Guiqing Mountain 贵清山

About Guiqing Mountain

The Lanzhou Morning Post feature places Guiqing Mountain near Bama village in Caotan township, 72 km south of the Zhangxian county seat, and says the scenic area is made up of Guiqing Mountain and Guiqing gorge. It calls it the foremost natural landscape scenic area in Gansu and the 小华山 of Longzhong, and notes that it links 18 surrounding villages, which is why it is also called 贵清十八村. The provincial A-level register lists 贵清山/遮阳山国家旅游景区 in Dingxi as a 4A-rated scenic area, with the Guiqing Mountain side at Houjiali village in Guiqingshan town.

The feature describes the country as a transitional zone between the Loess Plateau and the western Qinling range, and says it combines the steepness of Huashan, the elegance of Huangshan, the height of Emei and the beauty of Jiuzhaigou. Its sights, in the feature's list, include 禅林挂月, 断涧仙桥, 洗眼清池, 转树险道, 石栈穿云 and 灵岩古洞, with 滴水崖, 佛字崖 and 活虎寺 among the sights along the way.

The most striking structure is the 断涧仙桥, which the feature places inside the Zhongfeng temple at the core of the scenic area and calls the only link between the central and western peaks. It was planned and built in the first year of Longqing in the Ming, 1567, by the monk Tieniu, abbot of the Guiqing Mountain temple, and measures 13 m long, 1.65 m wide and 2.6 m high; after nearly 500 years and 18 repairs, the feature says, it keeps its Ming appearance.

The mountain covers 2,180 hectares. With dense forest and abundant rain, the feature calls it a natural botanical and zoological garden holding more than 1,000 kinds of rare plants and animals, among them firs and spruces more than a thousand years old and more than a hundred kinds of medicinal herbs including dangshen, angelica, fritillary, red astragalus and milkvetch, with bear, musk deer, leopard, deer, wild boar, fox, golden pheasant and other animals in the woods. Seven old poplars stand in a row on the central peak, which the feature says a legend derives from seven fairies who stayed on because they loved the scenery. A gorge on the right of the summit holds about 200 mu of old spruce, the oldest over a thousand years, of a protected species called purple-fruited spruce, which the feature links both to the 紫果擎天 scene and to the name 禅林挂月.

Below, the Guiqing ladder leads down to Guiqing gorge, now with 1,288 stone steps. The gorge runs 30 li, and the feature lists, among its sights, the Yueshi rock linked to Jiang Wei of the Three Kingdoms, Shidan rock, Huxiao rock, Yinma beach, Qianlong cave and the hanging lotus terrace.

What to look for

• The 断涧仙桥, the 13 m covered bridge of 1567 between the central and western peaks, inside the Zhongfeng temple
• The central peak's row of seven old poplars and the roughly 200 mu of old purple-fruited spruce on the gorge to its right
• The 1,288 stone steps of the Guiqing ladder down to Guiqing gorge
• Guiqing gorge, 30 li long, with the Yueshi rock, Shidan rock, Huxiao rock, Yinma beach, Qianlong cave and the hanging lotus terrace among its sights
• The firs and spruces more than a thousand years old, and the medicinal herbs among the forest
• The sights the feature lists — 禅林挂月, 洗眼清池, 转树险道, 石栈穿云 and 灵岩古洞 among them — with 滴水崖, 佛字崖 and 活虎寺 among the sights along the way

Location & getting there

Getting to Guiqing Mountain

Check weather, trail access and the last return service. A mountain or forest area is not one entrance, and a map’s central pin may be far from the trailhead.

• Search for 贵清山 with 定西市 and 漳县.