This attraction introduction is compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · Scenic Spots section). Ticket prices, opening hours, transportation, and contact information mentioned in the text may be outdated. Please refer to the latest official announcements from the scenic area before traveling; some content consists of historical background/cultural introductions and is for reference only.
In the Xiaduopu area of Ningxiang there is Tianma Mountain. The mountain is high and its force upright, just like a heavenly horse soaring in the sky. The Ningxiang County Gazetteer says: "Two mountains stand side by side, rising high, like heavenly horses with heads together soaring into the sky. Beside Tianma Mountain there is a small hill named Shizhu Mountain, like a stone pillar for tethering a horse. Local mythology says: the earth's vein here transformed into a divine horse, broke through the earth and wished to fly, and the Heavenly Emperor descended and straddled it. The divine horse wished to transform into a dragon and fly into the East Sea. The Heavenly Emperor, angered by its unruliness, threw down his whip, which became a stone pillar, binding its body, and so Tianma Mountain remains forever. Tianma Mountain is not only precipitous and spectacular in terrain, but also has green bamboo and dark pines on the mountain, which from afar look like a blue mane standing straight up. Between the two mountains there is now a highway; in the past it was a pass, with earthen ramparts and stone gates, whose remains still exist. In those years one man could hold the pass and ten thousand could not enter, making it the eastern barrier of Ningxiang.
Legend says that Guan Yu, a great general of Shu in the Three Kingdoms, once stationed troops here to resist the enemy. Today at the foot of the mountain there still remain relics such as Guanwang Pond and Guanwang Temple. The Qing dynasty man Zhao Weifan once wrote a poem recording its charm: "The earth's spirit pushed out a mountain as a horse, the Heavenly Emperor rode it up into the blue sky. Only fearing that at deep night it would transform into a dragon and leave, he therefore made a stone pillar lock its cloudy mane."
