Mount Songshan, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of China, is of
great historical and cultural significance. It was long being an
important venue for the ancient Chinese emperors, kings and
ministers to hold grand ceremony of worship of heaven to pray and
say thanks for peace and prosperity. Also, poets, men of letters
came here to propagate doctrines of the ancient sages; princes,
dukes, ministers came here to deliver a sermon; Chinese and foreign
tourists have been coming to admire the wonderful views.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty visited Songshan in the year of 110
B.C and gave an order to the 300 families to make up of the Songgao
County; in the year of 682 A.D, emperor Tanggaozong ordered to
build Fengtian Palace on the south of Songshan in order to visit
the Songshan often. And then he ordered to set up Songyang County.
In 696 A.D, Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty climbed onto the
ridge of Taishi to do homage to heaven, and did homage to the earth
on the top of Shaoshi. She changed the name of Songyang County to
Dengfeng County, which in Chinese means "climbing and paying
homage"; and changed Yangcheng County to Gaocheng County, which in
Chinese means "succeed".
Since the reform and open policy, the Songshan scenery spot has
greatly been improved. Eight scenery spots have formed here,
including the Shaolin Temple, the Songyang Academy, Taishi Mount,
the Fawang Temple, the Zhongyue Temple, Luya waterfall, the star
observation platform, and the Shaoshi Mount.
In recent years, there are many new tour activities, such as,
mountaineering, Wushu, archaeological studies, religion tour,
astronomy tour, geological tour, forest tour, and customs tour,
forming a comprehensive tourist system and the Songshan scenery
spot has become a good place for sightseeing, mountaineering,
adventure, research and recreation.
