longtan ancient town, a famous historic and cultural town of china and national aaaa tourist attraction, is located by the bank of meishu river in the southeast of youyang. it has an area of 1.5km2. in history, it was the location of “assistant of county magistrate”, “routing inspection”, “junior officer of prefecture” and “assistant to the district head”. the ancient town was rebuilt in the 13th year of yongzheng’s reign in the qing dynasty (in 1735), which won the name of longtan (dragon pond) because of two ponds beneath dragon mountain resembling two eyes of the dragon.
the 3km stone street has been ground brightly and smoothly as the jade. ancient sea fossils appear now and disappear in next minute. shops stand closely to each other on the street while lanes and alleys are connected. residential houses were built rows upon rows on the street. the quadrangle, house with basement, fireproof wall, and tilted house have represented the high skills of architectural arts at that time. a common family has “three pillar and four storeys” and “three pillars and six storeys” while the wealthy family has “quadrangle” courtyard. the gate built by stone pillar looks ancient and elegant. inside the courtyard there is “central hall” for ancestor worship, guest reception, wedding and funeral. the bottom facing the street would be decorated with wood plates or built “curving counter” with bricks, which will be put with candies, fruits, cakes, and wine. emperor yu’s palace, wanshou palace, zhongshan park and other buildings have carved window and lintel, carved beams and painted rafters. in the past, the couplet of “yan liang was killed by guan yu on a horse, threatening heroes from hebei. he met lu xiao alone, making celebrities in jiangnan ashamed” was engraved in front of the statue of guan yu in spring and autumn pavilion. the experts and scholars sighed after they visited the ancient town, “the ancient trees, ancient wells, ancient bridges, ancient pier and ancient buildings have already combined harmoniously. residential houses and pier and the guild hall are connected. in addition to outstanding natural scenery, its historic culture is extremely important. it is competitive to sifang street in lijiang.” it is known as “the soul of wuling”.
meishu river running from the border of the ancient town has been connecting youshui river with yuanjiang river since ancient times, which is the channel connecting jiangsu and zhejiang. since emperor yongzheng abolished the chieftain system at his last year of reign and canceled the prohibition of “no barbarian goes out the cave and no han comes in”, visitors and merchants from jiangsu province, zhejiang province, and chongqing, etc., gathered in longtan ancient town to transport salt, cloth and other daily supplies, as well as take away tung tree, tea, paint, cinnabar, mercury and other local products, jiangxi guild hall wanshou palace, hunan guild hall emperor yu’s palace were built, promoting local minorities to live harmoniously with the han people. in the ancient town the salt firm, business firm, and shops stood one after another, giving it the title of “cargoes in longtan”. during the anti-japanese war period, longtan ancient town became the area under kmt rule for people from enemy-occupied areas to avoid the war. merchants gathered in the town, making it a busy town. longtan was famous nationwide and known as “little nanjing” from then on.
the greatness of a man lent glory to longtan ancient town. zhao shiyan, the revolutionary pioneer, liu ren, the former first deputy secretary of beijing municipal committee, wang boshan, the secretary of sun yat-sen presidential palace and the member of chinese revolutionary league, wang jianhong, the wife of qu qiubai, and other outstanding people were born here. shen congwen, the famous writer, dwelt in longtan in 1920s and wrote a touching story of wang yaomei, the 18-year-old odd “head of female bandit”. in his works he had described the natural scenery, history and culture of longtan ancient town for times. famous female writer ding ling wrote meng ke, her virgin novel that took wang jianhong as the prototype that earned her fame, described the antique longtan middle school. tian han, the famous drama writer, created four-line poem when he departed longtan, “clouds and mists in the mountain concealed the pagoda in youyang; the huge stone supported the sky with unknown height; i heard that the carps in the pond were mostly 1.5 feet, so i fished in longtan with a rod.” to express his strong feeling to longtan ancient town.