Tianmen Mountain

Being one of the world geoparks, the national forest part and the AAAAA-class tourist attraction, Tianmen Mountain is of the mountain-type natural scenic spot. It is situated in the southern suburb and 8 km away from Zhangjiajie City. With an altitude of 1518.6m high, Tianmen Mountain is the highest mountain of Zhangjiajie. Being called the Soul of Zhangjiajie and the First Holy Mountain of West Hu’nan, it is also the cultural shrine of Zhangjiajie.

Release time : 2016-10-10 11:46:47

source : Zhangjiajie Tourism Bureau

(Image source: www.tianmenshan.com.cn)

Being one of the world geoparks, the national forest part and the AAAAA-class tourist attraction, Tianmen Mountain is of the mountain-type natural scenic spot. It is situated in the southern suburb and 8 km away from Zhangjiajie City. With an altitude of 1518.6m high, Tianmen Mountain is the highest mountain of Zhangjiajie. Being called the Soul of Zhangjiajie and the First Holy Mountain of West Hu’nan, it is also the cultural shrine of Zhangjiajie. Zhangjiajie railway station and Zhangjiajie Hehua Air Port are just located in front of the mountain, which forms a convenient transportation system plus a direct high way.

Tianmen Mountain used to be called Songliang mountain in the old times. During the Three Kingdom Period, Songliang mountain was found to be unfolded suddenly like a wide-open door, which becomes one of the rarest world wonders--Tianmen Cave. Back to the old time, the emperor of Wu Kingdom considered the sudden unfolding of the mountain as a good sign, the name of the mountain was changed into Tianmen Mountain as a result. A county was set accordingly, which is Zhangjiajie City today. The total Scenic Area of Tianmen Mountain is 96 km2, 2 km2 of which is on top. Surrounded by cliff, the whole area belongs to typical karst landform. A complete primeval secondary forest has been preserved with abundant plant resources. There are rarely seen high-mountain Davidia involucrata community. By all the natural structures mentioned above, a magnificent scene is formed.

A rich cultural deposit has been formed as well by historical remains of great ancients such as Shennong--the patron of agriculture, Chi Songzi--the god of rain, Guigu Master--the founder of alignment and nonalignment political theory. A lot of praising poems and mysterious and elusive tales like ‘When Tianmen Mountain was unfolded, Guigu Master would show up riding an auspicious unicorn’ have been spread from ancient times.

Tianmen