Tayun Mountain 塔云山

About Tayun Mountain

The scenic area's own website gives the main peak, the Golden Summit, as 1,665.8 metres and says the mountain was renamed Tayun Mountain in the Qing dynasty by Yan Anlan, a Zhen'an-born holder of the jinshi degree, because it resembles a pagoda rising into the clouds. It records that the Guanyin Hall on the summit was built in the Ming Zhengde reign, has been repaired five times since the Qianlong reign, is more than 500 years old and is a provincial level-two cultural relic protection unit. The CCTV.com travel page, dated 2016, gives the same elevation and says the Daoist building group is composed of one hall (馆), one pagoda, one temple, one shrine hall and nine halls.

The Golden Summit Guanyin Hall is the building both sources single out. The scenic area's website describes it as standing on the summit, less than six square metres in area, built on a cliff with three sides over a drop, using four stone columns inserted into rock crevices with stone slabs laid as a base and walls built up, and roofed with cast brass tips over iron tiles. The CCTV page likewise describes it as built on the summit over a drop on three sides. The scenic area's website adds that many of the named rocks and pools on the mountain are given legendary origins in its own text; those legends are not reported here as history.

The other buildings on the mountain are described on the scenic area's website. The Tayun Immortals' Hall (塔云仙馆) was built by Yan Anlan as a five-bay, two-storey hall for the lodging and eating of pilgrims and visitors, and the inscription over its front door is in his own hand. The main hall holds five statues, including the Supreme Old Lord and the god of wealth. The Niangong Pagoda is a memorial pagoda Yan Anlan built in the 17th year of the Guangxu reign for the Daoist Cheng Mingda, with a base of 8.17 metres, a height of 5 metres in five storeys, and Cheng Mingda's remains inside. Beichi Peak lies north of the summit and carries a cloud-viewing terrace (观云台), and Feitian Cliff, formerly the route pilgrims took to worship at the summit, now has a plank road called Feitian Bridge.

The site has also been added to in recent years, and the same website dates the additions. The Moyue Tower was built in 2017 with three storeys and a floor area of 243 square metres, and holds the mountain's bell and drum. The Caiyun Bridge is a glass suspension bridge 138 metres long and 2 metres wide, built in 2017, and the Buyun Bridge is an iron-chain suspension bridge 199 metres long and 2 metres wide, also built in 2017. The Zilan Terrace is a glass platform built in the spring of 2017 with an area of 600 square metres. The Panlong stockade, built by villagers around Chaiping in the late Ming and early Qing to defend against bandits, survives only as ruins, and the present stockade has been restored to the old stockade's original appearance.

Both building descriptions come from the operator, and the website's page on the sights is promotional: its superlatives, its nickname for the site and a quotation it attributes to a named Daoist association figure are not adopted. The website states that the site is a national 4A-level scenic area and says it is just over 100 kilometres from Xi'an; both are the operator's own claims and no government grading list was consulted here. The website carries a notice list with items headed 关于塔云山景区闭园 and 塔云山景区暂时闭园, each shown with a month and day but no year, so current opening status cannot be read from it. The two sources also place the site slightly differently: the operator's website puts it in Chaiping town, 35 kilometres west of the Zhen'an county seat, while the 2016 CCTV page puts it 35 kilometres south-west of the county seat. The CCTV page is a decade old, and the ticket price and road and bus routes it gives are not carried here as current.

What to look for

• The Golden Summit Guanyin Hall, under six square metres, standing on four stone columns with three sides over the drop
• The Tayun Immortals' Hall (塔云仙馆), the two-storey hall Yan Anlan built as lodging for pilgrims and visitors, with his inscription over the door
• The main hall with its five statues, and the Niangong Pagoda holding the Daoist Cheng Mingda's remains
• The cloud-viewing terrace (观云台) on Beichi Peak, and the Feitian Bridge plank road on the old pilgrim route at Feitian Cliff
• The 2017 additions: the Caiyun glass suspension bridge, the Buyun iron-chain bridge, the Zilan glass platform and the three-storey Moyue Tower
• The Panlong stockade, restored to the old stockade's appearance from a ruin

Location & getting there

Getting to Tayun Mountain

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 塔云山 with 商洛市 and 镇安县.