Maxian Mountain

　　Maxian Mountain is the highest peak of the loess plateau in eastern Gansu and acts as a shield to the north of Lintao. With snow covering its summit all year and frequent white clouds lingering around its mid-slopes, the “Northern Ridge Draped in Clouds” is a unique landscape here and one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Taoyang. The area features two major natural attractions: Golden Dragon Pool and Stone Scenery Gorge.

　　Golden Dragon Pool, located on the western slope of Maxian Mountain, spans several acres. The surrounding area is overgrown with shrubs and muddy, making it difficult to approach. Legend has it that the pool freezes in the height of summer, with only one opening—called the Back Pool—unfrozen on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month. To the west of the pool lies another smaller pool known as the Front Pool, where an ancient temple dedicated to the Golden Dragon King once stood.

　　Stone Scenery Gorge is situated within Nankou Township at the southern edge of Maxian Mountain. A small stream flows through the gorge, plunging down cliffs five to six meters high into a magical little pool. The bottom of the pool can mysteriously open and close: when open, it appears bottomless with water swirling inside; when closed, the water becomes crystal clear, and the overflow cascades down more than 20 meters like pearls poured from a jade plate or silver threads tossed from the heavens. Not far from the stone pool stands the Goddess Temple, and nearby cliff faces bear poetic inscriptions by scholars and poets. These inscriptions remain invisible in daylight but magically appear when water is splashed onto the rock—bold and striking characters emerging as if by enchantment. This water-revealed calligraphy is one of the gorge’s most wondrous sights.

　　Legends also circulate around Maxian Mountain about a golden foal that traveled to Sichuan. It is said that a golden foal lies dormant within the mountain, journeying to Sichuan every April and May. Before leaving, it brings local broad beans, flax, and garlic sprouts as gifts to be sown there. Then, between September and October, it returns from Sichuan to Maxian Mountain, bringing with it various medicinal herbs from the “Land of Abundance,” such as wild codonopsis, fritillaria, saposhnikovia, bupleurum, gentiana macrophylla, notopterygium, licorice, peony root, and phellodendron. These herbs have since taken root in Maxian Mountain, contributing to its rich biodiversity of valuable medicinal plants.