Songshan Scenic Area is located in Dengfeng City, Henan Province, adjacent to Yiluo to the north and surrounded by Yingshui to the south. It covers an area of 464 square kilometers and includes peaks such as Anpo Mountain, Ma'anshan Mountain, Danyang Mountain, Shaoshi Mountain, Taishi Mountain, and Wuzhiling. The mountains are towering, layered, and majestic.
Songshan Mountain, also known as Zhongyue Songshan, is one of the five most famous mountains (Wuyue) in China. The scenic area continuously and completely exposes the sequence products of sedimentary and tectonic thermal events from five geological historical periods: the Archean, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic. It is known as the "Five Dynasties Together" in the field of geology, and it clearly preserves the angular unconformity contact interface and structural morphology relics formed by three global pre Cambrian mountain building and land making movements, namely the "Songyang Movement", "Zhongyue Movement", and "Shaolin Movement", which occurred 2.5 billion years ago, 1.8 billion years ago, and 543 million years ago, respectively. Therefore, it is praised by geologists as the "Natural Geology Museum" and "Encyclopedia of Geology".
Songshan Scenic Area is a world-class natural and cultural resource that integrates rare geological relics, national key scenic spots, and national forest parks. It has created a comprehensive tourism environment with multiple levels, including geological science popularization, cultural relics, unique landforms, and ecological environment. It is a tourist destination for people to engage in geological tourism, archaeological research, sightseeing, and leisure vacation. It was approved as a national geopark in June 2001 and announced as one of the first world geoparks by UNESCO on February 13, 2004.
Mount Song in Zhongyue stretches for 60 kilometers from east to west, with Taishi Mountain to the east and Shaoshi Mountain to the west.
Shaoshi Mountain
There are thirty-six peaks in Shaoshi Mountain, with steep and steep terrain. The peaks are clustered and undulating, like flags and swords, and are quite spectacular. It is said that Xia Yu's second wife, the younger sister of the Tushan family, resided here and built a temple for her at the foot of the mountain, hence the name "Shaoshi" for the mountain.
Shaoshi Mountain is about 10 kilometers away from Taishi Mountain. The Liantian Peak on the mountain is the western peak of Song Mountain, with an altitude of 1512 meters, making it the highest peak of Song Mountain. There is the majestic Shaolin Temple under the Wulu Peak in the north of the mountain.
The top of Shaoshi Mountain is as wide and flat as a fortress, divided into two levels, with the danger of four gates. At the end of the Jin Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong stationed troops on the top of Shaoshi Mountain to resist the Yuan army, hence it is also known as "Yuzhai Mountain".
To the west of Yuzhai Mountain, there is a water tank called "Little Drinking Horse Pool", which can supply water for ten thousand people. It is said that Li Jiyu stationed troops here during the uprising in the late Ming Dynasty. From the south to the north of the mountain, there is a group of peaks stacked on top of each other, resembling a thousand leaf lotus. Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, there was a saying that "the young man was like a lotus", and the locals called it the "Nine Peaks Lotus Mountain". To the south of Shaoshi Mountain, its mountain posture resembles the Zhongjing Crown worn by ancient people, hence the name "Guanshan" in the Song Dynasty.
To climb Shaoshi Mountain, one must follow a stone crevice over one meter wide on the cliff, climb iron rings, and pull steel wires up and down. The cliffs form an ancient path, and people walk in the air, its steepness leaving visitors amazed. Climbing to the top of the mountain and looking around, the grass mountains are lush green, the forest is rippling, and the clouds and mist are ethereal like a fairyland.
Mount Song not only has magnificent natural scenery such as Sanhuang Village and Junji Peak, but is also a World Geopark with quite rich geological resources.
Sanhuang Village
Sanhuang Village is a natural mountain fortress hanging on the waist of Shaoshi Mountain, the whole scenic area is steep and slippery, the top of the mountain is flat and wide, famous for peaks, roads and dangers, strange stones and scenic beauty of the Central Plains, which is one of the rare natural landscapes in the northern part of China.
Scenic area of lush forests, a variety of species; geological types complete, rock age old, peculiar configuration, complete development, in a limited range can see the ancient, ancient, paleo, Mesozoic, newborn five geological era of a variety of geomorphology, known as the geology of the “Natural Geological Museum”.
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Sanhuang Village is named in honor of the three emperors who opened up the heaven and earth in the area of Songshan Mountain. Treading through the temples and palaces of Songshan Mountain, only the deities worshipped here are outside the three religions, with human ancestor as the ancestor, devoutly worshipped.
At present, the whole Songshan Scenic Area is divided into three major scenic spots, namely Shaolin, Songyang and Zhongyue, with Shaolin Temple, Songyang Academy and Zhongyue Temple being the core attractions of these three scenic spots respectively.
Travel Tips
Address. No.146 Zhongyue Street, Dengfeng, Zhengzhou, China
Phone: 0371-62745000 0371-62745000
Opening hours: All year round 08:00-17:00
Entrance Fees: CNY120