Hěnduō běifāngrén shuō, zìjǐ de zǔxiān shì cóng Hóngtóng Dàhuáishù xià qiān chūqu de.
Many people in northern China say their ancestors moved away from under the great pagoda tree at Hongtong.
Tips
usage
洞 is tóng only in this name; everywhere else, as in 山洞 'cave', it is dòng. The Peking opera 《苏三起解》 made the county known across China with its best-known line, 苏三离了洪洞县.
history
In the early Ming, people were moved from crowded Shanxi to the war-emptied plains of Hebei, Henan and Shandong. Tradition says they gathered under a great pagoda tree (大槐树) at Hongtong, and many families in the north still trace their roots there.
