Study Chinese in China is a useful way to improve your Chinese language and communicative skills in Chinese, and culture plays a big role in learning a language. Among those cities in China, Kunming is a nice choice when you decide to come to study Chinese in China.
A famous story about Chang Chong Mountian in Kunming is often heard when you are studying Chinese in China. There was a long and big snake living in Sichuan province many years ago. After long time of practicing, the snake became into an evil demon, and it ate crops, humans and animals. Everywhere the snake went was a disaster. Sichuan was badly influenced by the snake and what it had done. Many years later, the crops and animals in Sichuan were eaten up by the snake. It had nothing to eat in Sichuan, and when looking at Yunnan province, the snake found Yunnan was a prosperous place. The snake moved to live in Yunnan after that.
When the snake demon came to Kunming, it saw a big turtle in the middle of Wang Jia Qiao Bridge and Gang Tou Cun Village. The snake wanted to play with the turtle. Why was there a big turtle there? This is the question everyone who studies Chinese in China wants to ask.
It was because a story happened thousands of years ago and you may possibly know in while studying Chinese in China. Kunming Ba Zi at that time was a large ocean, and there was a turtle of ten thousand years old sleeping at the bottom of the ocean. Tens of thousands years later, the ocean dried. However, it did not wake up, and its back turned into a large area of land. This was the reason why seeing from map, Kunming looked like a turtle back.
However, life is not as smooth as students who study Chinese in China thought. Local people were worried about that if one day the turtle woke up, old Kunming city would be ruined. Kunming people thought out of a solution, that was find a master of magic arts. The local official sent three men to find the master. When they started to find this famous master, they met the long snake came from Sichuan province. Seeing the evil snake come to eat them, those three men cried for help. A fairy goat suddenly appeared in front of them and let the goat twine onto its body. The goat expanded immediately and the snake was broken into small pieces.
Those three men thought the fairy goat must have a way to find the fairy master, so they begged the goat to take them to the master. Walking along the road in the mountain, those three men who were sent by local official find a cave named Hong Yang Cave. The goat asked them outside, and it went inside to tell its master what was happening. Several minutes later, an apprentice came out and guided them into the cave. Foreign friends who come to study Chinese in China wonder what happened when they got into the cave. However, there was no one in there. The apprentice said my master had already gone to your town.
They went back and found an old man waiting there. The old master had a look around the place and began his magic art. He made two towers on the turtle back, and they are the famous Dong Si Ta and Xi Si Ta you know when you study Chinese in China. At the time when those two towers were built, people could hear about the sound of struggling made by the turtle. He had also put a mountain to hold the snake down to the ground and it became the Chang Chong Mountain we know now when we come to study Chinese in China.
When you travel to Kunming or learn Chinese in Kunming, Chang Chong Mountain is a good place to go and know something about Chinese culture.