Mount Sanqing () is a renowned
Taoist
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...
sacred mountain located north of
Yushan County
Yushan () is a county in the northeast of Jiangxi province, China. The county is Jiangxi's gateway to bordering Zhejiang province. It covers and the population now reaches 560,000.
The climate is temperate there with abundant rainfall in the mon ...
in
Jiangxi Province
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hi ...
. ''Sanqing'' means the "
Three Pure Ones
The Three Pure Ones (), also translated as the Three Pure Pellucid Ones, the Three Pristine Ones, the Three Divine Teachers, the Three Clarities, or the Three Purities, are the three highest gods in the Taoist pantheon. They are regarded as pure ...
" in Chinese as Mount Sanqing is made up of three main summits: Yujing, Yushui, and Yuhua, representing the Taoist trinity.
A
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
phrase “三峰峻拔、如三清列坐其巅” (“Three steep peaks, like the
Three Pure Ones
The Three Pure Ones (), also translated as the Three Pure Pellucid Ones, the Three Pristine Ones, the Three Divine Teachers, the Three Clarities, or the Three Purities, are the three highest gods in the Taoist pantheon. They are regarded as pure ...
sit the summits”) explains why it was named
San Qing. Amongst the three hills, the Yujing hill (1817 meters above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
) is the highest.
Mount Sanqing is the highest of the
Huaiyu Mountains and is known for its outstanding scenery and unique geological formations.
The area became a National Geopark in 2005, and a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
in 2008.
Canadian fossil park, an Icelandic volcanic island and archipelago in Yemen among sites added to UNESCO World Heritage List
/ref>
It is a famous tourist destination as well as a refuge for animals and plants. The national park contains more than 2300 species of plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
s and 400 species of vertebrate
Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...
s. The total area of Mount Sanqing is 229 km².
Geological History and Hydrology
Mount Sanqing is a granite mountain that forms a part of a crustal suture zone dating back to the Neoproterozoic Era
The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago.
It is the last era of the Precambrian Supereon and the Proterozoic Eon; it is subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran periods. It is prec ...
, roughly 850 million years ago. However, the granite making up much of the mountain peaks dates from the Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...
. Faulting
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
, weathering
Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with water, atmospheric gases, and biological organisms. Weathering occurs ''in situ'' (on site, with little or no movement), ...
and erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
have shaped the mountains into intricate landforms. On Mount Sanqing, there are more than 23 gorges with more than 500 meters of elevation. The abundant yearly rainfall in the region allows for many waterfalls (some of which are over 60 meters in height), pools, and springs in the region.
Biodiversity
Located in a humid subtropical
A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...
climate zone, Mount Sanqing and the surrounding national park is relatively biodiverse. Over 2300 plant and 400 vertebrate species have been described within the park boundaries, some of which are threatened with extinction.
Flora
There are many vegetation types in Mount Sanqing, including evergreen broad-leaved forests, warm temperate coniferous forests, warm temperate needle and broad-leaved mixed forests, bamboo forests, temperate needle and broad-leaved mixed forests, evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forests, coppice forests, and mountain top meadow coppice forests. This, coupled with the isolated topography of the region and its status as an Ice-Age refugium, has allowed high rates of floral biodiversity and endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
. Mount Sanqing protects many conifer species in particular, including rare varieties of ''Pseudotsuga sinensis
''Pseudotsuga sinensis'' (Chinese Douglas-fir; in Chinese 黃杉, pinyin romanization: huáng shān) is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae. It is a tree up to 50 metres tall. It is found in China (in Anhui, Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hu ...
gaussenii'' and ''Tsuga
''Tsuga'' (, from Japanese (), the name of ''Tsuga sieboldii'') is a genus of conifers in the subfamily Abietoideae of Pinaceae, the pine family. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed folia ...
'' spp. 19 of the plants found in the park were listed on the IUCN Red List as of 2003.
Fauna
Because of the large elevational gradients on and around the mountain and the corresponding variation in habitat, the fauna of the region display clear niche differentiation
In ecology, niche differentiation (also known as niche segregation, niche separation and niche partitioning) refers to the process by which competing species use the environment differently in a way that helps them to coexist. The competitive excl ...
along the mountainside. 61 mammal, 226 bird, 49 reptile, 23 amphibian, 36 fish, and 1327 insect species have been found within the park. 37 of these species are endemic to China, including the Tibetan macaque
The Tibetan macaque (''Macaca thibetana''), also known as the Chinese stump-tailed macaque or Milne-Edwards' macaque, is a macaque species found from eastern Tibet east to Guangdong and north to Shaanxi in China. It has also been reported from n ...
, Chinese hare
The Chinese hare (''Lepus sinensis'') is a species of mammal in the family Leporidae. It is found in China, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Taxonomy
The Chinese hare was first described by John Edward Gray in 1832. The Korean hare (''Lepus coreanus'') was ...
, Yellow bittern
The yellow bittern (''Ixobrychus sinensis'') is a small bittern. It is of Old World origins, breeding in the northern Indian Subcontinent, east to the Russian Far East, Japan and Indonesia. It is mainly resident, but some northern birds migrate ...
, Cabot's tragopan
Cabot's tragopan (''Tragopan caboti'') is a pheasant found in south-east China. The common and scientific names of this large bird both commemorate the ornithologist Samuel Cabot III. Other common names include the Chinese tragopan and the yello ...
, Yellow-bellied tit
The yellow-bellied tit (''Pardaliparus venustulus'') is a bird in the family Paridae. The species was first described by Robert Swinhoe in 1870.
It is endemic to China. Its natural habitats are temperate forest
A temperate forest is a for ...
, and Chinese fire belly newt
The Chinese fire belly newt (''Cynops orientalis'') is a small () black newt, with bright-orange aposematic coloration on their ventral sides. ''C. orientalis'' is commonly seen in pet stores, where it is frequently confused with the Japanese f ...
. Like much of Southern China, the mountain is rich in gallinaceous birds. It also protect a wide diversity of butterfly species. The critically-endangered Blue-crowned laughingthrush
The blue-crowned laughingthrush or Courtois's laughingbird (''Pterorhinus courtoisi'') is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is now found only in Jiangxi, China. Until recently, this critically endangered species was generally ...
, of which fewer than 200 individuals likely remain, has been sighted in the park. Leopards
The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, ...
, pangolins
Pangolins, sometimes known as scaly anteaters, are mammals of the order Pholidota (, from Ancient Greek ϕολιδωτός – "clad in scales"). The one extant family, the Manidae, has three genera: ''Manis'', ''Phataginus'', and ''Smutsia'' ...
, and serow
The serows ( or ) are four species of medium-sized goat-like or antelope-like mammals of the genus ''Capricornis''. All four species of serow were until recently also classified under '' Naemorhedus'', which now only contains the gorals.
Extant ...
are common in the park.
Gallery
Image:SanQingShan3.jpg, Map of the site
Image:SanQingShan4.jpg, Cable car
Image:SanQingShan5.jpg, Pine tree on a mountain top
Image:SanQingShan6.jpg, The San Qing temple
Image:SanQingShan7.jpg, Snake rock
Image:SanQingShan8.jpg,
Image:SanQingShan9.jpg,
Image:SanQingShan10.jpg,
Image:SanQingShan14.jpg,
Image:SanQingShan15.jpg,
Image:Sanqingshan south slope fog 1.jpg, South slope of Sanqingshan in fog
Image:Sanqingshan south slope fog 2.jpg, Sanqingshan's Longevity Garden in fog
Image:Sanqingshan sunrise python.jpg, Sunrise at Sanqingshan, with the Giant Python Emerging from the Mountain
References
External links
*https://web.archive.org/web/20071008111620/http://www.sanqingshan.net.cn/PIC/1shi/datu/D10.jpg
*https://web.archive.org/web/20070626045035/http://www.sanqingshan.net.cn/english/fengguang/yujing.asp
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Sanqing
Sanqingshan
World Heritage Sites in China
Landforms of Jiangxi
Tourist attractions in Jiangxi
AAAAA-rated tourist attractions
Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Jiangxi