Longmen Gorge

Longmen (Dragon Gate) Gorge is away from Wushan County for 3 kilometers, which is the first gorge of Daning River and one of the Lesser Three Gorges. After coming into the gorge, you can see the peaks on the both banks facing each other, and towering into sky; green mountains reflect on the limpid river. The cliffs in the gorge look like been cut by knife, the crack between the peaks look like been opened by god, and the shape looks like a gate. The terrain in the gorge very steep, so someone said "It isn't Kweimen, but it is steeper than Kweimen". There is a Longmen Bridge stretched across the two banks, which makes the gorge mouth looks more like Dragon gate.

Brief Introduction of Longmen Gorge

There is a big limestone cave on the back of eastern Longmen Gorge, which looks like a big round gate; hence it was named "Longmen" (Dragon Gate). Longmen is 25 meters high, 20.4 meters wide and 11.6 meters thickness. It is a half-moon natural stone gate on the Cliffside, looks very magnificent. The place around Longmen for several kilometers is with queer terrain, hanging down vines, dense trees and bamboos, flourishing flowers and various stalactites cave landscapes which can be used to explore for visitors; the stone carvings on the cliffs can be used to appreciate; the river walk around the mountains and pass by the gorge; birds fly in the forest; all of these consist of a series of beautiful landscape groups, as if it is a vivid mountain and water painting. There is an important scenic spot on Wu River, which was praised as "Longmen Paradise" and that "Qincheng is the most beautiful and quiet place in the world, while Longmen is better than Qincheng". As Longmen is very famous, so people named this Wu River gorge where Longmen located in as "Longmen Gorge".

Legend of Longmen Gorge

The stone gate named after "dragon" originated from a folk story. According to legend, there is a dragon wanted to pass through the cliff, come to Wu River and back to sea. When he reached here in night, he was found by the mountain god. The mountain god was angry with him, and pretended the cockcrow. When he heard the sound, he doubted that the morning is coming. So he quickly came back. When he wanted to go, his tail made a half-moon cave on the cliff. As his body is very strong, made three hundreds stone steps along the terrain. After came back to sea, he still wanted to pass through the cliff. He came here again. This time, he didn't come to the mountain cliff, instead walking along the mountain valley and made a Zhufu River. When he came to Wu River, the great mountains blocked the valley. The dragon worked hard to dig the mountain and passed through the cave. At last, he came to Wu River and came back to sea.