Mountain Yuelu

Mount Yuelu Scenic Area consists of hills, pinnacles, rivers, lakes, wide variety of species of flora and fauna, cultural historic site, revolutionary monuments. The name Yuelu derived from a a famous line from the book" Story of Nanyue" written by Liu Song from the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It reads "eight hundred square meters around Nanyue, the head is Huiyan and the foot is Yuelu". The mountain was since ever called Mountain Yuelu.

Except for the beautiful natural sceneries, The mountain is dotted with inspiring cultural heritages including the Yuelu Academy, Lushan Temple, Yunlu Palace, Aiwan Pavilion, Baihe Spring, the Monument to King Yu and other minor historical traces.

Aiwan Pavilion

The original name of Aiwan Pavilion at the foot of Mount Yuelu was Hongye Pavilion. It faces east and is surrounded by hills on the other three sides.

This pavilion was built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty and got its name from the poem by Du Mu, which says "Go up to a cool mountain far away, a winding stone path over there; There is a household in the depths of the white clouds. Stop my carriage, for I love the maple forest in the deep autumn; the leaves in the frost are redder than the flowers in February.

The Pavilion is elegant and of primitive simplicity.

Lushan Temple

Lushan Temple located at the ancient forest of Mount Yuelu. , is one of the most ancient temples in Hunan built in Western Jin Dynasty.

The temple enjoys great fame in the region and is renowned as the " first key point of interest from Han and Wei Dynasties", "the most sacred temple in Hunan province".

Monument to King Yu

The Monument to King Yu stands on the purple rock wall of the peak of Mount Yuelu, facing east. It records the story of King Yu controlling water. After his father was killed for controlling water, King Yu continued to control water. According to legend, he did not listen to music in seven years and did not enter home when passing it for three times.

The monument is 1.7 meters tall and 1.4 meters wide. On the monument, there are 9 lines, 9 words of each nine, four words less in the last nine, all together 77 words. The words look like polliwog, different from bone script. They are very difficult to be understood. It is said that it maybe the symbol of Daoism, or even fabricated by Taoist.

But as early as 1200 years ago, Han Yu had heard about this monument and climbed Mount Goulou of Mount Nanyue to look for it and wrote a poem about it. Even if it a fabrication in Tang or Song Dynasties, it is still quite precious as a monument of King Yu controlling water. There are 10 monuments of King Yu in China, it is said that all those are the duplication of the monument in Mount Yuelu.