Sanqing Mountain---a New World Heritage in 2008

In 2008, Sanqing Mountain was listed to be the world heritage together with Fujian Tulou buildings. It is a world-famous cultural and natural mountain in China. Sanqing Mountain is the cultivation center of Taoists of different generations. Sicne Ge Yun and Ge Hong of Jin Dynasty came here, Sanqing Mountain gradually turned to be the center of Taoism believers or masters. The first man who fabricated the temple or monastery on the mountain was Wang Jian who was the leading official of Xinzhou in Tang Dynasty. At that time, Wang Jian was ordered by Emperor to manage the local people; after his retreat, he built the reclusive residence in the mountain until his death. In Song dynasty, Wang Ling, the descendant of Wang Jian donated a lot to build more temples, and then Sanqing Mountain became the center and the blessed land of Taoism. During Ming Dynasty, Wang Gu, the offspring of Wang Lin reestablished the Sanqing Palace. In total, there are more than 300 buildings have been built such as the pavilions, temples, stone carvings, gates ,bridges and so on. The whole mountain is full of the Taoist buildings. It could be equated with other famous Taoist mountains such as Qingcheng Mountain, Wudang Mountain and Longhu Mountain and so on. Hence, Sanqing Mountain is honored to be the Open-air Taoist Museum. Sanqing Mountain has rich tourist resources. Generally it could be divided into five scenic zones and in 1988, it was approved the be the national-class scenic zone in the second batch of tourist attractions application list.

The natural landscape of Sanqing Mountain is also very attractive. Its peaks are very steep and grand. It is totally different from other mountains in southern China. The plant species are also rich here. The weather conditions are also changing all the time. In Sanqing Mountain, the strange peaks are too many, the original waterfalls and the deep valleys and the floating clouds and so on give the comers the natural and cozy feeling. In the mountain there are 2373 kinds of plants, among them 68 are the rare ones and there are also 1728 wild animals. Mr. Paul, the president of Amercian National Park Fund highly spoke of this mountain that commented it as one of the perfect mountains in the world and the treasure of human beings.