Mount Jiuhua

Jiuhua is a cluster of wooded peaks in southern Anhui, lower and gentler than Huangshan an hour or two to the south, and its character comes from the monasteries scattered across it rather than from bare rock. A village of temples sits in a hollow near the middle of the range, and stone paths climb from it to halls on the ridges, some of them reachable by cable car. Monks and pilgrims are a constant presence, and incense smoke drifts through the village at dawn. Walking between the main temple groups takes a full day, and a second day gets you to the higher, emptier peaks at the back of the range.

History

The mountain was called Lingyang under the Han and Jiuzi, nine peaks, under the Southern Dynasties, and legend credits its present name, nine glories, to a poem by Li Bai. In 719 Kim Gyo-gak, a prince of Silla ordained as a monk, came here and practised for 75 years; when he died at 99 his body stayed intact, and believed to be an incarnation of Dizang Bodhisattva, he made Jiuhua the mountain of Dizang, one of China's four great Buddhist mountains. Under the Ming and Qing it had as many as 360 temples and 4,000 to 5,000 monks and nuns, and in 2019 it became a UNESCO Global Geopark (Wikipedia, Mount Jiuhua).

What you'll find

• Jiuhua village - the hollow full of temple halls and guesthouses that serves as the base.
• Roushen hall - the hilltop temple above the village, up a long flight of stone steps.
• Tiantai peak - the highest accessible summit, by cable car and then a stone path along the ridge.
• The pilgrim paths - stepped routes linking the temples, still in daily use rather than preserved.

When to go

Spring and autumn are the most comfortable. Summer is humid and thick with cloud, and winter ice closes some of the upper paths. Mornings bring mist through the village, which is the mountain at its best. Buddhist festival days fill the temples with pilgrims, which is atmospheric but books out every room and slows the paths to a crawl.

What to expect

There is a great deal of stair climbing, and the cable cars only cover parts of the route. The village around the temples is commercial, with stalls and hotels crowding the halls. Cloud can sit on the range for days at a time in summer. Facilities on the upper paths are basic and food choice near the summits is thin.

Nearby

The old villages of Hongcun and Xidi, and Huangshan to the south.

Key facts