On the western shore of Erhai Lake, in Longfeng Village, stands the Ershui Deity Temple. Established during the Nanzhao period of the Tang dynasty, this sanctuary binds the local Bai people to the volatile waters of the lake. Inside the main hall, a single-eave gable-and-hip wooden structure measuring 13.7 meters wide and 10.8 meters deep, sits the statue of Duan Chicheng. He is the legendary hero who donned armor, grasped double swords, and allowed a giant python to swallow him so he could slice it open from the inside, saving his people from disaster.

Directly in front of the hall's porch, a stone-carved incense table covers the Bojing, or Bowl Well. Local lore claims builders miraculously pulled the temple's heavy structural timber straight from the cold, wet depths of this small opening, leaving a final log resting forever at the bottom. Nearby, the scent of incense smoke drifts over stone steles that record centuries of human passage.

These stones bear the physical marks of history. In 1771, the local official Tan Xia carved a poem on a stele, reflecting on five turbulent years of his political career. In 1817, the scholar Song Xiang engraved his long poem, "Erhai Xing," celebrating a bountiful harvest that saved the region from famine. In 1848, Wang Fayue and Xiong Zhongshan recorded their autumn gathering at the water's edge.

The famous Haoran Pavilion, built in 1528 by Jiang Long and visited by the scholars Yang Shengan and Li Yuanyang, has vanished. Today, the temple remains a living center of community life. Every year, during the Sea-playing Festival on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, the quiet shores erupt with the sounds of dragon boat racing and folk songs. On the twenty-third day of the seventh lunar month, villagers gather for the Duan Dragon King's Birthday, launching flower boats onto the lake to reenact the search for Duan Chicheng's body. The rain-washed steles, the creaking timber of the late Qing reconstruction, and the cool water of the ancient well connect modern visitors directly to the hands that shaped this shoreline over a thousand years ago.