As one of the southwest areas incorporated into the official territory of the empire, northeastern Yunnan’s landscape changed enormously during the Qing dynasty. After the indigenous chiefs had been overthrown, local officials and elites, who believed that they represented the Qing state, immediately made plans to build their own cities and reshape the local landscape. The new landscapes overlapped with the territories where indigenous communities lived, especially their religious and political space in the mountains, yet they did not wipe out all traces of the indigenous past. Notwithstanding the efforts of local officials and elites to recreate the local landscape, previous indigenous landscapes actually interacted with this new landscape. Zhenwu shrines and Dragon Pool cults on the Black Dragon Mountain outside of Dongchuan’s walled city are analyzed in this article as a case study. As the protector of the city, the Zhenwu shrine occupied the space of the Dragon Pool worshipped by the indigenous groups. It soon dominated the image of Black Dragon Mountain, as constructed in myths and ritual activities and given material form in the statues and  buildings. Meanwhile, Dragon Pool could also easily be transformed into an orthodox deity, not just by the Qing government but also by different indigenous and local groups, because of its multiple meanings. Taking into account a state perspective as well as an indigenous perspective, this article explores the process of mutual interaction between various discourses on the one hand, and practices of constructing space and the landscape on the other.