Pingtian Mountain Forest Park

Pingtian Mountain Forest Park

Pingtian Mountain Forest Park is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Pingtian Mountain Forest Park

Pingtian Mountain is located 4 kilometers north of Guigang city proper, also known as Beishan (North Mountain), and anciently called Yigui Mountain. It was established as Guizhou Commandery during the Tang Dynasty, taking the character “Gui” (贵) to name it. Due to its height and majesty, standing tall and imposing with a momentum like a dragon’s head, it is also called Longtou Mountain (Dragon Head Mountain). Its main peak, Dapingtian Mountain, has an elevation of 1,157.6 meters and dominates the northern bank of the Yu River, making it one of the highest points in Guigang. It was also a historically contested military site. The Yao people’s uprising in the Ming Dynasty and the peasant rebellions in the Qing Dynasty both used this mountain as a base.

In 2003, Pingtian Mountain was approved as a national forest park. The mountain features overlapping peaks and spectacular landscapes such as “- Wonder Scenery,” “Mist Rain Cloud Waves,” “Five Horses Returning to the Valley,” “Pingtian Waterfall,” and “Pingtian Distant View.” There are also enchanting legends full of mythic color such as “Beiyue Immortal Pool,” “Beiling Immortal Chess,” “Longtou Silver Mine,” and “Huangsan Palace,” each spot and tale fascinating and captivating.

- Wonder Scenery

The Pingtian Mountain State-owned Forest Farm was established in 1960 when 40 state cadres and technicians from Yulin region, following the orders of Commander- (presumably referring to a significant leader), came to build it to develop the military industry. The Pingtian Mountain Forest Farm boasts abundant forest resources, covering a total area of more than 5,000 hectares. Here, there are over 1,000 species of plants from the southern subtropical zone, including fir, pine, and camphor trees. Among them is the first-class nationally protected rare plant Alsophila spinulosa, known as the living fossil of plants. There are also more than 100 kinds of precious trees, grasses, and medicinal herbs such as kiwifruit, white spruce, wild lychee (the flesh is like lychee while the seed is like longan), wild ginseng, azaleas, and iron grass. The annual average temperature here is 16–22°C, with a minimum of -5°C, and the air is rich in negative ions and oxygen. The forest is lush and dense, with towering ancient trees, vines hanging down, flowers blooming competitively, fragrant blossoms, rustling pines, birds chirping, streams flowing year-round, and clear, beautiful waters. It is an excellent destination for summer retreats, convalescence, and tourism. The forest has car-accessible winding mountain roads, and visitors come in an endless stream daily to enjoy the views.

Pingtian Waterfall

Pingtian Mountain is especially rich in hydraulic resources, with numerous waterfalls. Currently, there are 12 sites suitable for power generation. The largest, Zhuangtan Waterfall, sees water cascading down from high cliffs, reminiscent of the line by Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai: “Its torrent dashes down three thousand feet from high / As if the Silver River fell from the blue sky.” These waterfall clusters have a flow rate of 0.5 m³ per second, capable of generating 250 KW of electricity and irrigating 500 acres of farmland. There are waterfall spots on the mountain such as Shanglonglou, Xialonglou, Dakeng, and Beishan, where small hydropower stations have been built. Rural families in the mountainous areas all have access to electricity, enjoying the fruits of modern civilization.

Pingtian Distant View

The majestic and grand Pingtian Mountain features mountain upon mountain, each impressive in scale, with steep cliffs, deep and serene paths, winding ridges and valleys, and grotesque rocks. At the summit, the mountaintop resembles a platform, with rosy clouds brushing the sleeves and white clouds swirling around the feet, giving one a feeling of floating in the heavens. Watch the sunrise in the morning, with surging red mist and radiant beams of light, dazzling and brilliant. Admire the sunset in the evening, with the fading sun as red as blood, the mountain cradling the afterglow, transforming in myriad ways.

Looking south, the Yu River winds like a ribbon across the Xunyu Plain. The Twenty-Four Peaks of Nanshan stand like maidens draped in green veils, graceful and vivid. The celestial chart of the upright official Lu Ji from the Three Kingdoms period and the ruins of Huangsanqi Mountain Fortress of Huang Sanqi, King of Dacheng Kingdom, are clearly visible. The iron bridge and the first and second highway bridges spanning the Yu River are majestic. The Guigang Sugar Company and Xianyitan Hydropower Station are magnificent. To the west, over the emerald waters of Liuban Reservoir, birds gather in flocks, a truly intoxicating scene.

Before your eyes, the sea of fog churns. Sometimes thick fog envelops everything; other times it clears, making visitors feel as if they are in a heavenly realm above the clouds. A famous verse reads: “Ascending with joy, I gaze into the distance; wild geese cut through the sky. Distant hills drift with lingering mist; nearby mountains roar with valley winds. Mountain streams compete in beauty; - waves surge mightily. In the distance, by the Yu River, a long bridge turns into a rainbow.”

Beiyue Immortal Pool

Beiyue Immortal Pool is located on the mountainside north of Pingtian Mountain, accessible by mountain road, and was listed as one of the New Eight Scenic Spots of Guigang in 1989. At the entrance to the valley by the road stands a screen wall with the four large characters “Beiyue Immortal Pool” inscribed on the lintel, and the couplet on both sides: “The Cowherd sends words back to Beiyue; the Fairy comes to the pool to wash her fair skin.” The calligraphy is simple yet vigorous, bold and powerful.

Entering through the wall gate and walking along a winding path for 30 meters while holding onto vines and trees, you will reach the immortal pool. The pool is surrounded by mountains on three sides, with dense forests sheltering it. A cliffside stream murmurs as it flows, like a silver ribbon pouring into the natural pond, the pool water clear and bottom-visible. Here, green trees and red cliffs create a tranquil environment. The blue sky is reflected by day, the bright moon embraced by night, presenting a true landscape of Lingnan. Legend has it that the Seven Fairies of Heaven admired this place. On every seventh day of the seventh lunar month, they would come to Beiyue Immortal Pool together. After undressing and joyfully swimming and playing, they would climb ancient vines to swing and share the joys of the human world. The youngest of the fairies, enchanted by the happiness of mortal life, refused to return to Heaven with her sisters and stayed to marry a cowherd. When the Queen Mother of Heaven found out, she sent celestial soldiers to force the fairy back to Heaven, breaking up the divine-human couple. Today, however, the desire for autonomous marriage has been realized. A later poem goes: “Blushing, she undresses by the jade pool, / Washing off rouge till her brows are drunk. / Her golden hairpin is early replaced, / Don’t miss the cowherd’s date.”

Beiling Immortal Chess

Legend has it that during the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty, Feng Keli from a mountain village in Guixian County, nicknamed Feng Si (the Fourth), went to Pingtian Mountain to gather herbs when he suddenly saw flashes of rosy light and heard laughter and sounds of battle from the mountaintop, echoing loudly over ten li away. Puzzled, Feng Si climbed trees and vines and hurried up the mountain to see what was happening. He saw two tall, burly men with round faces, wide ears, straight noses, square mouths, heads wrapped in black scarves, shirts open at the shoulders, red sashes around their waists, beards hanging to their chests, and sharp, shining eyes. They were two immortals sitting cross-legged facing each other, intently playing chess. Feng Si quietly approached, crouching and kneeling beside them to watch, and before he knew it, he fell asleep.

At dawn, as the sun rose red in the east and a white cloud descended from the sky, a gust of wind blew. The two chess-playing immortals gave Feng Si a seamless immortal robe, left the chessboard as is, and then rode the clouds away. When Feng Si woke up, he packed his bag, brushed off the thick dirt on himself, and headed home. But when he arrived, although the house was the same, everything else had changed. Little did he know that “a day in the mountain is a thousand years in the world.” Centuries had passed, generations had changed, and no one recognized him. The village chief, seeing his strange appearance, thought he was a monster, locked him in a huge iron pot, and burned him for three days and nights, thinking he had turned to ash. But when the pot was opened, Feng Si was seen sitting calmly inside, unharmed in his immortal robe, startling the chief into fleeing for his life. From then on, Feng Si traveled the land, healing and helping people, and eventually ascended to immortality. The imperial court learned of this and posthumously honored him as a Third-Class Sage, building temples with statues of Sanjie Ye (Third Realm Lord) everywhere, with incense burning year-round.

When the 1893 revised “Guixian Annals” was compiled during the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, “Beiling Immortal Chess” was listed as one of the original Eight Scenic Spots of Guixian. The relics of this chess game still exist today, and visitors can’t help but sigh in awe when they see it.

Huangsan Palace

In the second year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1863), Huang Dingfeng, leader of the peasant uprising (ranked third, also called Huang San), led his troops to the top of Pingtian Mountain to establish a base, naming it Pingtian Fort, and proclaimed himself King of Dacheng Kingdom, Jianzhang Wang. He built a palace on the mountain fort.

In front of and on both sides of Pingtian Fort, stone walls rise over thirty zhang (approximately 100 meters) high. The mountain has springs and flat ground, suitable for stationing troops and farming in peacetime, and for both offense and defense in wartime. The fort had inner and outer gates, with a 4-ton cannon placed at the gate. Three layers of fortifications were built around the fort, with gun platforms and gun ports densely distributed. The front gate was difficult to attack head-on, and the sides were even harder to climb. A poem reads: “Three thousand brave guards secure the nation; the dragon soars to establish the world.” Huang Dingfeng used Pingtian Fort as the center to establish bases in over 700 villages across 300 li around Qintang, sending troops from Qintang to counties such as Guixian, Shanglin, Binyang, and Hengzhou. He declared an expedition to the Yangtze River to coordinate with the Taiping Rebellion and completely overthrow the Qing Dynasty. The ruins of Pingtian Fort on the mountain top still have remnants such as oil pits, gun platforms, and trenches from those times. The heroic image and spirit of Huang Dingfeng remain deeply engraved in people’s hearts.

Longtou Silver Mine

The “Guixian Annals” revised during the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty recorded that the mountains of Longtou, Liuban, and Sancha in Pingtian, Guixian, stretch for hundreds of li, richly endowed with gold and silver mines, with a long history of mining and smelting. In 1956, four silver ingots were unearthed in the suburbs of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. One of them bore the inscription: “Langning Prefecture Governor’s Office, Tang Tianbao Second Year (743 AD), tribute silver ingot, weighing fifty taels, presented by Prefect Huai Ze, Lang Quan.” During the Tang Dynasty, Guixian (now Guigang) belonged to Huai Ze Prefecture, showing that silver production in Guigang has a long history. In 1820, the county magistrate Jiang Qingxi hired workers to mine silver, but the miners suffered unbearable living conditions and banded together to become “bandits.” During the Daoguang reign, Magistrate Wang Ji recruited merchants to operate the silver mine. With land highly concentrated in the hands of landlords and farmers in the nearby counties of Wuxuan, Guiping, and Guixian living in poverty, coupled with frequent natural disasters and rampant banditry, starving people flocked to Longtou Mountain to mine and smelt gold. During the Taiping Rebellion, Shi Dakai from Nabang Village, Qishi Township, came to the mine to rally support, and over two thousand miners immediately followed him to Jintian to join the uprising against the Qing. The “Guixian Annals” of the Qing Dynasty recorded that the mountains of Longtou, Liuban, and Sancha in Pingtian, Guixian, stretch for hundreds of li, richly endowed with gold and silver mines, with a long history of mining and smelting. In 1820, the county magistrate Jiang Qingxi hired workers to mine silver, but the miners suffered unbearable living conditions and banded together to become “bandits.” During the Daoguang reign, Magistrate Wang Ji recruited merchants to operate the silver mine. With land highly concentrated in the hands of landlords and farmers in the nearby counties of Wuxuan, Guiping, and Guixian living in poverty, coupled with frequent natural disasters and rampant banditry, starving people flocked to Longtou Mountain to mine and smelt gold. During the Taiping Rebellion, Shi Dakai from Nabang Village, Qishi Township, came to the mine to rally support, and over two thousand miners immediately followed him to Jintian to join the uprising against the Qing.

Huang Dingfeng (1830–1864), of the Zhuang ethnic group. His childhood name was Tepang San, also called Huang San. A native of Guixian (now Guigang), he joined the Triad Society in 1849 and participated in the peasant uprising army led by Triad leader Zhang Jiaxiang. In 1850, he surrendered with Zhang Jiaxiang to the Qing army. In the summer of 1853, he fled from Wuhan back to Guixian, later setting up a Hero Hall in Qintang Market and Hongshuntang in Huanglian Market, recruiting righteous men to rebel against the Qing and restore the Ming. He established a stronghold in Huanglian Gorge. In the summer of 1855, when Chen Kai occupied Xunzhou (now Guiping) and established the Dacheng Kingdom, he responded in allegiance. He cooperated with Li Wenmao’s forces of the Dacheng Kingdom to defeat local militias... More details on Huang Dingfeng ++

Shi Dakai (1831–1863), nickname Yada, also known as Shi Gandang, a Hakka from Guixian (now Guigang), Guangxi. A famed general of the Taiping Rebellion, he was a renowned military strategist, politician, and martial arts master in modern China. Initially titled “Left Wing Commander, Wing King,” he was later named “Holy Divine Lightning Communications Commander, Wing King” after the Tianjing Incident, revered by the military and civilians as the “Righteous King” (though he modestly declined the title). Shi Dakai was one of the most legendary figures of the Taiping Rebellion. At sixteen, he was “summoned to action”; at nineteen, he commanded armies; at twenty, he was made a king. He was executed heroically at the age of thirty-two. His military achievements were countless, repeatedly... More details on Shi Dakai ++