"Aer Mountain" means "hot magic spring." It is known all over
the world with its 48-mouthed mineral spring group. It not only
enjoys great fames among the 500 geothermic mineral spring groups
already developed in our country, but also famous in the world. It
is the second largest mineral spring group following
Yugoslavia.
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According to the historical materials, Aer Mountain Mineral
Spring Group was founded during the reign of Xianfeng in the Qing
Dynasty. There was also a beautiful legend: the arrow of an old
hunter named Bateer injured a spotted deer. It ran to a spring and
treated its injuries with spring water. When the hunter arrived,
the spotted deer ran as if it had never been injured and could not
be found. The old hunter felt very astonished and tried to swab his
leg with the spring water. Surprisingly, the rheumatism that had
troubled him for many years was cured. The stories spread all over
the Greater Hinggan Mountain. People came to the spring by horse or
carriage to bathe and cure their diseases.
There is another beautiful story concerning Tianshan Pool. In
ancient times, there was an agile and brave Mongolian hunter named
Angezheng, who often shared his quarries with other people.
Therefore, residents in the mountain loved him. Once, he killed a
ferocious wolf bravely and saved a beautiful white fairy. In return
for this, the fairy gave Angezheng an arrow. He then became an even
more famous archer. A noble heard about Angezheng's special skills
and forced him to hand in various quarries. Otherwise, the noble
would cut off Angezheng's head. Angezheng handed in the quarries in
line with the noble's requirements. The cruel noble asked Angezheng
to hand in his magic arrow, which Angezheng firmly to do. The noble
then bound Angezheng when he was asleep. He took away his magic
arrow and pushed him down from Tianchi Mountain to kill him. After
getting the magic arrow, the noble was very happy and went to
Tianchi Mountain to hunt with his servants. Suddenly, a snowy
rabbit came out from the deep forest. The noble fired at the
rabbit. However, the rabbit didn't die and jumped into the forest
with the magic arrow. The noble felt very confused and pursued the
rabbit with his servant. They ran to the peak of the Tianchi
Mountain and, unable to stop, jumped into the valley. Suddenly, a
loud noise was heard and the earth cracked. Little by little, a
large pool came into being. The rabbit came out from the thick
forest and changed into a white fairy. She made Angezheng come back
to life and the magic arrow was returned to him.
There is a Fairy Cave 124 kilometers southeast of A'er Mountain.
Moving ahead along the foot of the Fairy Cave, two stones can be
seen on both sides of the mountain. One is called Qilin Peak and
the other is called Hunter Peak. It is said that long time ago, a
Mongolian hunter named Angezheng saved a white fairy from the mouth
of a ferocious wolf at Tianchi. The fairy was moved by the youth's
bravery and feelings, and wanted to marry with him and lived
forever. However, the imperious Mother of the Western Heavens got
to know about the news and became very angry. She went to the human
world to punish them. Angezheng and the white fairy escaped to the
place. However, the Mother of the Western Heavens had powerful
magic skills. She drew a line randomly and formed the deep Tianhe
Valley, separating the lovers. The white fairy found that she was
unable to stay with Angezheng and crashed against large stone and
died. She turned into Qilin Peak and saw her lover at the other
side of the Tianhe Valley all the time. Angezheng was too
heart-broken to even cry. He overlooked his lover at the other side
of the valley all year long and changed into Hunter Peak.