Mianshan Mountain is 20 kilometers away from Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province.  It has also been named Jieshan Mountain after Jie Zitui, a famous official in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC). Covering an area of 295 square kilometers,  with its highest peak 2,566.6 meters above sea-level, Mianshan Mountain is not only renowned as the location of both Buddhist and Taoist temples, but also its unique natural scenery.

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What to see?
A thorough tour to this mountain takes one or two days. There are over 360 scenic spots scattered over 14 areas including Dragon Head Temple, Dragon Backbone Ridge, Princess Li Cave, Honeycomb Spring, Daluo Taoist Temple, Heavenly Bridge, One-Cup Spring, Zhu Family Hollow, Yunfeng Temple, Zhengguo Temple, Lord Jie Ridge, Qixian Valley, Ancient Vine Valley, and Water Wave Valley. The mountain is also the birthplace of the Cold Food Festival (the day before Qingming Festival), with an exhibition hall showing the local traditions of this time-honored Chinese festival. The following is an introduction to the most famous sites that tourists should be sure to visit.

Daluo Taoist Temple hangs on the Lion Mountain with a height of 110 meters. In Taoism, the heaven contains 36 levels. Of these, the highest level is called Daluo. Therefore, Daluo Temple means the highest Asgard. The total area of the complex is 30,100 square meters while the main construction covers an area of 10,000 square meters. Known as the Greatest Taoist Temple in the world, Daluo Taoist Temple has many painted sculptures made in the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. There is a natural cave on the Lion Mountain named White Cloud Cave, because clouds come out from the cave during the summer. White Cloud Nunnery is next to the cave with stone inscriptions of Diamond Sutra, which dates from the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907).

In olden times, the Cold Food Festival was held annually to commemorate Jie Zitui on the day he died. The use of fires was forbidden, so people only ate cold food. The day after the Cold Food Festival was Qingming Festival. Nowadays, these two festivals are combined as one event. Using high-tech methods like touchable screens and electronic interactive activities to reproduce the real scene, Qingming Cold Food Culture Hall demonstrates the historical development and folk customs of the two festivals, such as tomb-sweeping, sacrificing, spring outing, and sticking willow branches. 


Honeycomb Spring

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