Harmony Between Heaven and Humanity, Myriad Scenes (Part 2)
Section 2: Natural Beauty and Remarkable Phenomena. Hunan's First Urban Wetland Park — Qingshan Lake National Urban Wetland Park. Qingshan Lake National Urban Wetland Park on the West Dongting Lake, located in Hanshou County, covers a total area of 35,680 hectares. In January 1998, the Hanshou West Dongting Lake Wetland Protection Area was established with the approval of the provincial government, and in 2002 it was designated by the international...
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section II
Natural Beauty, Wondrous Phenomena
Hunan's First Urban Wetland Park — Qingshan Lake National Urban Wetland Park
The West Dongting Lake Qingshan Lake National Urban Wetland Park is located within Hanshou County, with a total area of 35,680 hectares. In January 1998, with the approval of the provincial people's government, the Hanshou County West Dongting Lake Wetland Protection Area was established. In 2002, it was listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the International Convention on Wetlands. In May 2005, it was approved by the Ministry of Construction as our province's first national urban wetland park, named "West Dongting Lake Qingshan Lake National Urban Wetland Park." Within its boundaries, rivers and tributaries crisscross and islets are densely scattered. On the vast lake surface, 140 uninhabited lake shoals and islands are scattered like stars. Year-round, it supports 865 species of wetland plants, 207 species of birds, and 114 species of fish. Among them are more than 10 species of national first-class protected animals, including Chinese sturgeon, white crane, white-naped crane, and Chinese merganser. The wild green foods on the lake shoals — wild celery, wild aralia sprout, asparagus lettuce, and polygonum rice — are praised as the "Four Treasures of Dongting" and are deeply cherished by people.
China's Longest Riverside Ecological Economic Belt — Xiangjiang Scenic Belt
The Changsha Xiangjiang Scenic Belt is the longest riverside ecological economic belt built in China by Hunan Province. Built in 1995, it is about 26 kilometers long. It mainly features leisure corridors and sculptures as the main scenery, complemented by small plazas of various forms, landscape features, lighting, and other supporting facilities, with a combination of multiple species of trees and shrubs planted, reflecting the unique scenery of the two banks of the river complementing each other. The entire scenic belt fully embodies Hunan's natural scenery and has a beautiful environment. It is a good place for tourists to sightsee and rest, and also a fine spot for citizens to do morning exercises and evening strolls.
Hunan's Largest Chinese Yew Community — Chinese Yew Community in Zhangfang Town, Liuyang
In the nearly 3,000 mu of mountain forest at Hongdachengkeng in Zhangfang Town, Liuyang, there are more than 20,000 southern Chinese yew trees. This is the largest Chinese yew community in Hunan and is also rare nationwide. The southern Chinese yew, also known as beautiful Chinese yew, red torreya, and purple yew, is a rare and endangered plant, a national first-class key protected wild plant, a relict plant from the Tertiary Period, and is called a "living fossil" in the plant kingdom. Because its resources are scarce, it is listed as a world rare tree species for protection. The Chinese yew combines medicinal, timber, and ornamental uses, with extremely high development and utilization value. The Chinese yew is a treasure from head to toe, so the Chinese yew tree is also called the "golden tree."
Kingdom of Birds — Jiangkou Bird Island
Jiangkou Bird Island is located in the southeastern corner of Hengnan, in the middle of the Lei River and surrounded by water on all sides. In 1984 it was designated a national key nature reserve and a Hunan provincial nature reserve primarily for the protection of birds. The core area of the island is 35 hectares, composed of three islets—Chenjiazhou, Zhangjiazhou and Longjiazhou—forming an excellent ecological environment. On the island, ancient trees and tall bamboo provide shade; the climate is warm and cool; nearby reservoirs and ponds are scattered like stars, and rice fields and forests stretch in unbroken expanses. With abundant food for birds, it is an ideal kingdom for bird activity. Birds that inhabit and breed here number 181 species in 38 families and 17 orders, totaling more than 100,000 individuals. Every morning and evening is the time when birds leave and return to their nests, and also the best time for birdwatching. Countless birds move in flocks, confirming the saying that "when they fly, one suspects they are ten thousand clouds in the sky; when they land, they look just like a thousand piles of snow by the river." The bird island has also been dubbed by experts "a paradise of birds among people."
Hunan's largest plain—the Dongting Lake Plain
The Dongting Lake Plain is located in northern Hunan Province, China, in the southern part of the Lianghu Plain, and is also called the Dongting Basin. It was formed mainly by silt carried in through the four outlets of the Yangtze River—Songzi, Taiping, Ouchi and Tiaoxian—and by silt brought by the Dongting Lake water system, including the Xiangjiang, Zishui, Yuanjiang and Lishui rivers. It covers an area of about 10,000 square kilometers. Most of it lies below 50 meters in elevation, with the terrain high in the north and low in the south; the main lake-marsh depressions are mostly along the southern edge. Dongting Lake produces fish, water caltrop, lotus and reeds. The plain is rich in heat, has vast waters and deep soil, and the soil's natural fertility is relatively high, making it an ideal important base for grain, cotton, ramie, aquatic products and silk. The lake area has many polder fields formed by reclaiming land from the lake, and it is also China's commodity grain base and an important freshwater fish area.
Hunan's greatest paddy-field engineering feat—Ziquejie Terraces
The Ziquejie Terraces are located in Shuiche Town in the mountainous area of western Xinhua County. The surrounding terraces reach more than 80,000 mu, and their high elevation, large scale and beautiful forms can be called the finest in the world. Ziquejie has a beautiful ecological environment, dense terraces, primitive forms, crisscrossing field paths, smooth lines, high mountains and long waters, and interlocking board houses, fully displaying the natural beauty, rustic beauty, formal beauty and cultural beauty of the terraces. Especially as the climate changes through the four seasons, the Ziquejie Terraces become even more graceful and charming, like a fairyland on earth. The Shuifeng Highway winds among these terraces for more than 10 kilometers. The terraces spread across more than a dozen mountain tops from 500 meters to more than 1,000 meters above sea level, rolling continuously and winding back and forth, truly presenting myriad forms and inspiring endless admiration. The Ziquejie Terraces have the potential to be a world resource and are humanity's greatest paddy-field engineering feat.
A globally rare stone forest wonder—Wuling Red Stone Forest
The Red Stone Forest is located in "Furong Town" in Guzhang County. It is currently the world's only red carbonate rock stone forest scenic area formed in the Cambrian period, and in 2005 it was approved as a national geological park. In the eastern part of the stone forest stands a stone pillar 12.26 meters high, towering and upright, whose appearance closely resembles a statue of a leader. Amazingly, when viewed from another angle, it also strongly resembles Confucius standing by a river and expressing the lament, "Thus do things pass away, never ceasing day or night." The two tall stone pillars on the other side look just like a heroic female martyr calmly facing execution and a depiction of Qu Yuan chanting as he walked, inspiring deep respect. Therefore, people gave the red stone forest here a resounding and pleasant alternative name—Giant Garden. There are also underground karst caves, cliff-top sinkholes, thousand-year-old ancient trees and more. The entire scenic area blends red, elegant, steep, strange, peerless and ancient qualities into one, leaving people amazed!
A peerless wonder under heaven—Immortal Bridge
Immortal Bridge is located in Gaozhai Village, Dawanluo Township, 9 kilometers west of the seat of Xinhuang Dong Autonomous County at the border of Hunan and Guizhou provinces. Legend says this stone bridge was built overnight by an immortal, so it is called "Immortal Bridge." The bridge is 26 meters long, 1.5 meters wide, and 350 meters in absolute height. It spans the cliffs on both banks as if by divine craftsmanship, remarkably true to life. The ancients said, "Heaven and earth can be held in the hand; this is truly made by heaven." Immortal Bridge is a red sandstone structure. Tall Huangshan pines and azalea trees grow at both ends, veiled in dense shade, extremely beautiful. At the eastern end of the bridge there are also naturally formed stone steps. One can follow the steps down, walk onto the sky bridge, and look down into a bottomless abyss, making one dizzy and dazzled. Only the strong dare cross, and tourists all praise it, calling it a "peerless wonder under heaven."
The Oriental Eden—Junshan Island
Junshan Island in the 800-li Dongting Lake in Yueyang, Hunan, has an area of only 0.96 square kilometers, yet it gave birth to two world-famous love stories: "Xiangfei's Tearful Bamboo" and "Liu Yi Delivers a Letter." Legend says that when the two consorts of Emperor Shun saw that their husband had not returned for a long time, they went to Junshan to seek him. Shocked to hear that Emperor Shun had died, they embraced the bamboo and wept bitterly, fell ill from grief, and died without recovery, and were buried on Junshan. Because so many tears were shed, the bamboo became mottled, thus forming Junshan's unique mottled bamboo. Today, the tomb of the two consorts is still preserved on Junshan Island, and around the tomb grow mottled bamboos with luxuriant branches and leaves, telling people of a love story that moves heaven and earth and makes gods and ghosts weep. That an island less than one square kilometer in area should have so many magical, beautiful and deeply moving love stories is unmatched anywhere in the country. Junshan Island has become the country's one and only love island, praised as the "World Love Island, Oriental Eden."
The most representative karst landform in southern China—Xiangxi Luota Stone Forest
Luota Stone Forest is located in Luota Township, Longshan County. Ancient geological research shows that several hundred million years ago this place was a vast sea, with misty waves stretching far and water and sky merging in endless expanse. Orogenic movement turned this place into land, and it is the most representative karst landform in southern China. As early as the 1970s, the Ministry of Geology designated this place as a scientific research base of the Institute of Karst Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and an internship base of the Graduate School of China University of Geosciences, and built it into Luota Geological Park. The park has a total area of 142.66 square kilometers and is extremely rich in geological relics, with 8 types of karst landform, 11 kinds of karst morphological features, 340 large and small karst caves, and a stone forest area of 62 square kilometers. It is a natural karst geological park with great value for sightseeing and scientific research.
China's largest ceramic relief cultural wall—Liling ceramic wall bas-relief
The Liling ceramic wall bas-relief cultural wall at the north entrance of Xianshan Park in the urban area of Liling, Hunan, is 150 meters long and 2.2 meters high. The entire mural work is assembled from 3,260 ceramic panels each 40 centimeters high and 30 centimeters wide. The picture contains 208 figures in varied forms. Through the vivid modeling of the figures, the designers artistically reproduce a series of marriage customs from young men and women meeting and falling in love to fetching the bride and bowing in the hall. The entire work relatively completely and fully displays Liling folk customs with "Si Qing Gui Ge" as the main melody, and is an artistic scroll that concentrates the essence of Liling local culture. In terms of scale, production difficulty and other technical indicators, the ceramic wall bas-relief cultural wall ranks first in the country, and it has become a brilliant scenic feature of Liling, the "Porcelain City."
Hunan's largest modern agricultural demonstration park—Baihuayuan Farmstead
Baihuayuan Farmstead was rebuilt and established on the basis of the Hunan Modern Facility Agriculture Demonstration Park, and is located in Yuhua District, Changsha, Hunan. Construction began in May 1997. It occupies 100 mu (including 15 mu of water surface), with a total investment of more than 13 million yuan. It has 8,100 square meters of electrically controlled greenhouses, 11,600 square meters of warm sheds, and supporting projects such as high-quality nursery stock and high-quality aquaculture. It was delivered for use in November 1998 and is currently the largest and highest-standard modern facility agriculture demonstration park in our province.
Hunan's first agricultural high-tech ecological sightseeing and leisure farmstead—Baiguoyuan
Baiguoyuan (full name: Hunan High-Quality Fruit and Tea Improved Variety Breeding Farm) was founded in 1998 and covers 1,000 mu. It is affiliated with the Hunan Provincial Department of Agriculture and is a national-level leading seedling base jointly invested in and built by the Ministry of Agriculture and the provincial government. It is also our province's largest fruit and tea seedling breeding and modern agricultural high-tech demonstration, promotion and ecological sightseeing park, with high scientific and technological content, a beautiful ecological environment and complete sightseeing and leisure facilities. It is also Hunan's first agricultural high-tech ecological sightseeing and leisure farmstead. Since its establishment, it has received honors including "National Leading Seedling Base," "National Agricultural Tourism Demonstration Site," "Hunan Province Five-Star Leisure Farmstead," "Hunan Province Leisure Agriculture Demonstration Site," "Hunan Province Outstanding Science Popularization Education Base," "Provincial Advanced Collective in Greening," "Changsha Top Ten Rural Tourism Sites," and "Changsha Five-Star Farmstead." As one of our province's first batch of "science popularization bases," Baiguoyuan receives about 200,000 visitors each year and has achieved relatively good social and economic benefits.
Hunan's hottest hot spring convalescence site—Rucheng Reshuiwei
Rucheng Hot Spring is located in Rucheng, in the "Hometown of Hot Springs," Chenzhou region, 45 kilometers east of Rucheng County seat, in southeastern Hunan. It covers an area of 3 square kilometers, with water temperatures as high as 98°C and a daily flow of 5,540 tons. It has long been known as the "First Spring of South China" and is famous for its high water temperature, best water quality, largest flow, widest area and shallowest burial. It was praised by Hunan Provincial Party Secretary Yang Zhengwu as "Zhangjiajie in the west, Reshui Hot Spring in the south." It is rich in more than 30 trace elements beneficial to the human body, such as radon, silicon, calcium, sodium, potassium, lithium, strontium and fluorine. Bathing in the sacred waters of this spiritual spring can regulate the endocrine system and promote metabolism, and has good auxiliary therapeutic effects on various skin diseases, rheumatic diseases, gynecological diseases and male and female infertility. It is called by local people the "Spiritual Spring That Gives Children."
The first spring of Xiaoxiang—Zilongwan Hot Spring
Zilongwan Hot Spring is located in Huitang Town, Ningxiang County, Hunan, about 20 kilometers from the former residences of Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi. The hot spring water is crystal clear and boiling like soup, with the highest temperature at the spring mouth reaching above 102°C. It is one of China's three major high-temperature composite hot springs and contains more than 29 kinds of trace elements and minerals beneficial to the human body, such as hydrogen sulfide, selenium, molybdenum, copper and zinc. After bathing, the skin is smooth as congealed fat. It has notable effects in reducing inflammation, calming, soothing the nerves, regulating physiological functions and improving cardiovascular function, and has excellent therapeutic effects on chronic diseases of the blood circulation and nervous system. It is regarded as "divine water" and "holy spring," and is also praised as the "First Spring of Xiaoxiang," "Natural Medicinal Spring" and "National Soup." The Zilongwan Hot Spring Resort, laid out and built according to national AAAA-level scenic area and five-star hotel standards, is a completely new development and repositioning of the ancient Huitang hot spring with more than two thousand years of history. It has business projects such as forest open-air hot springs, themed hot spring SPA, an international hotel and a top-level hot spring club; it has complete functions for tourism and vacationing, convalescence and fitness, leisure and entertainment, business conferences, and banquets and celebrations; and it is affordable for both high-end and mass consumption. Zilongwan Hot Spring Resort is currently the world's only five-star hot spring resort with barrier-free access.
Related Records
Miao King Village in Xiangxi
Miao King Village is located in Xiangxi. Since ancient times, the Miao have been a people beset by many disasters and hardships. Because of a history accompanied by war and migration, the ancient Laodong village was enclosed by walls built around the entire old settlement, becoming a Miao village combining village and fort. The Miao village has twelve gates, four large and eight small, forming a bagua maze-like fortified village.
In the entire building complex's nine-palace bagua layout, military defense concepts were fully considered. Within the ancient village, lanes crisscross, seeming to lead through yet not through. The whole layout is like a spider web and also like a maze: every household connects to every other, yet seems connected and cut off, seemingly open yet closed. The high walls of the houses on both sides of the lanes cut them off, and within the high walls on both sides gun ports were densely distributed, impossible to guard against. In various directions throughout the ancient village were built 6 family-protection towers and 5 sluice gates. Each household had a dedicated underground passage connecting with the others, extending in all directions, thus forming the ancient village's inner bagua shape. At that time the city wall was 3 meters high, with a perimeter of more than 2 kilometers and a top width of 0.5 meters. Each floor of the family-protection towers had 6 gun holes, with 3 floors in total, and the towers were 10.8 meters high. From the twelfth year of Jiaqing (1807), more than 20 wealthy households appeared in the ancient Laodong village. Each household had vast fertile fields and countless gold and silver. They spent great wealth to build family residences one after another. The entire building complex had connected eaves and corridors, uneven pavilions and towers, and courtyards linked to courtyards, stretching more than 600 meters, like a maze covering this magical land. Within the building complex, winding paths led to secluded spots; one might reach a wall and suspect there was no road, then enter a grand hall from a lane entrance. There were especially many unique features in the design of ventilation, lighting, drainage and fire prevention in the building complex. The wood and stone carvings of the building complex have concise strokes, clear lines and vivid images, and after hundreds of years of wind and rain erosion they remain as good as ever. This is rare material for studying the architectural art of the Miao people in ancient China. Many courtyards are very spacious, each capable of holding more than 1,000 people at one time, forming a complete ancient village architectural appearance with relatively high cultural relic value.
Within the ancient village area, there are as many as more than 20 sites of cultural relic value. The main ones include the Chen Quzhen Residence, the Ma Family Grain-Drying Ground, the Ma Family Ancestral Hall, the Former Residence of Staff Officer Ma, the Miao Family Earth God Temple, the Milling House, the Miao Family Bluestone Street, the Ancient Tusi Suspended Well, the site of the secret talks between the representative of the Fortieth Army of the Second Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Chen Quzhen, and the site where Long Gaoru, the last bandit leader in Xiangxi and commander-in-chief of the "Hunan, Guizhou, Chongqing and Hubei Anti-Communist National Salvation Army," was captured alive.
The Old Tujia Courtyard in Xiangxi
A Hunan provincial key cultural relic protection unit, the Old Courtyard is located on Yongding Avenue in the urban area of Zhangjiajie, Hunan. The Old Courtyard is the former residence of the Tian clan, a prominent Tujia family. It was first built in the early Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty and is a typical Xiangxi fire-sealed-wall courtyard-style building, integrating Tujia gardens and Tujia stilted houses, and is a typical Bizika (Tujia) residence. It is the best-preserved ancient Tujia residence surviving in all of Xiangxi and even the whole country, worthy of being called a living fossil of Tujia architecture, and is praised as the "First Tujia Residence." It originally occupied nearly 20,000 square meters. Apart from the rear garden, which still awaits restoration, its main building, the Zijing Hall, although having gone through three hundred years of change and weathering, remains intact. It has a total of forty rooms of various sizes, with deep courtyards and layered halls and a rigorous layout. The indoor furnishings remain unchanged from the old appearance, and the treasures kept there are mostly rare objects. The Old Courtyard is now listed as a Hunan provincial key cultural relic protection unit. The Tian ancestor Tian Chengman served successively in the Northern Song period as Grand Guardian, Grand Tutor and Grand Master, holding the highest official posts. He once used the title of commander to manage the various Tusi of Xiangxi on behalf of the imperial court and commanded southwestern political affairs.
One of the last generation of the Old Courtyard, Tian Qijuan, was a famous geologist of New China and one of the first batch of academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. When visiting the former Soviet Union, he was cordially received by Stalin. The successive heads of the Old Courtyard strictly followed the ancestral instruction to "leave poetry and books to posterity, and transmit the family through filial piety and brotherly love," and despised those who hated study, abandoned study, or achieved no official rank as disloyal and unfilial. According to research, from the Yongzheng period to before the Republic, the Old Courtyard passed through six generations—Qi, Rong, Chang, Dian, Zuo and Qi—with a total of one hundred male descendants, of whom forty-three obtained official rank. Among them were thirteen civil and military xiucai, one juren, nine grand secretaries of the Hanlin Academy (equivalent to academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), three fourth-rank capital officials, ten officials below the fourth rank, three imperially conferred madams among the female family members, and two Northern Expedition generals. Among the present generations "Ji" and "Kai," most work in the fields of education, science and health. Among them are the famous hydrology expert Tian Jiwei, geology experts Tian Qijuan and Tian Kaiming, nuclear physics expert Tian Kaifang, petroleum expert Tian Kaixi, medical expert Tian Kaihui, and agriculture expert Tian Jirong, and so on. They can truly be called a galaxy of stars and a family of scholars for generations. This is very rare in Chinese family history.
In the old society, Xiangxi was isolated and poor and was long known as a "wild and remote land." The continuously developing talent group of the Old Courtyard formed a sharp contrast with its disadvantaged location, and this strange phenomenon has aroused discussion among people from all walks of life.
The Mysterious Mountain Villa
The mysterious Hunan Provincial Office 731 (Fengzhuyuan Mountain Villa) is located in a mountain villa shaded by green trees beside the town. Lifting her mysterious veil and interpreting the richness and beauty bestowed on her by nature, who would know her past hardships and vicissitudes? In only a few years she leapt from a ruined and declining foreign-related base to become a well-known high-end club and tourist leisure destination in the province—simply incredible.
The mysterious 731 often gives people an illusion of mystery (the Japanese 731 Black Sun Unit). Founded in 1969, the Hunan 731 Base was originally under the dual management of the International Liaison Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and directly led by the Provincial Foreign Affairs Office. The site was selected in 1969, and in 1970, with the approval of the State Council, "731" began receiving foreign guests, with a staff limit of 31 people. For this reason, it was externally referred to as "731" and was a first-class confidential unit involving foreign affairs. The "731 Base" became a mysterious place. The reception staff's workplace and work content all became confidential, and they could not leak even a tiny bit to their families. From 1970 to 1992, it received foreign friends more than 30 times, successfully completing foreign affairs reception tasks, and 31 foreign friendly personages vacationed here.
The provincial government designated "731" as the suburban conference center and high-grade leisure center for the provincial party committee, provincial government, and several other major institutions. To adapt to the needs of reform and opening up and foreign reception, the "731 Office" specially established the "Fengzhu Garden Villa" and the "Foreign-Related Training Center," mainly undertaking important conference and foreign-related training reception work. The mysterious "731" gradually lifted its alluring veil to welcome guests from all directions, both domestic and foreign.
The 731 Fengzhu Garden Villa has a fresh and civilized modern atmosphere. Since 1998, it has been rated as an "Advanced Unit in Both Civilization" by the province, and it has now also been awarded the title of advanced taxpaying unit by the Provincial Local Taxation Bureau. All leaders and tourists who have been to "731" are amazed by its elegant and clean environment. The swimming pool ripples with blue waves, and the fishing area is shaded by green trees with gentle breezes. Luxury villas and comfortable guest rooms are nestled among emerald bamboo and green trees. Guest rooms, international conference halls, and dining and entertainment facilities of five-star standard have brought "731"'s hardware up to first-class standards in the same industry across the province.
Looking back at yesterday's "731 Base," it was mysterious; looking at today's "731," it is brilliant. Just as Secretary-General Li Yang of the General Office of the International Liaison Department said during an inspection visit to "731": "In the past, 731 made historical contributions to foreign-related reception, and after its task transformation in the new period of reform and opening up, it has made new and tremendous contributions."
The Wonder of the Wuxi Stele Forest
Where the Wuxi River flows into the Xiang River in Qiyang County, Hunan, three peaks rise abruptly with jagged rocks. Under the shade of towering ancient trees lies the Wuxi Stele Forest, the largest surviving ancient cliff inscription site of poetry, calligraphy, and painting in China, with a total area of 16 hectares. Over the past thousand years, despite the vicissitudes of time, it still preserves 505 masterpieces by many famous figures from successive dynasties, in regular script, running script, cursive script, clerical script, and seal script, spanning from the Tang and Song dynasties to the Republic of China period. Walking into the stele forest is like stepping into an exquisite little painted screen. More than 500 cliff inscriptions are distributed across three stone peaks, densely covering the cliffs and dazzling the eye. The highest cliff is 30 meters, with characters 2.3 meters in diameter, while the lowest at the cliff foot by the stream has characters only 1 centimeter in diameter. There are diverse forms: poetry, fu, records, couplets, paintings, large-character inscriptions, and titles.
The origin of the stele forest can be traced back more than 1,200 years. The Tang dynasty poet Yuan Jie passed through Qiyang, "loved its extraordinary scenery, and therefore settled by the stream." He asked the great calligrapher Yan Zhenqing of the time to write out his essay "Ode to the Restoration of the Great Tang" in large regular script and had it carved on the cliff by the stream. The entire inscription has 21 lines and 332 characters, written from left to right, using seal and clerical brush techniques to write regular script. Not only is the text rich in meaning, but the calligraphy is also vigorous and powerful. Later generations "bowed a hundred times without ceasing" before this monumental inscription, and because of its wonderful text, wonderful calligraphy, and wonderful stone, it is called the "Three Wonders of the Cliff," and is also the "treasure of the garden" of the Wuxi Stele Forest. Afterward, more than 250 literati and scholars in successive dynasties visited here, composing poems and fu and carving them on the stones, making it the largest stele forest in China.
Among them are "Wuxi Poem" by the famous Song dynasty calligrapher Mi Fu and the long poem "Writing on the Cliff Inscription Stone" by the famous writer Huang Tingjian, as well as the Wuxi New Three Inscriptions by Qing dynasty masters He Shaoji, Wu Dahui, and others. Historical celebrities such as Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu, and He Shaoji all left poems, writings, paintings, and calligraphy inscriptions here. In the stele forest there are also four inscriptions left by Vietnamese envoys who passed through this place during the Qing dynasty, which are especially eye-catching. During the Qing dynasty, several groups of Vietnamese envoys came to the imperial court to pay tribute and passed by Wuxi. Deeply attracted by the wonder and serene beauty of the stele forest, they left several inscriptions either praising or eulogizing it.
In 1996, the stele of the proletarian revolutionary Tao Zhu's poem "East Wind" was erected on the hillside to the left of Tao Zhu's bronze statue at the foot of the mountain south of Wutai in Wuxi. This was the first stele at Wuxi after the founding of New China. In 1998, on the right side of the "East Wind" poem stele, the stele of Tao Zhu's ci poem "Treading on Grass" was erected.
The Wuxi open-air cliff inscriptions are outstanding among China's cliff inscriptions and stand out among cliff inscriptions nationwide. It is a hometown of ethnic culture and a hometown of cultural relics, forming a massive stone book and a treasure house of calligraphic art. Its status in cultural history is lofty, and its value in calligraphic art is unparalleled. Now, the Wuxi cliff inscriptions have received the attention and protection they deserve. They will play their due role today, making themselves worthy of the great mission entrusted to them by history.
In 1988, the Wuxi Stele Forest was announced by the State Council as a cultural relic protection unit under the third batch of key national cultural relic protection units.