According to the historic records about the ancient Qi Kingdom, there was a deep pool in the Niu Shan hill, near the south bank of Zi He River, just in the east of Linzi. The record said that when the steam coming from the deep pool rose up, it lifted as tall as the heaven. How high!

This is why the ancestors named it “ Tian Qi Yuan”.

I believed this pool was situated in the hill definitely. So one day morning in a summer I rode on a bike to make an investigation. I wanted to see what on earth it would be like.

In the morning I set off for my destination --- Niu Shan Hill. Riding across the bridge on the river, which was dry for decades due to the environmental changes, and through several villages, finally I arrived at the foot of the hill , after having asked some villagers the direction for several times. The one way trip took me about one hour.

About the hill, there was a record too. Qi Jinggong, the king of late Qi Kingdom, went sightseeing on Niu Shan Hill. When seeing the beautiful country would be everlasting in the world, he couldn't help thinking that he couldn’t be a king to rule it forever, so he began to cry.

I started to climb the hill. This hill was not very tall, but there were no paved paths available. Grass and trees every where. So I chose a safer one which was made by people’s treading to climb up the hill. While climbing with sweating, I checked carefully not to miss the pool. No hollow area at all. I started to feel disappointed. The sun was high up in the sky, dazzling. To gain breath, I stayed for a while in the shade of trees, and then climbed again. Suddenly a low–lying land appeared before me. And I ran towards it, which was covered with tall green grass. Great! In the middle of it was a deep pit which was about 60 meters deep, and about 50 meters in diameter. And also grass was covering the bottom. Was it the legendary pool? I couldn’t tell. But there was none except this one. I picked up a fist-sized stone and dropped it into the pit. Suddenly some birds were flying out and away. No way to step down to the bottom. I took a walk around the pit, and found that some big trees were growing on the wall here and there, like hands to reach out.

I continued to climb up. Just on the top there were no trees within a small area, like a bald head. Looking far into the distance, I could see the vast fields and the outline of Linzi city, and the densely-built plants of Qilu Company. The Zihe River was lying on the foot of the hill, quiet, leaving a long wandering river course with no running water.

A gentle wind scented with unknown flowers was blowing over. I felt cool and relaxed and peaceful in my mind.

The beautiful country! I smiled!

This trip was worthwhile.