Mount Longhu (Longhushan)

UNESCO World Heritage Site As Part Of China Danxia, Inscribed 2010; Birthplace Of The Way Of The Celestial Masters And Site Of About 200 Guyue Hanging Coffins · Yingtan, Jiangxi

Red sandstone cliffs standing over a green river in Jiangxi, and the place organised Taoism began. In the second century AD Zhang Daoling is said to have refined the elixir here and founded the Way of the Celestial Masters; his descendants held the title for sixty-odd generations from the Shangqing palace complex downstream, which makes this the Vatican of a religion rather than merely a mountain with temples on it. UNESCO inscribed it in 2010 as part of China Danxia, for the landform - the cliffs are the same iron-stained sandstone as Danxia Mountain in Guangdong, weathered here into blunt towers above the Luxi River. The third element is older than both: two thousand six hundred years ago the Guyue people wedged their dead into caves high in those cliff faces, and roughly two hundred hanging coffins are still up there. Nobody is certain how they were placed, and the park stages a daily demonstration in which performers descend on ropes from the clifftop to show one theory, which is either the highlight or the low point depending on your tolerance for that sort of thing.

Longhushan Scenic Area, Yingtan, Yingtan, Jiangxi, China

Scenic area open daily, generally 8:00-17:00 with seasonal variation and last entry well before closing. Sold mainly as a COMBINATION TICKET including the internal shuttle and the Luxi bamboo raft - a base ticket leaves out most of the site. THE CLIFF-COFFIN DEMONSTRATION RUNS TO SET TIMES, only a few times a day; check them and plan the day around them. Rafts stop in high water and thunderstorms.

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