongtianyan” has become an important ancient military stronghold and a battlefield of the Red Army due to its natural caves and passes. The entrance to Xingguo Tongtianyan is right beside the highway, where a recently erected archway by the road bears the three large characters “Tonghui Temple.” Hidden within the mountain and built against it, Tonghui Temple was first established in the late Southern Song Dynasty. Legend has it that the establishment of Tonghui Temple is also related to the national hero Wen Tianxiang. When Wen Tianxiang led his troops to retreat from southern Ganzhou toward Guangdong, he temporarily left some wounded soldiers and the children of fallen comrades in the caves for convenience in combat, and built a house against the cave to shelter them. This brought smoke from cooking and signs of life to the once lonely and cold mountain rocks. Later, Buddhist monks who sought tranquility, selflessness, and spiritual cultivation built Tonghui Temple on the old site. Several of the temple’s buildings are all hidden within Tongtianyan, with just a wall and a door forming each room.

Xingguo’s Tongtianyan was also the headquarters of the Fourth Red Army during the Fifth Counter-Encirclement Campaign. Beneath the smooth main peak is a vertical staircase, with holes drilled to allow only one foot to stand at a time—this staircase was chiseled out by the Red Army at the time to take shortcuts for standing guard. In today’s peaceful era, people follow in the footsteps of the Red Army in various ways, trekking through mountains and rivers to experience their spirit. We, so small before these massive stone peaks, on this heroic land filled with the spirit of our revolutionary forebears, naturally feel a surge of boldness and courage to conquer nature. We crawled on all fours to climb to the top of the rock.

Standing atop Tongtianyan, Mr. Hu Yuchun, who has done extensive research on the history of the Communist Party in Xingguo, pointed out the relics of the battles fought by the Red Army. Here, once shrouded in the smoke of war, are the trenches dug by the Red Army and the numerous bomb craters from the bombings by the Kuomintang army during the Third and Fifth Counter-Encirclement Campaigns. This land, where Wen Tianxiang and the Red Army soldiers shed their blood and gave their lives, was once ravaged by war, leaving behind desolation and leading to severe soil erosion in Xingguo County. But today, standing at the summit of Tongtianyan, we feel as if we are atop green waves. The traces of past wars have been covered by lush pines and green waters. Xingguo, once a model county that achieved first-class work during the wartime, has now, in its great project of conquering nature, also earned the honorary titles of “National Advanced County in Ecological Construction” and “Model County for Soil and Water Conservation.”

Gaoxing Town: Located in the northwest of Xingguo County, Gaoxing Town borders Chongxian Township to the east, Lianjiang Town to the south, Chayuan Township to the west, and Taihe County to the north, and is 13 kilometers from the county seat. The town covers an area of 236 square kilometers, governs 20 administrative villages (Laoyingpan, Shangmi, Dunqiu, Changjing, Gaohu, Gaoduo, Gaoxing, Huangqun, Shuikou, Zhangkeng, Qiguang, Huakeng, Xiaochun, Xinwei, Shantang, Wenxi, Hexing, Mengshan, Laowei, Longshan), 309 villager groups, with a total population of 55,000. It is traversed by the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, the Shiji Expressway, and National Highway 319, giving it unique transportation advantages.

Gaoxing Town has long been... Detailed information about Gaoxing Town++