Mengjiangnu Temple

When people appreciate the grandeur of the Great Wall, many think about those who built it and how they did it. Numerous people were killed or lost loved ones during this seemingly everlasting project. The Mengjiangnu Temple story of Mengjiangnu, a woman famed for her loyalty to her husband, is particularly remembered.

Mengjiangnu was married in Nanjing of East China's Jiangsu Province, but soon after the wedding her husband was sent to the north to help build the wall. As winter drew near, the woman left her hometown with a bundle of clothes, in order to find her husband. She eventually reached the coast, but was told that a great number of people were building the wall in the far distance. She stood by the seaside, waiting for her husband's return. According to the legend, Mengjiangnu waited so long she turned into a stone. Visitors can still see the woman-shaped stone there by the sea. A temple was built there in her memory.