On the south bank cliff of Qutang Gorge is a range of square stone caves about 30 cm (11.8 inches) deep and 27 cm (10.6 inches) wide. These caves extend upwards to form a zigzag. The native people called them Mengliang Stairway.
Last Update : 4/3/2008 5:08:03 AM
Legend has it that the famous general Yang Jiye was framed and killed by a treacherous official and that his body was buried in the mountainside. His janissary, Meng Liang, decided to steal his body back. So every night he boated into the Qutang Gorge,and chiseled stone holes till dawn in order to climb up one day. As he worked hard in the waist of the cliff, an old monk found him and imitated a cockcrow. Meng Liang was misled to thinking that day had broken, so he stopped chiseling, all his efforts wasted. In a fury, he killed the monk and hung him inversely. People believed that the rock extruding like a barefooted man was the monk and named it the 'Rock of the Inversely Hanging Monk'.
In fact, these holes on the rock are the remains of an ancient plank road, and the rock resembling a monk is a stalactite.
Last Update : 2006-10-20 17:18:28 
