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Getting
to know Yibin
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Legends of Yibin
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of Interest
DaGuan Tower
Floating Wine Cup Brook
Bamboo Sea
Stone & Cave Forest
XiJia Fazenda
Pagodas
Local Specially Product
WuLiang Liquor
Local Tea
Local Taste Cates
Bamboo Handcrafts
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The Pagodas of Yibin
There
are three pagodas within Yibin city limits. In ancient times, there were
quite many temples and pagodas in and around Yibin, but most were destroyed
in times of strife or by the whims of nature. The flooding of the Jingsa
river destroyed the entire city in the year 843
AD. Later the Mongolian invasions of 1242 and 1267 took a heavy toll.
The
Jiuzhou Pagoda,
The oldest one, was built 1102-1109 AD with 29.5 m, and squared root.
The
White Pagoda
This is the closest. It was built in 1567-1572, it raises 8 stories or
35.8 m. It was built during the time of the third (fourth?) reconstruction
of Yibin. At that time the city limits coincided with those of present-day
Yibin.
The
Black Pagoda
Was built in a distant and safe place atop the Seven Star Mountain in
Ming Dynasty with 7 stories. The name derives from the black bricks used
for its construction.
Finally, there is the one is about the white and black pagoda, maybe not
a true legend, but an anecdotal story, used to explain a visual phenomena.
Outside the city across the river from Yibin you can see two pagodas,
a white one is near, while the dark one is barely perceptible in the distance.
Originally, the white one was all white, a white building with a white
roof, while the distant one was all black. The pagodas made up their minds
to switch roof, but pagodas are not used to walking, so the only way this
feat could be managed was for the pagodas to pitch their roofs, the one
to the other. The black pagoda had no trouble managing this feat. Its
roof landed squarely on top of the white pagoda. But the white pagoda
did not have the strength, of arm so the white roof just fell into the
river and disappeared. That is why today the white pagoda has a black
roof while the black has none. In actual fact this is just some silly
local story, both pagodas have complete roofs, but the roofs are both
black, and so it is not possible to make out the black roof on the black
pagoda because it is so far away.
