Mount Kuang 匡山

About Mount Kuang

The park covers 2,175.13 hectares within Shuangtong and Gaofang villages, about 30 kilometres from the Pucheng county town, and its forest cover reaches 92.6 per cent, with more than 30,000 mu of national ecological public-benefit forest kept intact. The ground is steep and varied: the highest point, Tianshandou, stands at 1,349.9 metres while the lowest is 320 metres. The name is explained by the shape of the massif, which rises on all sides around a hollow centre. Surveys record 1,234 plant species in 175 families and 615 genera, with continuous stands of Chinese torreya, Cyclocarya paliurus and Huangshan pine, and nationally protected plants including southern yew, Bretschneidera sinensis, camphor, Semiliquidambar cathayensis and Eurycorymbus cavaleriei. Protected animals here include macaques, pangolin and serow, along with the newt Pachytriton brevipes, treated as an indicator species for the local environment.

The literary standing the catalogue alludes to is specific. Kuangshan is associated with Zhang Yi, one of the founding statesmen of the Ming, who withdrew here and built a hut; the site known as Kuzhai still survives, and the mountain became widely known through the essay Kuzhai ji written by his contemporary Liu Ji. Later remains include a Red Army drill ground and a Red Army camp. Among the rock formations the register names Jiangjun Chuzheng, Bowen Yimo, Qunwa Juhui and Qiannian Shigui. After rain the valleys fill with drifting mist, and at dawn, as the mist thins and the sun rises, a Brocken spectre can appear. The park is laid out in four sections, called Kuanghu, Shuangmenjing, Tianshandou and Yangmeishan.

What to look for

• Tianshandou, the high point of the park at 1,349.9 metres, which also names one of its four sections
• The Kuzhai site, where the Ming statesman Zhang Yi built a hut in retirement and which Liu Ji's essay Kuzhai ji made famous
• Named rock formations such as Jiangjun Chuzheng, Bowen Yimo, Qunwa Juhui and Qiannian Shigui
• Stands of Chinese torreya, Cyclocarya paliurus and Huangshan pine, and protected trees such as southern yew and Bretschneidera sinensis
• The revolutionary remains known as the Red Army drill ground and the Red Army camp

Location & getting there

Getting to Mount Kuang

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 匡山 with 南平市 and 浦城县.