Legends and Stunning Scenery of the Holy Lotus

Number of days: 1 day
Time: April
With whom: and friends

Climbing to the commanding heights of Shenglian Mountain in Tianmen Mountain, the wind blows in from all directions, carrying the moisture of clouds and mist across your clothes. The peaks are like solidified waves. From a close perspective, they are the Lotus Towers. From a distance, they are the lotus peaks spread out between heaven and earth like a never-fading lotus flower. The mountain is like a blooming lotus. "Clouds and mist shuttle between the peaks." The main peak, Lotus Seed Peak, stands in the center, round like a lotus core, surrounded by twelve "Lotus Petal Peaks," just like stars holding the moon, or like a thousand hands protecting the heart. You can feel the majesty of the creation of heaven and earth. This is the true appearance of the "Five Small Mountains in Western Beijing." The mountain, with the folds of billions of years as a pen, writes "majestic, dangerous, mysterious, unique and beautiful" into every texture.

The clouds and mist are the poetry of the mountains, weaving and transforming between the peaks. Suddenly, they transform into swimming dragons, circling the steep cliffs, revealing mottled inscriptions on the rock faces; suddenly, they condense into a light veil, covering the layers of ancient pines, making the entire mountain seem like a fairy island floating in a sea of clouds. Even more surprising is a natural painting that astonishes you before your eyes. As if split open by a giant axe, the thinnest part is only 1.5 meters. This is the crack of the Yanshan Movement during the dinosaur era. The geological wonders will amaze you. The quartz sandstone, cut by glaciers and eroded by flowing water, has sharp edges and smooth lines. It is a combination of hardness and softness. The hard rock has experienced vicissitudes of life, but has been honed into a gentle arc over the years, just like the harmony that people have cultivated in the ups and downs of life.

Walking along the stone path, the mossy traces of the Eight Immortals Cave guide your steps. The relief carvings at the cave entrance have been eroded by wind and rain, yet the postures of immortals can still be seen, as if guarding some ancient secret. Passing through the cave, the Heavenly Street suddenly opens up—a viewing corridor suspended high on the mountainside, its indentations in the bluestone slabs recording the footprints of centuries of visitors. Gazing over the railing, Lotus Seed Peak is within reach, while in the distance, Bijia Mountain and Shenying Rock appear and disappear in the clouds, like wet brushstrokes in a long ink painting.

The Welcoming Pavilion serves as a mountain inn, its four red-painted columns providing a shady backdrop. The Peace Pine beside the pavilion is a truly remarkable sight, its trunk tilted to one side, its branches stretched out like arms. Its needles gleam silver in the sunlight, as if nodding in greeting. Its trunk is covered in scabby scars, yet it still thrives in the rocky crevices. Three hundred years old—scorched by lightning and bent by wind and snow, this ancient pine has become the mountain's signature symbol, its every twisted branch revealing the wisdom of "living by nature."

The Lotus Pagoda on Shenglian Mountain has weathered 600 years of wind and rain, remaining a spiritual landmark amidst the mountains west of Beijing. Built during the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty, this pagoda, known as the "Holy Lotus Pagoda," bears witness to Shenglian Mountain's cultural transformation from a Buddhist sanctuary to a site where Buddhism and Taoism intertwine.