free Chinese lessons in Kunming should be on the top of your list when you try to find a place to learn Mandarin Chinese in Kunming as Kunming has the best Chinese language school around Yunnan province and even the whole China. When you come to Kunming, you may have also known about the famous Kunming Zoo. There is a famous place at the foot of Yuan Yong Mountain of Kunming Zoo, which is named Yi Wo Yang.
If you learn Chinese language in China, you will know Yi Wo Yang means “a herd of sheep”. Why does this name come? It is because that there are many grey and black stones at the foot of Yuan Tong Mountain, and those stones look like sheep in different appearance.
Foreign learners in Chinese school in China will also ask why people carved those sheep on the stone. It should be dated back to a story many years ago. In ancient times, Yu Huang Da Di (the male God who was in charge of all gods and goddesses in heaven) created human beings and various kinds of animals. Human beings were wondering about what they can eat, and Yu Huang Da Di said that they should eat vegetables and crops, and they could eat mutton if they wanted to have some meat.
Strange things often happened in Chinese folk stories if you had some background about Chinese culture. A herd of sheep came to Kunming and robbed things from local people. Local Kunming people were so frightened about them and less and less people lived there. Every day they kept their doors closed and did not dare to walk out of their houses.
Students from school of learning Mandarin Chinese in Kunming may think Kunming is a place with many people, but it is hot always true. At that time, Yu Huang Da Di found the city of Kunming became so bleak when he passed by. He knocked at the door of local people, and finally one family opened the door. Yu Huang Da Di asked what happened, and the old man from that family said the evil things came to their home and did bad things.
When you came to learn Mandarin in China, you would know the evil herd of sheep started to show again. They made the city of Kunming in a mess and local people were crying and screaming. Suddenly, a flash of white light appeared and it lightened a large area of land into white. A tall and strong man appeared.
The man was one of those Chinese gods you knew when you traveled to study in China. He was so angry about those bad sheep and wanted to punish them. He said, “I was sent by Yu Huang Da Di, and I will punish you evil things. Yu Huang Da Di told human beings they could eat mutton, and then your evil things changed into sheep and bullied local people in Kunming. I will never forgive all of you.”
Seeing this, the herd of sheep became docile immediately. Foreign students who study Chinese in Kunming may think how those things changed so fast. It was because the herd of sheep was so frightened about the man appeared. Those sheep lined up at the foot of the mountain and waited there.
Suddenly, revolt was coming. One of the sheep wanted to escape from east. The man put his red sword to the herd, and those sheep stopped and they looked like were badly burnt into black. Yes, they are the sheep on the stones at the foot of the mountain you use after you come to learn Mandarin in Kunming. They stayed on those stones year after year, and looking from their appearance, you will find they are running toward east all the time.
When a local scholar passed by many years later, he set up a monument near those stones and named them as “Shi Cui Zhuang”. Local people would love to call it as the name you know when you learn Chinese in China, which is “Yi Wo Yang”. If you go to Kunming Zoo while taking Chinese courses in Kunming, you should take a day off and go to have a look at those stones.