Jingyugou Scenic Area is located in the south of Disai town, about 30 kilometers from Xian city. As a hot natural tourist attraction, here you can get to enjoy beautiful scenery all the year round. The Whale Ditch was actually a border river between Chang’an and Baqiao. Back to 1960s, local people built a dam near the river for the military purpose, so it has become what we see now.
In spring, colorful flowers decorate the place like a huge carpet; in summer, tall trees with deep green leaves cast a natural shadow and bring some cool air, no wonder tons of visitors come here to cool off; when it comes to the autumn, yellow and red becomes the main color of the place, like a shy yet passionate young girl; in winter, everything is covered in white, making it like a real version from the movie Frozen. Not only that, the river and waterfall is also a feast to the eyes.
How its name turned into Jingyugou is because of an interesting folk story. Once upon a time in ancient China, there was a God called Gonggong. He was in charge of the water and flood on earth. One day, he was irritated by someone. Furious, he knocked down the sky and at the very moment, water pouring down from heaven. The earth turned into a a world of waters all of a sudden. At that time, there were two whales living in the Eastern Sea. They carried 77 people on their back and helped those people escape from the flood. 81 days later, the goddess Nuwa repaired the sky and the earth was back to normal.
Those survivors settled down from the place where whales stopped. However, the two kind whales were stranded on the shore. Everyone was worried. Suddenly there was a sound coming up from the sky, “Whale, whale, no worries. I can help you go back to the sea.” When the sound disappeared, the two whales could move again. The male whale swam into the Ba river and female one swam into the Chan river, then they met at the River Wei and went back to the Eastern Sea. The place where they were stranded became a giant valley. Ever since then, the place was called Jingyugou
Not faraway from the Whale Ditch, there is a temple called Temple of Gratitude. It was built by a female cancer patient from Northern China. She came here to spend the last days of her life but she was magically cured three months later since she came here. So she decided to build a temple to thank the local people. The whole project took 4 years in total. Sadly, she wasn’t living long enough to see the completion of temple. This nice kind lady passed away in December of 2013. Maybe her soul rest in heaven.