Mount Wuyi 武夷山

About Mount Wuyi

The core scenic area is danxia country, sandstone weathered into cliffs and isolated crags, and its organising feature is the Jiuqu or Nine-Bend stream, a deep, clear watercourse that loops through the hills with ranked red cliffs on both banks. The wider protected area is substantial: the Wuyishan national park, set up as a system pilot with a planned area of 1001.41 square kilometres, adjoins north-western Wuyishan City, Jianyang District, northern Shaowu, south-eastern Guangze county and southern Yanshan county across the border in Jiangxi. It holds the most complete, most typical and largest subtropical forest ecosystem at its latitude, including about 210.70 square kilometres of primary forest vegetation that has not been disturbed, and biologists have called it a kingdom of snakes, a world of insects and a paradise of birds as well as a source of the world's biological type specimens.

The cultural half of the inscription rests on remains that are as old as the landscape is distinctive. The area was part of the old Minyue culture, and the Han-dynasty Minyue royal city site stands at Chengcun in Xingtian town within Wuyishan City. On the danxia cliffs beside the Jiuqu stream are boat-shaped hanging coffins and the plank structures known as hongqiao ban, burial remains of the ancient Min people, and the same rock faces carry cliff inscriptions cut over many periods. Wuyishan is also where the Neo-Confucian thought of Zhu Xi took shape and spread, which is why the area became a centre for the study of eastern philosophy; the Wuyi Jingshe, his academy here, stands in what is now called the Zhu Xi Garden.

What to look for

• The Jiuqu or Nine-Bend stream, which loops through the hills between ranked danxia cliffs
• The boat-shaped hanging coffins and hongqiao planks on the cliffs beside the Jiuqu stream, burial remains of the ancient Min people
• Cliff inscriptions of successive periods cut into the danxia rock faces along the stream
• The Wuyi Jingshe at the Zhu Xi Garden, the academy associated with Zhu Xi
• The Han-dynasty Minyue royal city site at Chengcun in Xingtian town

Location & getting there

Getting to Mount Wuyi

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 武夷山 with 南平市 and 武夷山市.