Shichengkeng

Shichengkeng is located in Zhulingjiao Village, Yongxiang Township. Upon entering the valley, visitors are surrounded by encircling mountains that resemble ancient city walls, covered in lush green woods. Towering massive boulders stand in rows along the mountain slopes, forming a sturdy stone citadel veiled in rosy morning mist, creating a grand and magnificent scene.

A winding mountain path over one hundred metres long runs along the base of the stone citadel’s rock face, where tourists may climb stone steps upward. On one side rises a sheer cliff thousands of feet high; on the other side flourish dense woods and tall slender bamboo. Wandering here, one feels coolness and serenity, immersed in delightful natural charm. Beneath the cliff lies a stone cave known locally as General’s Cave. Legend holds that when the Yellow Emperor visited this scenic spot, his generals guarded this cave. Beside the cave stands a rock fissure dozens of metres tall, a classic "Single Thread Sky" crevice leading straight up to a flat stone platform atop the cliff. Folklore says the Yellow Emperor’s imperial guards stood watch on the platform. If danger arose, they would toss small stones down the fissure, which emitted crisp ringing sounds as an alarm, hence the local nickname "Rock Sentry".

Shichengkeng is dotted with more than ten stone caves of varying sizes. The most wondrous one is the large mid-mountain cave, spanning over a hundred square metres. It is divided into three connected tiers—upper, middle and lower—with open sides offering spacious, comfortable shelter. A pair of stone gate slabs face each other at the cave entrance; clear spring water flows through the cave interior, and a waterfall cascades beside it. Local villagers recount that the Yellow Emperor once hosted a welcome banquet here for the Heavenly Maiden of Nine Heavens, his senior female mentor, who travelled from Jinhua Mountain to visit Shicheng Mountain. Therefore, the cave is named Yellow Emperor’s Cave. Recently, shards of pottery bowls were unearthed during soil clearance inside the cave. Appraisal by the municipal cultural relics bureau confirms these artefacts date back to the Tang and Song dynasties. Visitors may climb from the cave’s rear to its flat, spacious roof, and discover the entire cavern is sheltered beneath a single huge fallen boulder. A giant footprint is imprinted on top of the boulder, which villagers say was left by the Heavenly Maiden of Nine Heavens when she attained immortality and departed Shicheng Mountain.

According to legend, Hu Benkong, a monk from Chengzhen Temple at the foot of the mountain, often roamed the hills gathering medicinal herbs and treating villagers for free. One day, while climbing the cave roof to collect herbs, he slipped and fell from a cliff several zhang high. Expecting certain death, he escaped unharmed, a miracle attributed to divine protection. To mark this extraordinary event, he erected a ladder against the sheer cliff and inscribed an account of the incident by hand. Surprisingly, his ink writing has survived for nearly 500 years to this day.