The Locust Tree of Hongdong (alternative spelling ''Hongtong''), also called the Great Pagoda Tree of Hongdong, Ancient Big Locust Tree and Hongdong Big Locust Tree, is an important historical site and tourist attraction in

Hongtong County Hongtong County () is a county in the southwest of Shanxi Province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Linfen. The county spans an area of 1,494 square kilometers, and has a population of approximately 766,579 as ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

in China.

History

From about 1373 to 1417, there was a concerted effort from the ruling Ming dynasty government to resettle the

North China Plain The North China Plain or Huang-Huai-Hai Plain () is a large-scale downfaulted rift basin formed in the late Paleogene and Neogene and then modified by the deposits of the Yellow River. It is the largest alluvial plain of China. The plain is bord ...

s, which had been negatively affected by conflict and natural disasters shortly before the Ming took power. Immigrants from Shanxi were often concentrated near the tree, which was a settlement center. While en route to their new homes in the North China Plains, many migrants gathered at the tree in Hongdong before moving on to new areas for settlement, with some remaining nearby. To this day, a popular folk song exists in Northeast China pertaining to the Locust tree. A translation is as follows: "Ask me where my ancestors came from, the big locust tree in Hongdong, Shanxi; what is the name of the ancient residence of my ancestors, The old stork nest under the big locust tree."

Tourist attraction

The tree and surrounding complex retains cultural significance, being visited by about 200,000 tourists each year and being labelled as one of the AAAAA Tourist Attractions of China. The tree is a notable site for Chinese ancestor veneration, with tourists paying homage to their ancestors. The site also hosts large events for the annual

Qingming Festival The Qingming festival or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestors' Day), is a traditional Chinese festival observed by the Han Chinese of mainland China, Hong Ko ...

References

{{reflist Individual trees in China