Sandie Ling Waterfall

Sandie Ling Waterfall

Sandie Ling Waterfall is located in Xinling Village, Huirun Town, Jingxi County, about 30 kilometers northwest of the county seat. It gets its name from being situated on Sandie Ling (Three-Tiered Ridge). The waterfall has a drop of 100 meters and a width of over 30 meters. According to the *Guishun Prefecture Annals*: “The flying cascade spouts foam, scattering jade-like droplets and pearls, like a silk ribbon stretched across the sky.” During the rainy season, when water is abundant, its roar can be heard for miles, and the splashing mist resembles smoke or fog, drifting more than a hundred meters away. The provincial highway runs beneath it, and looking up at the waterfall from below, it appears as if a Milky Way is pouring down, resembling a hanging ribbon—majestic and spectacular—prompting the poetic phrase “Star River’s Flowing Pearls Descend from Heaven.” Sandie Ling Waterfall is one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Jingxi. A Qing Dynasty poet, Cai Hongzun, wrote the following verse about it:

“Cleaving open the green lotus, it falls not but as scattered pearls, / The gushing spring pours forth in a hundred streams, / A silken ribbon stretches across the riverbank. / I come to visit this wondrous sight, / This paradise that is like a painted scroll.”

There is also a legend about Sandie Ling Waterfall. In ancient mythology, when the goddess Nüwa was mending the heavens with five-colored stones, she carelessly left a hole in the Milky Way, causing its waters to pour down. Unable to repair the damage, Nüwa could only sigh in despair. She casually pointed her jade finger three times, and thus the beautiful Sandie Ling Waterfall was formed.