Songshan Mountain

Located in Dengfeng County of Henan Province, Songshan Mountain is called the Central Mountain of the Five Sacred Mountains. It has 36 peaks and stretches 60 kilometers, composed of Taishi Mountain and Shaoshi Mountain. The highest peak is 1494 meters above sea level.

The Central Mountain has rich forest resources, some of which are rare ancient trees with odd figures and literary quotations, such as the General Cypress in the Songyang Academy, the Fifth-rank Chinese Scholar tree in the Shaolin Temple, the Han (206BC-220AD) Maidenhair Tree in Fawang Temple, the Cypress Forest in the Zhongyue Temple, and the Bodhi tree in the Yongtai Temple, etc. The forest resources of Songshan Mountain are praised as rare treasure for their large quantity, antiquity, abundant literary quotation and vivid shapes.

The mountain also boasts a large number of showplaces and cultural relics. The most famous Shaolin Temple is located here, where Shaolin monks exercise Qigong, Qinggong and other Shaolin Kong-fu (martial arts).

There are some other temples in the mountain, such as the Zhongyue Temple, which is nicknamed the Little Palace; the Fawang Temple and the Huishan Temple, the oldest temples extant in China; two earliest and well-preserved astronomical observatories extant in China; etc.

Songshan Mountain abounds in stele carvings, totaling more than 2,000 pieces, left by famous calligraphers like Yan Zhenqing, Su Dongpo, Huang Tingjian and Mi You, etc.

Source: http://www.chinaculture.org