North Wudang Mountain, Fangshan北武当山（山西方山）
- Type
- Daoist Sacred Mountains
- Location
- China · Shanxi · Fangshan, Lüliang · Beiwudang Township, Fangshan County; the main peak, Xianglu Peak, rises to 2,254 meters
- Coordinates
- 37.97, 111.33 Map ↗
- School
- Quanzhen (Complete Perfection) Daoism
- First built
- Tang (Zhenwu Shrine) · Extensively built up with Zhenwu temples in the Ming, standing as a northern counterpart to Mount Wudang in Hubei — 'the foremost mountain of the Three Jin'
- Heritage status
- National Scenic Area (1994)
Overview
North Wudang Mountain was anciently called Longwang Mountain (Dragon King Mountain); a Zhenwu shrine already existed there in the Tang dynasty, and in the Ming dynasty a large-scale Zhenwu Temple complex was built in imitation of Mount Wudang in Hubei, forming a stone stairway of over 1,400 steps and a complex including the Zhenwu Main Hall and Xuantian Palace at the summit — hence the name North Wudang, and it became the center of Daoism in northwestern Shanxi. The mountain has a granite landscape of striking peaks and precipitous cliffs; the Zhenwu Hall at the summit was rebuilt in the Qing, and beside the hall survive Ming and Qing steles and rock formations resembling figures, such as the 'Ten-thousand-Year Stone' and the 'Tortoise-and-Snake Stone.' Today it is a National Scenic Area, and Daoist priests still reside on the mountain.
Highlights
- The Zhenwu Main Hall
- The stairway of 1,400 stone steps
- The granite peak forest