During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the ground was clear, and the palace sent laborers to plant Polygonum cuspidatum, Cymbidium hybridum and Isatis indigotica on a large scale. After the grass comes out, spread the leaves on the board and dip them in water to make the fermentation hot until it is dry. Stir them up and down and add water to ferment. If repeated, it will become dark blue and black, which is called indigo. This place is called Indigo Garden Factory, Indigo Beating Factory and Indigo Factory because it processes blue grass as pigment. At that time, "there were three indigo households in the indigo factory, each with four taels of silver" (see Miscellanies of Ten Thousand Departments). In the thirty-sixth year of Wanli (1608), Hongci Palace was built here to protect the country, and later it was changed to Ren Guang Palace (namely Xiding Niangniang Temple). "Bi Xia Yuan Jun Temple, west of indigo plant, is very low. Every year, men and women bring earth bags to worship, which is called Jinshi "(see Yan Dou's miscellaneous notes). In the Qing Dynasty, blue grass was no longer planted here, but the ancient temples here were solemn, with many military camps and adjacent pavements, which lasted for a long time, as described by Zhen Jun in "Indigo Factory, Fireware Camp here, the streets are rich, no less than a big county".

The pickles in Deyuancheng and Deyuanxing, the cakes in Yueshengzhai, the Manhanbobo store in Yonglizhai, Renchang Wool Shop, Carpenter's Workshop and Ximen Pawnshop in Deyuanju, and other old indigo plants, were still very prosperous until the 1950s.