Songshan - ebook

The very first pictorial and descriptive guide of the sacred Songshan mountains in China:

THE SACRED MOUNTAINS SONGSHAN & SONGSHAN SCENIC AREA

More than 200 photographs in the guide were made by Bogdan & Pan Kladnik, father and son from Slovenia, also the authors of the first official books about the world-renowned Shaolin Temple - and 70+ other books.

In China’s traditional world view, China is the country at the ‘Centre of Heaven and Earth,’ which is located in the Central Plains, and the core of the Central Plains is Dengfeng City in Henan Province.

Dengfeng is considered to be the centre of terrestrial powers and the only point from which astronomical observations are considered to be accurate. Most historians attribute the mysterious power to its location at the foot of Mount Song, one of the most sacred mountains in China.

The history of Mount Songshan dates back to 3.6 billion years ago, thus it is renowned as the Natural Geological Museum, the ancestor ofmountains and a World Geopark listed by UNESCO.

What makes Songshan Mountain different from the rest of the Five Mountains is its profound cultural history. It is also the birthplace of China Zen Buddhism and one of the cradles of Chinese civilisation.

Within a 10 square km area stand many cultural sites, such as Shaolin Temple, Zhongyue Temple and Songyang Academy, representing early Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

Among many other temples, here you can also find the earliest Observatory, the largest pagoda forest and the oldest brick pagoda in China.

For this reason, a visit to the scenic spots dotted around Songshan would be greatly rewarding for scholarsof religion, Wushu, astronomy, archaeology, geology, art and architecture, as well as for travellers with a passion for beauty, mountaineering,adventure, research and history.

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