Mount Heng (Nanyue Hengshan)

The Southern Mountain Of The Five Great Mountains Of China; National 5A Tourist Attraction · Hengyang, Hunan

The southern peak of the Five Great Mountains of China, a green range of some seventy-two summits rising out of the Hunan plain, long revered as a place where emperors made offerings and where Buddhism and Taoism have shared the same slopes for centuries. At its foot stands the Nanyue Great Temple, the largest ancient palace-style temple complex in southern China, laid out like a miniature Forbidden City with nine courtyards; on one side of its main hall are Buddhist monasteries, on the other Taoist temples, an arrangement found almost nowhere else. Pilgrims climb from here past Zhusheng Temple and Fuyan Temple, whose ginkgo tree is said to be well over a thousand years old, and Nantai Temple, honoured by Japanese Zen Buddhists as an ancestral home of their tradition. The summit, Zhurong Peak at about 1,300 metres, is crowned by a small stone hall, and in the early morning crowds gather there for sunrises above a sea of cloud. Mount Heng is famous for incense pilgrimage: in the eighth lunar month, tens of thousands come to burn incense for the mountain god, filling the town and the mountain road day and night. Shuttle buses carry visitors most of the way up - the old cable car has been out of service since 2020, with a far larger replacement due at the end of 2026 - and the forests are beautiful in autumn and under winter ice.

Nanyue Great Temple, Nanyue District, Hengyang, Hengyang, Hunan, China

Central scenic area open daily; the Nanyue Great Temple 7:00-17:30 from May to October and 8:00-17:30 from November to April. The cable car has been out of service since 2020, with a replacement due at the end of 2026.

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