Two millennia ago, Chu launched war against Han, the conqueror Xiang Yu of West Chu was defeated by Han Gaozu Liu Bang. As story goes, the unexcelled conqueror of Chu finally brought concubine Yu to escape towards the east of Yangtze River. They used to pass through Jiangpu and left many moving stories for the later generations of the region. Once Xiang Yu and his troop arrived at the “Dianjiang Platform” located in the east of present Pukou town. The day dawned, then he planned to ferry across the river to get back to the east of Yangtze River, but when he reached Pukou, he saw the troop of Liu Bang had already been deployed in the front. That’s because Liu Bang had already commanded general admiral Han Xin to lead troops to blockade the Yangtze River and Pukou. Without any choices, Xiang Yu had to backtrack, and headed to the west. When the day became bright, they escaped to some place adjacent to current “Gaowang”, the only ferry crossing was “Xijiangkou” which was ten miles away in the south near the river. On worry about ambush, Xiang Yu headed to the west from “Gaowang”. When they were fighting against Hanxin, concubine Yu’s jasper orchid hairpin was lost in a big pond, since then there were many orchids growing nearby, therefore people named this place as “Orchid Pond”. Afterwards people have named many places after the events happened during the journey of conqueror’s escape in memory of him. Such as “Shiji Bridge”, “Hunluobu”, “Lemaxiang”, “Gunma Beach”, etc. since the conqueror passed away, people established a temple nearby called “the Temple of Conqueror”.

Source: Pukou District Bureau of Cultural Affairs