From the foot of Xiyao Lake to the mountainside, or from the west side of Wanli City along Xingfu Lake, you can see Tongyuan Gorge. Tongyuan Gorge is the most distinctive scenic area in Meiling Scenic Area, integrating natural scenery and folk customs. Here are rare waterfalls, water mills, and terraced fields in China. According to relevant historical records, Liu Bi, the King of Wu in the Western Han Dynasty, once mined copper and cast coins in the Xishan Mountains, hence the name Tongyuan Gorge, which originated from the main peak of the Xishan Mountains. According to the "Records of Xishan", "During the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang in Guanghua, copper overflowed. Zhong Chuanzhen, in Yuzhang, used it to cast Buddha statues and bell chimes. For example, the Buddha statue at Jingde Temple was six feet tall, the Nengren Temple weighed 22000 kilograms, the Shanglan Temple bell weighed 20000 kilograms, and the Baoguo Temple bell weighed 12000 kilograms. The Hongya Cuiyan Temple also used its copper to cast Buddha statues.
The end of Tongyuan Gorge is connected to the Happiness Reservoir, with the upper end starting from Tianwei Natural Village. It runs east-west and has a total length of about ten kilometers. It is the longest, quietest, most beautiful, and most magical canyon in Meiling. Entering the Tongyuan Gorge is like entering a natural oxygen bar. Walking up the canyon, all the way, the trees were shaded and the grass was lush. The air is fresh and pleasant, with flowers and birds whispering with mercy, making one linger and forget to leave. Red azaleas in spring, white lilies in summer, yellow chrysanthemums in autumn, and purple mountain tea in winter. The scenery of the four seasons is different, and the joy is endless. So there is a song praising: "In the Tongyuan Gorge of the Western Mountains, wild animals are crawling all over the ground. There are flowers on both sides of the strange pools and strange rocks, and tourists forget to go home here." The lower reaches of the gorge are flat, with wide and shallow waters, often filled with waterfowl and egrets. In the middle and upper reaches, the water area is narrow and the water flow is fast, with many deep green ponds and countless wild animals. Stone chicken, stone fish, stone turtle, and stone bird are unpredictable. Waterfalls, water mills, and terraced fields are located here.
In the Copper Source Canyon of the Water Mills Group, there are over 80 large and small waterfalls with over 300 rounds of primitive water mills connected. These water mills have a history of nearly a thousand years and maintain their original appearance since ancient times: thatched huts and mud houses, with hazy dust; The huge wooden water wheel, wooden board sink, stone tablet and stone mortar, through ingenious transmission, process various miscellaneous wood chips into delicate "white wood powder", bringing endless wealth to the local people since ancient times, known as the "mute cub" in drama. When it comes to water mills, I'm afraid they are no longer known by young people. According to the explanation in the Modern Chinese Dictionary, a rice mill is a wooden pole used to pound rice. One end of the pole is filled with a stone, and the other end is continuously stepped on by the foot. The stone rises and falls continuously, removing the skin of the brown rice from the stone mortar below. The dictionary refers to a foot mill, which is called a "foot mill". Water mills, on the other hand, use hydraulic power to drive the vehicle to rotate, causing two to four mills to rise and fall continuously, pounding rough rice or uncooked rice in stone mortar. Before the 1970s, water mills were an important tool for farmers in remote mountainous areas to process rice. Processing rice from rice usually involves two steps: the first step is to use rice husks to turn the rice into brown rice; The second process is to use a hammer to pound white rice. It is also possible to directly pound the rice into white rice without hulling it, but the pounding time is longer. So most farmers have rice husks in their homes, and they need to open them before picking them up and using water to pound them. According to historical records, from the late Yuan Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, the ancestors here used the principle of using water carts to pound rice and erected countless water mills on the Tongyuan Gorge. With the power of water, they utilized the advantages of local wood materials to make temple incense (used to make sandalwood and incense, locally known as incense powder). Nowadays, these water powered houses left over from history still continue their ancient role as pestle powder. In recent years, due to the increasing use of wood powder, it can not only be used to make temple incense, but also as a raw material for mosquito repellent incense and leather products.