When you pos it ion yourself on the top of Mt Nanshan facing the boundoess blue of the South China Sea ,you may be e x pecting a wonder occurred to you ,such as a whale suddenly jumping out of the sea or a giant turtle swimming toward you ..But if youapproach Mt Nanshan from the sea ,you will find the mountain looking just like a whale popping up out of the sea or a giant turtle appearing out of water as you have expected.

According to the Records of Yazhou ,one could see as many as nine turtles by standing in Turtle-view Pavilion .Of course it requires "good sight"and "luck"to see the view .If you can discern four ,five or six turtles on the sea ,it is said you have sharp eyes and if spotting seven ,einht or nine turtles ,you will have boundless luck .The ancient Turtle -view Pavilion has no longer existed but at the same place a brand new one has been erected with a large stone bearing the character of "Vital Breath"in front of it .Between two great rocks ,there is a bridge named Tranquilizing Bridge.They seem to tell us that we must tranquilize our mind and erfine vital breath before we acquire the luck to see nine turtles.

According to the ancient story,the immortal turtle has a head of dragon ,a body of turtle and a tail of a unicorn ,According to a story,it is the ninth offspring of the dragon king ,therefore it takes after a dragon .No matter what people say about its look ,we can never know by sure since no one has ever seen it with his naked eyes .It is the good wish the turtle carries that counts.

According to a Chinese legend ,the immortal turtle enjoys unlimited years of life span ,representing the power of lifr .In the Book of Huainanzi ,the writer told us a story :far back in the early days of the world ,the sky collapsed ,the land dipped downward and roaring flood became rampant.The Goddess Nu Wa melt down fivecolored stone to repair the sky and cut down four feet of the turtle to support the four poles .what strength the turtle must possess with only four feet that could support the sky .This is why the image of the turtle was carved on the four corners of the wall and front steps of every emperor's palace .Those emperors were expecting that the immortal turtle could bless and protect their reign for lasting forever .

During the period in Chinese history when officials were elected through theimperial examination ,emperors would allow the firstplaced winner to step on the head of the turtle to share the bless fo the immortal in order to show that they thought very much of those talents .Later on ,a four -word idiom""was thus produced ,meaning to rank first .

In Dongtian Park there isa huge rock with 8 glistening characters carved on it ,meaning kui Star ranks first among the seven of the Great Dipper .It is said that Kui starrules people's literary talent .