Fan Lihua’s Command Platform

Fan Lihua’s Command Platform

Fan Lihua’s Command Platform

Legend has it that Fan Lihua, a renowned general of the Tang Dynasty, led her army to pacify the western regions. Entering the Tacheng Basin through the intersection of the Wuerkaxia and Tacheng mountain ranges, she reached Bayimuzha. Impressed by the area’s abundant water and grass, as well as its strategically defensible terrain, she decided it was an excellent spot for military operations. She established a camp and constructed a command platform on the northern bank of the Bayimuzha River to direct troop deployments. About 20 meters away from the platform, she erected a roughly 1.6-meter-tall stone pillar to tether her horse. From this location, she began her campaign against the invading Turkic forces. Under Fan Lihua’s leadership, her soldiers repelled numerous Turkic attacks. During a brief lull after one battle, she took out a bronze mirror to tidy her disheveled hair. Suddenly, the war drums sounded again — the Turkic forces had launched another offensive. In haste, Fan Lihua mounted her horse and led her troops into battle, inadvertently leaving the mirror behind on the grass. Later, the mirror transformed into a lake, now known as Bayimuzha Lake (also called the Bottomless Lake). The lake lies about 3 kilometers from the command platform, in the southwest direction. It is oval-shaped, with a circumference of approximately 1,000 meters. Regardless of drought or flood, the water level remains constant year-round. Strangely, while the nearby Bayimuzha River has fresh water, the lake’s water is salty. It is said that because Fan Lihua carried the mirror with her during campaigns, sweat soaked into it over time, giving it a salty tang. This caused the lake’s waters to turn salty as well. To commemorate Fan Lihua’s great achievements and contributions to pacifying the west, later generations carved her portrait onto the stone pillar where she once tied her horse — which is now known as the Statue of Fan Lihua.