Laihe Pavilion in Shiping, Yunnan

Laihe Pavilion, also known as Haishan Pavilion, is located on the end of the island in Xiaoruicheng Village, Yilong Town, Shiping County, three kilometers away from the county town. The end of the island was originally one of the three small islands in Yilong Lake, along with Mapa Long Island and Daruicheng Heilong Island. However, due to the retreat of the sea, it has become a mountain range on the land by the lake. The entire architectural complex of Laihe Pavilion (Haishan Pavilion) (Laihe Pavilion, Wenchang Pavilion, Kuixing Pavilion) was built in the sixth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1633), with a majestic momentum, surrounded by lake water, looking like a mirage from a distance, and a beautiful jade building up close, known as the scenic spot of Shiping. Among them, Laihe Pavilion and Kuixing Pavilion collapsed, and Laihe Pavilion was rebuilt on the original site in the twelfth year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (1673), and Kuixing Pavilion was rebuilt in the fifty-first year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (1713), and there are many Buddha and Taoist statues in the pavilion. It is said that during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Guangding, the prefect of Shiping, admired the beautiful scenery of Yilong Lake and happily climbed up to Haishan Pavilion to enjoy the scenery. As he walked and admired, he couldn't help but exclaim. When he walked out of Haishan Pavilion, he suddenly saw a middle-aged man who looked like a scholar sitting alone drinking by the stone table on the terrace in front of the pavilion. The scholar was dressed in blue cloth and had a jade flute in his waist. Seeing Wang Guangding coming, he invited him to drink. Wang Guangding saw that the scholar was open-minded and extraordinary, so he went over to drink and compose poetry with him. Because the two of them shared the same interests, they didn't know how much time had passed while they were drinking and composing poetry. When Wang Guangding looked up, the sun was in the sky, as if it hadn't moved, and he was surprised. He wanted to ask the scholar who he was. But he saw the scholar take off his jade flute and blew it lightly, and the sun fell like a meteor, and the sky gradually darkened, and a white crane descended from the sky. The scholar rode on the crane and flew away. Wang Guangding suddenly realized that he had met Lu Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals. Afterwards, he invited a sculptor to sculpt a colorful statue of Lu Xian riding a crane and blowing a flute in the pavilion, and renamed Haishan Temple to Laihe Pavilion.