Fanjingshan, Guizhou’s Sacred Mountain, Joins the World Heritage List
UNESCO inscribed Fanjingshan as a natural World Heritage site on 2 July 2018. The 2,570-metre mountain shelters a monkey found nowhere else and two temples on a split rock pillar.
Fanjingshan was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 2 July 2018, as a natural site. The mountain rises to 2,570 metres near the city of Tongren in the north-east of Guizhou, one of the least visited provinces of south-west China. The inscribed area covers about 40,000 hectares.
An island of old forest
Fanjingshan is the highest peak of the Wuling range and stands apart from the limestone country around it. Its rock is far older, and its isolation has made it a refuge. The forest has changed little since the Tertiary period, and it holds plants and animals that survive nowhere else. The Fanjingshan fir grows only near the summit. The Guizhou snub-nosed monkey, grey-coated and blue-faced, lives only on these slopes, in a population of well under a thousand animals. The Chinese giant salamander and the forest musk deer are also found here. UNESCO cited this concentration of endemic and relict species as the basis for the inscription.
A Buddhist mountain
The name comes from a phrase meaning the pure land of Brahma, and the mountain has been a place of pilgrimage since at least the Ming dynasty. It is regarded as the seat of the Maitreya Buddha, the Buddha of the future, which places it beside the four great Buddhist mountains of China in the eyes of its devotees.
Its most famous feature is the Red Clouds Golden Summit, a rock pillar about 100 metres high that splits into two near the top. A small temple stands on each half, one dedicated to the present Buddha and one to Maitreya, and a short stone bridge joins them across the gap. The climb up the pillar is by steep steps and chains cut into the rock. Nearby stands the Mushroom Stone, a balanced stack of weathered rock that has become the mountain’s emblem.
Visiting
Since the inscription Fanjingshan has become a popular destination, and daily visitor numbers are limited; tickets must be reserved ahead. A cable car carries most visitors from the east gate to the upper slopes in about 20 minutes. The alternative is a stairway of some 8,000 steps. From the upper station, boardwalks lead to the Mushroom Stone and the foot of the Golden Summit in under an hour. Cloud is frequent and can close in without warning; the clearest months are generally September to November.
Tongren has an airport and a high-speed rail link, and the mountain is about an hour by road from the city. Many travellers combine it with the old river town of Zhenyuan or with Fenghuang, across the provincial border in Hunan.