China – Mount Sanqing | A Leaf on the Wind

– OCTOBER 04, 2015

Mount Sanqing is a renowned Taoist sacred mountain located 40 km north of Yushan County in Jiangxi Province, China with outstanding scenery. Sanqing means the “Three Pure Ones” in Chinese as Mount Sanqing is made up of three main summits: Yujing, Yushui, and Yuhua, representing the Taoist trinity.

A Chinese phrase “Three steep peaks” , like the “Three Pure Ones” sit the summits and explains why it was named San Qing. Amongst the three hills, the Yujing hill (1817 meters above sea level) is the highest.

Mount Sanqing has been classified as a national park of China. It is a famous honeypot as well as a shelter for animals and plants. It contains more than 2300 species of plants and 400 species of vertebrates. The total area of Mount Sanqing is 229 square km. It became a National Geopark in 2005 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008.

This site was our first real experience with the Chinese smog.

Mount Sanqing – The ride up the mountain.

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing – Walkways were poured around the trees.

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing – Thick smog and fog.

Mount Sanqing – The glass platforms were hard to see through the smog/fog.

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing – Some people couldn’t do the walk, so they paid others to carry them.

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing – This cantilevered glass platform would have been amazing if not for the smog/fog.

Mount Sanqing – Qian Kun Terrace – Qian refers to the Heaven and Kun, the Earth. On this terrace where there is blue sky and white clouds above and high cliffs below, which makes you feel in the nature. The terrace is made of double layered glass and can stand 400kg per square meter.

Mount Sanqing – This looks like a scene from a Stephen King movie.

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing – The Rope Bring.

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing – Hall of Yingyuan Heavenly God

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing – Wang Hu’s Tomb

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing – The Gudan Well is located at the “Tu” direction (middle in Daoist Eight Diagram) of Sanqing Blessed Field, Gudan Well is the number 1 well among the wells of Sanqing Mountain, for its pure and sweet water all year round. It is 3 meters deep and 1 meter in diameter. Taking Guden well as center and the axis of Sanqing Temple as longitudinal axis of coordinates, to illustrate the important meaning of Daoist Eight Diagram and guide the overall Daoism’s entity.

Sanqing Temple is located in the valley of the central area of Sanqing Paradise facing the south. It is 1532.8m above the sea level with a façade width of 10.4m and a depth of 19.8m, and covers an area of 500 square meters. The wood-stone structure temple is one of the main temple buildings in Mount Sanqing and also the center of the arrangement of Yin and Yang in Mount Sanqing.

Sanqing Temple was built in 1170 AD and named because of its worship of three Gods in the Daoism. There are houses around the temple, a well in front of the temple, a stone statue of dragon with pearl in the mouth in the well, and stone burner, pavilion, passageway, bridge, and memorial arch.

Mount Sanqing – Sanqing Temple

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

Mount Sanqing

The views were obstructed by the smog/fog, so while we could see some amazing views above the cloud line, we couldn’t see the sights down to the ground level. The walking was quite nice though and this was certainly the smallest mountain in China we will tackle.

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For more photos of our adventure go to our flickr account here.

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