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Mountain Lishan, Mt Lishan

Lishan Mountain, one of the branches of Qinling Mountains, is located at the south of Lintong Town, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. The elevation of the highest peak Jiulongding is 1,301.9 meters above sea level. The pines and cypresses on the mountain are exuberantly green all year round; the mountain looks like a pure black horse seen from afar, so it is called Lishan (pure-black horse mountain) Mountain. Lishan Mountain is famous for its scenic beauty that is like beautiful brocade, so it is also called Xiuling (beautiful mountain).

At sunset, the afterglow tints the mount far and near with an enchanting golden luster, and the scene is very beautiful and gorgeous, so it is reputed as the Sunset of Lishan Mountain. There is a sidestep path with a length of more than 3,200 meters leading to the mountaintop. Along the path, you can first come to the Banhu Stone and the Forced Remonstration Pavilion (constructed to commemorate the Xi'an Incident). The road then leads westwards to the Sunset Pavilion. It further leads to the Laojun Palace on the third peak of western Xiuling.

The Laojun Palace is the famous Taoist temple in Lishan Mountain. You can reach the eastern Beacon Tower on the first peak of western Xiuling after going through the Laojun Temple. The historical literary quotation that the seigneurs are fooled by the King You with war flame, and a single smile makes the king lose his country just happened here. Tradition has it that the King You of the Western Zhou Dynasty (11thcentury BC - 771 BC) once set fire on the beacon tower to fool the seigneurs in order to put a single smile on the face of his concubine Baosi. When the Quan Rong (leader of a certain minority tribe) attacked the Lishan Mountain, King You urgently ordered the beacon tower set on fire, but all the seigneurs did not come.

Consequently, King You was killed, and Baosi was taken away. The western Zhou Dynasty thus vanished.The western rock of the Shiweng Temple on the eastern Xiuling is lashed by river water into the shape of a jar, so it is called Shiweng Temple (stone-jar temple). It is said that the temple was first built with the residual materials for the construction of Huaqing Palace during the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The Yuxian Bridge (meet-with- immortal bridge) is situated in Shiweng Valley between the eastern Xiuling and western Xiuling, with a length of 5 meters, a width of 2.4 meters and a height of 5 meters. Tradition has it that an ancient examinee who went to the capital to sit the court examination met with an immortal when he came across the bridge, the immortal gave the examinee some advice and then he successfully passed the examination. So the bridge is called the Yuxian Bridge (meet-with-immortal bridge).

The scenery of Lishan Mountain is beautiful, and it has been a tourist attraction in all ages. And the best time to be here is any season, except the cold winter.

Edited by Athena Lee

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