Lianhua Mountain, known as the Great Wall of Guangdong, is an important military location. During the Opium War, Lin Zexu led troops to garrison the city and set up a second line of defense to prevent British invasion. Now Lianhua Mountain has built a barracks imitating the Qing Dynasty, where visitors can experience the barracks of the Qing Dynasty and recall the past during the Opium War.
In Guanyin Scenic Area, the lotus flowers are in full bloom, "out of the mud but not stained, clear but not demon", and the golden Guanyin statue watching the sea is really extraordinary, which makes people feel like they are in the "pure land" and awe.
The king of South Vietnam split the mountain and took the stone.
At the end of Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Han Dynasty, Zhao Tuo was king in Lingnan, and sent people to look for building materials suitable for building palaces. People in South Vietnam were pleasantly surprised to find this piece of red sandstone stretching for thousands of meters on the edge of the lion ocean. Hard and uniform texture, high density and bright color make it the best choice for building a magnificent palace. Since then, a battle between man and nature has begun.
Today, we can't imagine how the Chibi, which is tens of meters high and perpendicular to the ground, was born with a chisel and a hammer. Starting from Lianhuayan in the south of Lianhua Mountain, it bends northward and extends eastward to the foundation of Lianhuashan Fishing Port, forming a quarrying zone with a length of about 1500m from north to south, a width of 50-200m from east to west and a mining depth of 30-40m, with an mining area of 330,000m2 and a quarrying material of about 3 million cubic meters.
At that time, Lianhua Mountain was not connected with the land, but an island in the South China Sea. South Vietnamese have to sail if they want to quarry stones. South Vietnamese have been good at boating since ancient times, when shipbuilding technology was very high. After quarrying, they arrived at the riverside of Guangzhou by sea and transported the stones to the National Palace Office of South Vietnam.
In addition to the palace of Nanyue Kingdom, the tomb of Nanyue King discovered by 1983 in Xianggangshan, Guangzhou, was identified by the New Technology Research Office of the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The stone used to build the tomb is similar to the sandstone of Lianhua Mountain, and the stone structure and hardness of the two are exactly the same. It is basically certain that the stones in this tomb are mainly collected from Lianhua Mountain.
Huge profits drive the prosperity of quarrying industry.
"The ancient quarry in Lianhua Mountain should be made by the state, because it needs a lot of financial resources, manpower and technical means to do it, and it is mined in a relatively concentrated period. The ancient quarrying history, standardized mining, superb technology, grand scale and beautiful heritage here are of typical significance in China and even the world. " Liu Jinshan said.
After the Western Han Dynasty, the quarrying industry in Lianhua Mountain continued from the Song Dynasty to the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. At that time, red sandstone was the most widely used building stone, which was used in urban foundations, official halls, ancestral temples, temples, houses and other buildings.
According to Qu Dajun's Guangdong Newspeak, at that time, some "desperate traitors" gathered in Lianhua Mountain, digging stones for profit, earning "hundreds of thousands of dollars a year". It can be seen that the quarrying industry in Lianhua Mountain was in full swing at that time, driven by interests. According to the data provided by Panyu Museum, during the Song and Ming Dynasties, a large number of quarrying workers in Lianhua Mountain lived in the "Stone Site", which is the Tianbutou area of Shilou Town today.
Centuries have passed, and the pavilions of that year were lost in the dust of history. The ancient city walls that have survived to this day have witnessed this prosperous history. The red sandstone stones found on Yuehua Road in Guangzhou are similar to those mined in Lianhua Mountain, and the words "Panyu County" are printed on the side of some city bricks. In the 13th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, namely 1380, the old city of Guangzhou was expanded by Hou Zhuliangzu in Yongjia, and the wall with a length of12,000 meters and a height of more than 6 meters was restored. Today, in Yuexiu Mountain, there are still the remains of the ancient city wall of Ming Dynasty, and most of the red sandstone used to build the city comes from the ancient quarry of Lianhua Mountain.
The debate about opening the ban is protracted.
Local residents think Lianhua Mountain is a treasure trove of geomantic omen, and they strongly oppose privately mining stones. Since the Ming Dynasty, the long-term struggle between mining and prohibition has been going on. In the seventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, namely 1579, Chen was banned from quarrying privately. This is the first time it has been banned in historical materials. However, driven by interests, the struggle between prohibition and opening cannot be calmed down at all.
In the 29th year of Qing Qianlong (1764), Lotus City and Panyu Gong Xue (now Agricultural College) erected monuments respectively, and mining was prohibited forever. These two monuments have disappeared so far, which marked the end of the ban dispute that year.
Another important reason why the ancient quarry in Lianhuashan stopped mining in Qing Dynasty was the replacement of building materials. With the further development of production technology, the technology of mining granite in Qing Dynasty became more and more mature. Compared with red sandstone, granite is harder and less prone to weathering, and granite has always been used in the wall foundation of Qing Dynasty. In this way, gradually, the ancient quarry of Lianhuashan completed its historical mission, leaving a cliff full of gaps for future generations to mourn.