Luoyintang

Luoyintang

Luoyintang

A few kilometers into the valley at Niudongyan, the endless scenery is overwhelming. The area is lush with flowers and plants, the valley is deep, and the stream babbles with ice-cold water. After passing through the valley, you’ll arrive at a round, deep pool about three or four square meters in size. The pool is unfathomably deep, with emerald-green water. Against the backdrop of the intermittent calls of wild animals nearby, it creates a fairy-tale-like atmosphere. Legend has it that when Wu Sangui raised an army to rebel against the Qing dynasty and reached Xishixi, he found this place easily defensible and thus dismounted to ask Yang Xiuming, the local Tusi chieftain and regional military governor, for passage and a brief rest. But the two quickly fell out, and a battle ensued. Wu Sangui’s 300,000 troops rode their horses across the small river beside the Tusi government office, draining it completely dry. The Tusi forces, familiar with the terrain and leveraging their knowledge of the land, fought fiercely and drove Wu Sangui’s troops into a large mountain valley near the government office — a narrow, cliff-lined area that was easy to attack but hard to defend. Surprisingly, the hundreds of thousands of Wu Sangui’s soldiers trampled the stone path so heavily that their horse hoof prints remain today, now known as "Horse Hoof Prints." In the chaos, Wu Sangui’s official seal fell into a round deep pool and has never been recovered since, hence the name "Luoyintang" (Sunken Seal Pool).