The mountain the Taoists chose, and never left.
Twenty minutes from our gate the road ends and the steps begin. Cypress, wet stone, and two thousand years of people walking up the same path.
山 · 青城天下幽
It is not a hike. It is a climb through a temple.
Qingcheng is one of the birthplaces of Taoist practice in China. Zhang Daoling is said to have taught here in the second century, and the mountain has been laddered with temples ever since: Jianfu at the bottom, Tianshi Cave halfway, Shangqing near the top.
Most guests take the cable car up and walk down. The knees prefer it, the light is better on the descent, and you pass the pilgrims coming the other way instead of overtaking them. The stone path is steep in places and wet most of the year.
The name means green city, and after rain in autumn it is exactly that — a wall of green with cloud moving through it, the summit often inside the cloud. The tea house just below the top, with its wooden benches and a kettle that never stops, is where people sit for an hour without saying much.
Up by cable car, down on foot.
Start early. The mountain is at its best before ten, when the tour groups are still at breakfast.
The path, filmed at walking pace.
Both films follow the stone route. The first is the mountain that inspired Kung Fu Panda; the second is four kilometres without commentary.
Green, wet, and mostly empty.
Temples, ridges and the lower bamboo — photographed on ordinary mornings, without filters.
Photographs from the front mountain route, between the gate and Shangqing Palace.
What guests say afterwards.
Notes from the guest book. Rain comes up more often than anyone expects.
We took the cable car up and walked down. Four hours, two tea stops, and legs that complained for two days. Worth it.L. & D.Portland, USA · September
It rained the whole morning. The mountain was empty and the temples smelled of wet stone and incense. Best day of the trip.S.Berlin, Germany · June
Do not skip the tea house below the summit. Nobody talks. Everyone stays an hour.T. & M.Osaka, Japan · November
Tickets, sticks, and a packed lunch if you want one.
We will not pretend the steps are easy. They are not, and the mountain does not care. But we can make the logistics invisible, which is most of the battle.
Included for guests
- Tickets and cable car arranged
- Car to the front gate, twenty minutes
- Walking sticks from the hall by the door
- Packed lunch, if you would rather not eat on the mountain
宫 · 上清宫The other three doors.
Most guests take one door a day and leave the afternoon empty.
Come down, soak, sleep.
Four rooms with private hot springs at the foot of the mountain, from ¥XXX a night with breakfast — twenty minutes from the first step.