Mount Wuyi

IT is said that in remote antiquity, a man of virtue named Peng Zu took his clan to settle at a beautiful place in the southeast, but at the time, the place was flooded. Peng Wu and Peng Yi, the two sons of Peng Zu, rallied the people, and they cut through the mountain and dug a river to discharge the floodwater.

The river is now known as the Jiuqu (Nine-Bend) River. To remember the great service of the two brothers, people of later generations named the mountain Wuyi. They also gave the father, Peng Zu, the title of Gentleman Wu Yi and built Wuyi Palace by the Jiuqu River.

Wuyi Mountain is in northern Fujian Province. It is a leading state scenic area and part of the Wuyi Mountain Range, one of the oldest ranges in the coastal regions of southeast China.

The area was inhabited at least as far back as the Neolithic Age, around 10,000 B.C., as shown by the still-existing suspended coffins, a burial custom of the Yue people, the ancestors of today's local residents. Some of the coffins are boat-shaped and suspended in narrow spaces between cliffs; others are in caves or on planks high up the cliffs along the Jiuqu River.

Wuyi Mountain is known for its enchanting scenery. Feudal emperors conferred titles on it and praised its beauty with inscriptions on the rock faces. Emperor Wudi (156-87 B. C.) of the Western Han Dynasty sent an envoy to offer sacrifices to Wuyi Mountain, and Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) of the Tang Dynasty conferred titles on Wuyi along with other famous mountains. During the Five Dynasties (907-960), Taoist believers considered the mountain one of the 36 places of happiness.

In the sixth century, men of letters opened schools on the mountain and turned it into a center of Confucianism. Zhu Xi (1130-1200), an idealist philosopher of the Southern Song Dynasty, came to give lectures, and he established the Min school of philosophy, named after a popular name for Fujian Province. Min philosophy was soon acknowledged as one of China's four major schools of philosophy.

Wuyi Mountain is famous for a kind of landform known in Chinese as danxia : Within the 60-square-kilometer scenic area, layers of red sandstone form odd-shaped peaks girdled by the Jiuqu River, which turns nine times as it winds its way downhill, hence its name, Nine Bends.

Among the mountain peaks, 36 are famous. Dawang (Great King) Peak, overlooking the mouth of the Jiuqu River, tops the list. Yunu (Jade Maiden) stands gracefully erect and is the symbol of Wuyi Mountain. Jiesun Peak, shaped like a bamboo shoot, rises abruptly by the riverside. Other peaks, including Xianyan, Zhangyan, Xiangshengyan, Yinpingyan, Wanduifeng, and Xiandiaotai, are found along the riverbanks. The beauty of the variously shaped mountain peaks and their reflections in the water make visitors feel as if they were in a fairyland.

The Jiuqu River Scenic Zone has some of the most unusual scenes in the Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area. ""A clear and shallow water runs through the mountain, and on its way downhill it makes nine bends.'' This line is from a poem about the beauty of the area by Li Gang (1083-1140), an official of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Rafting down the Jiuqu River is a favorite with visitors. The nine bends are in a section of nine kilometers, and the visitor can board a raft and drift all the way down from the uppermost bend to the lowest, all the while enjoying the scenery on both banks and listening to the raftsman tell stories.

The scenery along the Jiuqu River makes the visitor reluctant to leave. Tianyou Peak rises over other peaks north of the Liuqu (Sixth Bend) Stream, a tributary of the Jiuqu River, and is the most beautiful place in the scenic zone. Standing on top of Tianyou Peak, one has the feeling of standing in the Heavenly Palace with all the scenic spots below. The Tianyou Temple, on the summit, houses statues of Peng Zu and his two sons. It is said that no one can boast of having been to Wuyi Mountain without visiting Tianyou Peak.

Taoyuan Tunnel is also north of the Liuqu Stream, in a secluded valley with mountain peaks on all sides. Walking uphill in the valley, one comes to a spot where piled-up cobblestones block the stream. It seems as if the road had come to an end. A further look reveals a tunnel under a huge rock. Passing through the tunnel, then over a stone bridge, and through a stone passage, one arrives at a valley with mountain peaks rising on both sides, where farmland unfolds in the distance, interspersed with peach trees and cottages.

At the foot of Yinping Peak, by the Wuqu (Fifth Bend) Stream, is the Wuyi Study, also called the Ziyang Academy of Classical Learning, established in 1183 by Zhu Xi, who taught and wrote books there for ten years. Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) of the Qing Dynasty gave the study a horizontal board with inscriptions in honor of Zhu Xi's accomplishments.

Wuyi Palace was built during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (742-756) of the Tang Dynasty at the foot of Dawang Peak near the Yiqu (First Bend) Stream. In ancient times, it was a center of Taoist activities and the place where feudal rulers offered sacrifices to Gentleman Wuyi. Noted scholars of the Song Dynasty, including Lu You (1125-1210), Xin Qiji (1140-1207) and Zhu Xi, were once in charge of Taoist affairs there.

The palace no longer stands, and the Memorial Hall of Zhu Xi and the Wuyi Mountain International Lanting Academy have been built on the site. Other touristic and cultural facilities such as a museum and a street in the style of the Song Dynasty have been added nearby.

Forty kilometers west of the Wuyi Mountain Scenic Area is the Wuyi Mountain Nature Reserve. The reserve covers 560 square kilometers and has the largest and most complete ecosystem of sub-tropical forests in Southeast China. It is a class-A nature reserve and has been designated by the United Nations as one of the nature reserves for the Man and Biosphere Program. Here, Huanggang Mountain, the highest mountain in southeast China, rises 2,158 meters above sea level. The nature reserve abounds in animal and plant resources and has been cited by Chinese and foreign biologists as a worldwide window on biology.