Tianfu Official Station in Wulong, Southwest China's Chongqing Photo: Chen Xi/GT

 

A huge model of Bumblebee from Transformers: Age of Extinction in Wulong Photo: Chen Xi/GT

 When I was a child, I had to memorize a poem written by Li Bai, one of China's famous poets, for homework. One of the lines of the poem goes: Its torrent dashes down three thousand feet from high; As if the silver river fell from azure sky. 

Although I learned how to recite the poem from memory, I could not grasp its beauty because there was no vivid picture in my mind.

However, after a trip to Wulong in Southwest China's Chongqing, what I saw enabled me to truly understand the beauty of this poem and the talent of the splendid poet.  

Three Natural Bridges

It was cloudy when we set out for Wulong. Taking nearly four hours from the city center of Chongqing, my friend Violet and I finally arrived at our destination - the Wulong district's Three Natural Bridges.  

The Three Natural Bridges are a famous set of three natural limestone bridges. Our tour guide Wang Yong told us that according to ancient legends the three bridges are actually three dragons that gradually merged with the mountains over the ages to become the stone formations we see today.

The first bridge we came to was the Tianlong Bridge, or the Sky Dragon Bridge. This natural bridge is the largest among the three as it is a double arch bridge. I could not help but be impressed with the power of nature because the bridge looked like a man-made one but was actually formed through countless years of erosion.

Interestingly, underneath the bridge there is a cave that felt like a labyrinth. 

"It's said to have been a bandit hideout once upon a time. The main cave is more than 400 meters long, with numerous large and small passages leading off from it," Wang explained. 

This bridge is also the most well-known one since it is close to a unique building called Tianfu Official Station. Tianfu appeared in famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou's film Curse of the Golden Flower.

In the movie, hundreds of guards wearing black clothing drop down from the high-attitude mountains by rope onto the roof of the building to kill a senior general on orders from the king. 

This amazing natural scenery made for the perfect backdrop for a wonderful martial arts sequence, making the film feel extremely unique. 

As I looked down from high up on the side of the mountain, I could see the old but not shabby quadrangle dwelling sitting there peacefully. Wang told us that Tianfu Official Station used to be a post station connecting two regions during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and later dynasties. Even today, it still plays an important part in keeping villages connected as locals treat it as a major rest stop on their travels.  

The ancient station is made up of more than 10 buildings, such as a main house, courtyard, wing room, living quarters and horse stable, covering an area of more than 1,000 square meters. 

Entering the ancient station, the blue bricks and tiles, exquisitely carved beams and wooden walls transported me back to the Tang Dynasty. 

I asked Wang if the local government thought about building a hotel nearby  so people could experience living among the peaceful natural scenery. He told me that the place only felt this peaceful because the station was the only building at the foot of the mountain. I agreed with him and felt ashamed that I had asked such an improper question. 

The second bridge, the Qinglong Bridge or Azure Dragon Bridge, is the steepest and highest bridge of the three. 

"We called it the Azure Dragon Bridge because rainbows tend to appear through the arch of the bridge after rain,  which makes it look like a gateway in the sky," Wang explained. 

Unfortunately, we did not see any rainbows since the weather was cloudy. This was beautiful in its own way however, as the dark clouds covering the mountain made it look like the home of immortals or fantasy elves.   

As we walked to the bridge, a giant robotic monster came into view. I quickly recognized that it was a creature from Transformers: Age of Extinction. The giant statue was very popular, as many tourists gathered around it to take pictures with it. The image of this artificial creature stood in sharp contrast to the natural beauty of the surrounding area.  

The last bridge we visited was Heilong Bridge (Black Dragon Bridge), which was the scariest of them all as it's position at the bottom of two cliffs creates a very gloomy environment. 

"Before the development of the scenic spot, only a few local villagers dared to pass here after four or five in the afternoon because it is always dark here by then and the cries of local wildlife start to sound like monsters," Wang said, making a scary face. 

His words made me wonder if the Black Dragon was evil. Wang soon confirmed my suspicions. 

According to local legend, the Black Dragon often occupied the local river, which blocked exports to the sea and caused flooding in coastal villages. Later, a small yellow dragon defeated the evil dragon and saved the people.

As I passed by a nearby cliff face, I got a bit scared. The natural formation of the rocks looked like the faces of numerous villainous zombie grouped together in a horde. My friend Violet must have had far more courage because she told me she thought everything looked like the middle part of the Sagrada Familia outlook in Spain but far more natural. 

As we walked through the arch of the bridge, beautiful natural scenery entered my vision again. I took a deep breath and my nervous feelings were swept away.

Thus our tour of the Three Natural Bridges came to an end. 

Fissure gorge

Violet and I took a bus to our next destination - Longshuixia Fissure Gorge, one of the World Natural Heritages in Chongqing.

We came to a cave and saw a long set of stairs that led down about 200 to 500 meters. Traveling down them, we arrived at what we thought was the bottom, but we were wrong. An employee guided us to an elevator which took us 80 meters down into the ground. When the elevator gate opened, the green world that appeared before us shocked my soul.

I looked up and saw the sky and mountains far, far above us, making me feel like a tiny bug. There was a super long catwalk built on the side of the mountains that stretched out in a circle.  

The huge gorge was formed by the continuous corrosion of an underground river along cracks in the rock stratum over billions of years. 

We started to climb along the catwalk and were continually amazed by the skill of the workers who managed to complete such a difficult tasks. The cliffs on both sides were magnificent and the rock wall felt dangerously high. I did not dare look down because I was afraid of falling off and dropping into the deep valley below.  

When we arrived at the top of the valley, we sat on a bench for a rest and heard the sound of falling water, but we could not find its location. Looking at a sign, we discovered that we had come to a scenic spot called Jiaolong Karst Cave. 

According to the introduction, the Jiaolong Karst Cave earned its name from the widely-known legend that a type of Chinese dragon known as jialong once in mediation here. Inside the cave, the only sound we could hear was running water, but not a hint of this water could be seen, creating an atmosphere of utmost tranquility but extreme chillness. 

The weird phenomenon made me think that maybe the legends about the place may actually be true.  

When we started to go downstairs, one of the most impressive places for me was a big waterfall falling from the cliffs above to the earth. 

When I got close to the waterfall, the spray of the waterfall hit my face, refreshing my body and sweeping my exhaustion away.

Pointing at her hand, Violet joked that if we drank the water we probably would become immortal. Looking down I saw that her hand turned a bright white whenever she put it under the water. Surprised, I tried doing it too and was shocked to see my hand turn as white and pure as a piece of jade. I did not believe Violet's joke about immortal water but I did think there had to be something special in it to have this effect on my skin.  

We ended our tour by exiting through a water curtain formed by the waterfall. 

What a beautiful journey! Wang told us that the bridges and the gorge made the perfect couple, and now I can't help but agree! 


Newspaper headline: Dragons of the mountain