Tianzhao Mountain 天曌山

About Tianzhao Mountain

The park covers 1,334.3 hectares at an elevation of 1,100 to 1,700 metres, with an average annual temperature the official Guangyuan Chengdu office and a 2021 People's Daily feature both give as 11.1 degrees Celsius; the two sources differ slightly on forest cover, 92 percent by the official account against 95 percent in the People's Daily feature. The official account gives the mountain's earlier name as Tiantai Shan, explaining that name by the cloud and mist that often cover the platform at the summit, and the People's Daily feature adds that the mountain holds many Buddhist temples and Daoist shrines and has, since the Tang dynasty, been a Buddhist and Daoist mountain whose influence reached Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Yunnan.

The People's Daily feature reports that the empress Wu Zetian is said to have lived here as a child, and recounts that she invented a number of new characters for her own use, including 曌, pronounced the same as 照 ('shine'), meaning the sun and moon in the sky shining on all.

What to look for

• Tiantai, one of the park's named spots.
• The Reading Platform and Pantao Rock, among the park's named features.
• The Zhuangyuan Pagoda and the Immortals' Bridge, named features listed by the official Guangyuan Chengdu office account.
• Tianchi Lake and the Sleeping Buddha, two more of the hundred-odd spots the official Guangyuan Chengdu office account names.

Location & getting there

Getting to Tianzhao 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 天曌山 with 广元市 and 利州区.