Song Mountain

Located in the northwest of Dengfeng County and reputed as the Central Sacred Mountain among China's five sacred mountains, Mt. Songshan Stretches more than 60 km across from east to west. It consists of two mountains-Taishi and Shaoshi,with 36 Deaks alto ether. It is about 70 Km from Zhengzhou and the trip takes about 2 hours. Its highest peak is 1440 meter.

Mt. Songshan got its fame from being the place where the Indian monk Batuo founded the Shaolin temple in 495 A.D. Few years later in 527 A.D. another Indian monk, Damo (or Bodhidharma) moved to the temple to teach the Chan sect of Buddhism, best known as Zen Buddhism (Zen is the way Japanese read the Chinese ideogram for Chan). Buddhism was been already introduced in China during the first century B.C., but the cultural differences between India and China made the strict Hinayana sect to be not well accepted. The Chan version was instead more adapt to the Chinese culture and became rapidly the most influential Buddhist sect in China.

Song Mountain has fine natural scenery. Its 72 mountains, grouped around the peaks of Mount Shaoshi and Mount Taishi, extend for about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from east to west. Besides these mountains, there are many valleys, caves, pools and waterfalls, each of which provides the visitor with a unique and wonderful experience. The landscape is so unique that it has been given the title of 'International Geological Park' by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The history of Song Mountain is as rich and interesting as its landscape. Its proximity to Luoyang, the ancient capital city of nine different dynasties, made it an essential place for emperors to offer sacrifices to their ancestors and the gods and to confer the crown to their heirs. This has left many sites of historic and cultural interest in this area. The beauty of the area's scenery also led to many scholars, eminent monks and famous Taoists chose this area as an important place to give lectures, explain Buddhist sutras and develop the teachings of different religions. Practitioners of the three faiths of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism absorbed ideas from each other, which led to their three belief systems growing closer together.

The mountain also boasts a large number of showplaces and cultural relics. The most famous Shaolin Temple is located here, where Shaolin monks exercise Qigong and other Shaolin Kong-fu (martial arts). There are some other temples in the mountain, such as the Zhongyue Temple, which is nicknamed "the Little Palace"; the Fawang Temple and the Huishan Temple, the oldest temples extant in China; two earliest and well-preserved astronomical observatories extant in China; etc.



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