CHINA 5A TRAVEL
'The most magnificent beauty under heaven' — a 302-square-kilometre national park of 90 mist-shored peaks between the Yangtze and Poyang Lake, where Li Bai's waterfall drops in three folds, Mao and Chiang kept rival summer villas, and the mountain-top town of Guling sleeps in the clouds.
Mount Lu (Lushan) in Jiangxi rises as an oval wall of 90-odd peaks between the Yangtze and Poyang Lake — highest point Hanyang Peak at 1,473 metres — famous for cloud seas, summer coolness and the most-quoted line in Chinese landscape poetry: Su Shi's 'I cannot see Mount Lu's true face, for I am standing on the mountain itself.' A UNESCO World Heritage site and one of China's legendary 'Three Mountains'.
The visit splits into two classic lines from the summit town of Guling. The West Line is the traditional route: Flower Path and the shores of Ruqin Lake, the Jinxiu Valley cliff walk, the Immortal's Cave, the 1959 Conference Site and Meilu Villa — Chiang Kai-shek and Song Meiling's summer residence, later host to Mao, where two eras of history share one garden. The East Line is the hiking day: the Five Old Men Peaks and the three-tier plunge of Sandie Spring, with White Deer Grotto Academy — first of China's four ancient academies — at the foot.
Guling itself is the base: a full-service mountaintop town reached by a 50-minute bus ride up the northern road, with hotels, restaurants and the park's visitor centre. Two days covers both lines at walking pace; summer is the classic season — Lushan has been China's refuge from the heat since the 19th century.
Highlights
Sandie Spring (Three-Step Waterfall)
The mountain's signature — a 155-metre cascade folding down three ledges of purple rock.
Meilu Villa
The 1903 British villa of Chiang and Song Meiling — Mao's calligraphy hangs in the same rooms.
Jinxiu Valley Cliff Walk
The West Line's carved cliffside path through the Immortal's Cave to mist lookouts.
Hanpo Pass Sunrise
The east-rim terrace where the cloud sea breaks over Poyang Lake at dawn.
Guling, the Cloud Town
A stone-and-red-roof summit town at 1,100 m — sleep inside the scenery.
White Deer Grotto Academy
The Tang-dynasty academy at the foot — 'first among the academies of the realm'.
Photo Gallery
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