At its best, a Fish Hole might produce 150 kg of fish in a single night. The whole fishing season would last for about two weeks, according to Xiang.

The Qingchuan of 1965 recalled different memories to Dong Jun, now a dealer in mountain delicacies, then a child in a village in Muyu Town of Qingchuan County.

The quiet Qingchuan County before the earthquake

"When I was a boy, my family used to have several coursers. Every two or three days, the coursers would go out themselves and hunt for wild animals," Dong said. "They always put their prey, mostly rabbits or roe deer, outside the front door. They understood that the meat belonged to their masters and they would get the animal heads."

Dong Jun's current house, in downtown Qingchuan County seat, is surrounded by fresh green bamboos and rippling waters.

"My Qingchuan has the best natural scenery in the world," Dong said with pride. “We Qingchuaners never travel else where to visit mountains or lakes."

Indeed, the Qingchuan people had reasons to be proud. The entire urban region was surrounded by jade green mountains and rivers – the bright green Shiziliang Mountain even cut through the city's center, and in the clear water of Qiaozhuang River, fish the size of a hand frolicked and shoaled.

Qingchuan also has a National Nature Reserve and an area of outstanding natural beauty. The Tangjiahe National Natural Reserve had more than 60 wild pandas and was known as the "Genetic Treasure-chest" of wild animals and plants between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Chengdu Plain. The White Dragon Lake National Scenic Spot, known as "the Finest Lake in Southwest China", has a superficie of 75 square kilometers and numerous branches and islands.

An ancient town of strategic importance

Dong Jun's business is the most elaborate in Qingchuan – dealing in mountain delicacies that date back to the time of the Three Kingdoms. Qingchuan has been a key junction of west Sichuan since then.

Any article introducing Qingchuan always starts with the line "Qingchuan is where the Kingdom of Shu Han founded and ended."