Lóngyóu

Longyou was the county seat of Jiading, at the meeting of the Min, Qingyi and Dadu rivers. Across the water, a colossal seated Buddha was carved into the cliff at Lingyun Mountain, overlooking the confluence. Begun under the Tang, the image became a landmark for travellers on the rivers and a focus of Buddhist devotion. In 1376 the Ming absorbed Longyou County into Jiading, leaving the city as the seat of the prefecture. In 1734 the Qing raised Jiading to a superior prefecture and established a new county at its seat, named Leshan after a nearby mountain.