LaoShan (Mount Lao): With its magnificent granite peaks watching over the Yellow Sea from heights above one thousands meters, Laoshan’s beauty has for centuries made it a place of myth and legend. Known in traditional folklore as the home of immortals, Mount Lao has attracted the admiration of emperors, poets, and priests for more than two thousand years. Covering some 400 square kilometers, including the highest points along the eastern coast of China, Laoshan is the only one of China’s sacred mountains that has a sea view. LaoShan Photo Gallery. LaoShan’s Mythology :: The Tale of LaoShan Springs
As the tale goes, a long time ago there was not a single natural spring in LaoShan. The villagers couldn’t grow crops nor keep the flocks and herds fed and watered. They even had to fetch drinking water from the BaiSha River tens of miles away. One year in the spring, a young man named Wang Quan of the ShiWan Village unearthed a stone basin that had a wide top and flat bottom while cultivating the land. He took the basin back and used it as a feeder for fowl. To his surprise the feed never ran empty and the chickens could never eat it all up. After discovering this little wonder, Wang Quan put two coins in the basin and it turned out that the coins in the basin could never be exhausted. While Wang Quan was not a man of greed, he locked the basin in his closet and continued working on the crops in the land as usual. When the LaoShan area encountered a sever drought, the worst in several decades, and even the BaiSha River had dried up; Wang Quan thought that the basin might produce water as well as food and coins. So he opened the closet and took out the basin. As he poured the half jar of left over water he had into the basin, the water in the basin increased and increased until it flowed over. Wang Quan was so excited that he ran out of his home and shouted: “My fellow folks, I’ve got water for you! Please come with me!” The villagers were overwhelmed with happiness and crowded into Wang Quan’s house to get the water that saved their lives.
Very soon the tale of Wang Quan’s magical basin was spread around nearby counties and towns. The money traders came to Wang Quan with large amounts of valuable treasures and wanted to trade for the basin. The officials of the town, the county and even the province came to him and asked to exchange the basin for power and beauties. However, Wang Quan bravely told them: “My lords, this basin is the poor peoples last valuable belonging. I won’t trade it for even mountains of gold and silver.” Once the money traders and officials left, the emperor came to him with a company of ministers and generals. The emperor told Wang Quan: “For as long as you let me have the basin, I the emperor of the country, will let you be the highest minister, allow you to marry the princess and endow you many fortunes for the rest of your life.” It was then that Wang Quan realized that he couldn’t keep the basin. He turned back and ran to the steep mountains of LaoShan with the basin. The minister and generals, as well as the emperor’s ran after him to the top of LaoShan Mountain. Wang Quan found that there was no way out but the cliffs in front of him. While the emperor’s people were coming closer and closer he made up his mind — he threw the basin into the rocks at the top and jumped off the cliff. As the basin broke and landed on the soil, every piece turned into a spring of water and Wang Quan’s body became the largest spring in the north of LaoShan Mountain. Since that time, LaoShan has been filled with inexhaustible sweet water springs.