Beauty Peak Scenic Area
2 min readThe Beauty Peak Scenic Area is one of the five wooded areas in Mount Lu. It is considered the most scenic place in the southern part of Mount Lu. It is said that thebeauty of Mount Lu lies in the southern side, and the beauty of the southern side lies in Xiufeng Peak(Beauty Peak).
The Beauty Peak Scenic Area is located in the south of Xingzi County. Xingzi is one of the nine counties of Jiujiang City. One kilometer or so south of the seat of Xingzi County, there is a huge rock standing in Poyang Lake. According to Book on Water (an ancient Chinese book), this rock once had a circumference of four hundred footsteps and was about 15 meters in height, with bamboo trees growing onit. It was called the Dropping-Star Rock for it was said to have been formed by afalling star. And Xingzi(star) County gets its name from this rock. The Beauty Peak Scenic Area consists of five peaks: Xianglu(Censer) Peak, Heming (Chirping Crane) Peak, Shuangjian(Double Sword) Peak, Zimei(Sisters) Peak, and Guibei(the Back of Tortoise) Peak. The name of Beauty Peak originated from Xiufeng(Beauty Peak) Temple. Located at the foot of Heming (Chirping Crane) Peak in Xingzi County, Xiufeng Temple was originally called Kaixian Temple. It was here that Li Jing studied before he became the emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty(923AD-936AD).
Nine years later, Li Jing took over the throne. He built a temple at the old site where he once studied and called it Kaixian Temple. When Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty visited Mount Lu, he gifted the monks in Kaixian Temple with a plaque bearing the inscription,”Xiufeng Temple,”and it became the name for the temple ever since. Included in the area are other scenic spots such as the Huangyan Waterfall described by Li Bai’s poem as “The sunlit Censer Peak exhales a wreath of cloud; Like an upended stream the cataract sounds loud. Its torrent dashes down three thousand feet from high, As if the Silver River fell from azure sky.”Li Bai,a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty，visited the mountain five times and set up a “reading house”there to live and study in.And Shuyu pavilion which was praised by Su Shi is another unique beauty spot in Mount Lu.The inscription of“the First Peak”is written by Mi Fu，the great calligrapher of the Song Dynasty.
