Yuntai Mountain (Henan) 云台山

About Yuntai Mountain (Henan)

Red Stone Gorge concentrates the experience into coloured rock walls and a confined passage, while the waterfall valleys and Zifang Lake show different relationships between water and terrain. The scenic sectors are linked by transport rather than one continuous short path. Choose a few contrasting areas and allow time for the transfer system as well as the walks.

Yuntai Mountain, anciently known as Fufu Mountain (覆釜山), is part of the Taihang mountain system in Xiuwu County, Jiaozuo. It combines a national key scenic area, a national 5A scenic area, a national geopark, a national forest park and a national macaque nature reserve, covering 190 square kilometres, and was included in the first list of UNESCO Global Geoparks for its northern karst landform.

The area was ocean in the Proterozoic era before crustal movement raised it into a plain; later orogenies, including the Yanshan and Himalayan movements, lifted the mountains, lowered the surrounding land and cut deep, steep canyons, which water then dissolved along fractures into long cliffs, sunken valleys, hanging gullies, waterfalls and springs classed as a distinct 'Yuntai landform'.

Fenglin Gorge (峰林峡), formerly Qunying Lake, covers 50 square kilometres and is known as the 'Yuntai Sky Lake'; its dam, built in 1971 to a height of 100.5 metres, is China's tallest masonry arch dam. Zifang Lake (子房湖), the largest lake in the mountain's eastern section, is 4,000 metres long and up to about 65 metres deep; the endangered peach blossom jellyfish (桃花水母) was found there in June 2002. Macaque Valley (猕猴谷) holds the northernmost-distributed wild population of Taihang macaques.

What to look for

• Red Stone Gorge’s coloured cliffs and narrow rock corridor.
• The waterfall valleys and Zifang Lake, contrasting flowing water with a broader reservoir landscape.

Location & getting there

Getting to Yuntai Mountain (Henan)

Use the Baijiayan visitor and parking area as the main arrival anchor. The municipal tourism guide identifies onward connections from Jiaozuo and Xiuwu West railway stations to Baijiayan; check current departures, then use the designated scenic-bus interchange points for the internal sectors.