Mount Longhu

Longhushan is where Zhang Daoling is said to have refined the elixir in the second century, founding the Way of the Celestial Masters and with it organised religious Taoism, and his descendants held the title of Celestial Master here for sixty-three generations until the twentieth century. The Shangqing palace and the Celestial Master's mansion stand in the valley. The landscape is Danxia: red sandstone cliffs above the Luxi river, descended on bamboo rafts. In caves high in those cliffs are hanging coffins of the Guyue people, placed some two thousand six hundred years ago at heights of up to fifty metres, and a demonstration of how they might have been raised is staged daily.

What to look for

• The cliff coffins - burials placed high in the rock face 2,600 years ago.
• The raising demonstration - a staged reconstruction of how coffins were lifted.
• The Danxia cliffs - red sandstone above the Luxi river, seen from rafts.
• The Taoist sites - the Shangqing palace and Celestial Master's mansion.

When to go

April to June and September to November; rafting depends on water levels and stops in flood. Summer is hot and crowded. The coffin-raising demonstration runs to a daily schedule.

Things to know

The site is large with compulsory shuttle buses and separate raft charges. The coffin demonstration is a tourist performance, though based on archaeological reasoning. Crowds at holidays are heavy.

Nearby

Yingtan lies north; Mount Sanqing is northeast.

Key facts