Yinjing Well and Laolongdong Scenic Area

Yinjing Well and Laolongdong Scenic Area

Yinjing Well is located in Yinjing Alley on Yingshan Road in Yincheng Town and is one of the ancient Six Scenic Spots of Dexing. “The water has a fragrant, clear, sweet, and refreshing taste that refreshes the heart and soul.” It got its name in the second year of the Tang Dynasty's Shangyuan era (675) when Denggong Smelting Site was established in Yingshan to refine silver, and it has a history of over 1,300 years. It is a well-known, historically documented ancient well. The well has a diameter of 1.58 meters and an opening edge height of 0.4 meters. Beside the well stands a bluestone stele inscribed horizontally in regular script with the characters “Yinjing” (Silver Well), bearing the inscription “Renovated in May of the 24th Year of the Republic of China.” The Qing Dynasty magistrate of Dexing, Mao Jiu’rui, wrote a poem about it: “The ancient well’s sweet spring is clear and jade-like, / The well is only two or three feet deep. / It draws water from the mountain down to the thoroughfare, / No need for a well pulley—everyone benefits. / Back in the Southern Tang, smelting began here in the south, / Without this water, all refining would be false. / Gold and silver have been exhausted, the mountain is now hollow, / Yet the gravel beside the well remains red to this day.”

Laolongdong (Old Tunnel) is located within the Yingshan Lead-Zinc Mine area and boasts a long and storied history. From the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the Dexing Silver Mines were mined intermittently for over 170 years. In the three mining areas of Yingshan, Jiuzhou, and Beishan, approximately 300 old tunnels mined by ancient workers have been discovered, with many tools used by ancient miners found inside these tunnels—especially numerous in the Yingshan area. The mining depth of the old tunnels reached over 100 meters below the erosion base level, achieving a considerable scale.