Mount Heng (Shanxi)

Lore & Background

Mount Heng has been considered a sacred mountain since the Zhou dynasty, with a strong Taoist presence. Due to its northerly location, often under control of non-Chinese nations, it has a weaker history of pilgrimage than its four fellows. To this day it is the least-visited and least-developed of the five, though it is not the smallest in area—that distinction belongs to Mount Song. Because of this, Hengshan is not nearly as religiously important in China as the other Taoist mountains, but it is also less commercialized—there are hotels and accommodations available on or near the mountain.

Reader's Guide

Mount Heng's significance lies in its status as the northern sacred mountain of the Five Great Mountains of China, with a history of Taoist worship dating to the Zhou dynasty. During the Han dynasty, the Shrine of the Northern Peak (Beiyue Miao) was built on its slopes, dedicated to the mountain god, and has an uninterrupted history to the present day despite periodic destruction and rebuilding. During times of occupation by non-Han Chinese people, worship was done at the Beiyue Temple in Quyang. The mountain also features the famous Hanging Temple, built more than 1,500 years ago into a cliff. Its relative isolation has preserved a less commercialized experience, with the main peak offering a three-hour round-trip hike from the parking lot, with temples set into cliffs and slopes covered in hemlocks, pines, elm, fir, poplar, and hawthorn.

Did You Know?

• Mount Heng is the least-visited and least-developed of the Five Great Mountains of China.
• There are hotels and accommodations available on or near Mount Heng.
• The Hanging Temple near Mount Heng was built more than 1,500 years ago into a cliff.
• The Shrine of the Northern Peak (Beiyue Miao) has a long history dating back to the Han dynasty, but the current structures largely date from later dynasties, and the site has undergone periods of decline and reconstruct