Junshan Island () is an island in

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangx ...

province in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Dongting Lake Dongting Lake () is a large, shallow lake in northeastern Hunan Province, China. It is a flood basin of the Yangtze River, so its volume depends on the season. The provinces of Hubei and Hunan are named after their location relative to the l ...

. The name means ''Princesses' Island'', and derives from the legend of the Xiang River goddesses. It is in area. It was formerly a

Daoist 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 ...

retreat.

History

Junshan Island consists of 72 peaks on an oval-shaped island in

. It was initially called "Mount Xiang" () in ancient times, also referred to as "Mount Dongting" (). Junshan Island is full of historical sites such as the Tomb of Xiangfei (). Legend said that 4,000 years ago during

Emperor Shun Emperor Shun () was a legendary leader of ancient China, regarded by some sources as one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors being the last of the Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he lived sometime between 2294 and 2184 BC. Tradition a ...

's inspection visit in the south, two concubines named "Ehuang" () and "Nüying" () followed him to Dongting Lake, but they were stopped by stormy weather. When they heard that Emperor Shun had died suddenly they cried bitterly that their teardrops turned the bamboo into mottled bamboo. Soon they died of overwhelming sadness and locals built a tomb on Junshan Island to commemorate them.

Attractions

* Feilai Bell * Junshan Garden of Love * Liu Yi Well * Tomb of Xiangfei * Xiangfei Ancestral Temple * Xiaoyao Palace

Literature

Li Bai Li Bai (, 701–762), also pronounced as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet, acclaimed from his own time to the present as a brilliant and romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du F ...

, a poet of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

(618–907), wrote: "". Liu Yuxi, another poet of the Tang dynasty, eulogized: "".

Speciality

Junshan Island produces a lot of local specialities among which the most famous is Junshan Silver Needle Tea () also known as "Gold Inlaid Jade" (). The tea was listed as a tribute to the imperial family in the

(618–907). The golden tea leaves narrow and thin as needles, are wrapped by a layer of white filaments. When the tea is being brewed, tea leaves first float up to the top and then sink to the bottom in a vertical position as if they were

sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

s standing upward creating a peculiar phenomenon in the tea cup.

References

Bibliography

* * Junshan District Islands of Hunan Lake islands of China {{Hunan-geo-stub