Mount Lu (Lushan) is a fault-block mountain rising to 1,474 metres between the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake near Jiujiang, northern Jiangxi. Home to the Donglin Temple of Pure Land Buddhism, the White Deer Grotto Academy of Zhu Xi and the colonial-era hill station of Guling, it was inscribed by UNESCO in 1996 as a cultural landscape.
- UNESCO World Heritage (cultural landscape) · 1996
- UNESCO Global Geopark · 2004
- National scenic area · 1982
Key facts
Overview
Lushan rises abruptly from the plain, with the Yangtze to the north and Poyang Lake to the east, and is often wrapped in cloud — the source of Su Shi's famous line that one cannot see the true face of Mount Lu from inside it. Its summit is not a single peak but a plateau of valleys and ridges, on which stands the resort town of Guling.
Few Chinese mountains carry as many layers of history. Buddhist and Daoist communities settled here from the fourth century; poets from Tao Yuanming to Li Bai and Su Shi wrote about it; Zhu Xi restored the White Deer Grotto Academy; and in the late nineteenth century foreign missionaries built a summer resort whose stone villas survive. In the twentieth century it hosted political conferences of both the Nationalist and Communist governments. UNESCO inscribed it as a cultural landscape in which these layers are bound up with the scenery.
How the landscape formed
Lushan is a horst, a block of crust lifted between faults, which explains its steep sides and flat top. Its rocks are mainly Precambrian metamorphic rocks and Sinian sandstones. The geologist Li Siguang argued in the 1930s that U-shaped valleys, cirques and boulder deposits on the mountain were the work of Quaternary glaciers; the interpretation became a long-running debate in Chinese geology, and many geologists now attribute these features to other processes. Abundant rainfall and fog feed numerous waterfalls that drop off the plateau edge.
Highlights
Guling
牯岭
The resort town on the summit plateau, with streets of stone villas from the late Qing and Republican periods.
Three-Step Falls
三叠泉
A waterfall dropping in three tiers down a cliff on the eastern side, reached by a long stairway.
Hanpo Pass
含鄱口
A saddle overlooking Poyang Lake, a classic sunrise viewpoint.
Five Old Men Peaks
五老峰
A row of five summits on the south-eastern edge, looking down on the lake.
Meilu Villa
美庐
A Guling villa used as a summer residence by Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling.
Ruqin Lake
如琴湖
A small lake on the plateau shaped, it is said, like a lute.
Plants and wildlife
The mountain is densely forested, with evergreen broadleaf forest on the lower slopes and mixed and coniferous woods on the plateau. The Lushan Botanical Garden, founded in 1934, is one of the oldest modern botanical gardens in China, known for its conifer collection.
Plants
Lushan Yunwu tea
庐山云雾茶
Cloud-and-mist green tea grown on the misty slopes, one of the classic Chinese teas.
Chinese cryptomeria
柳杉
Tall old trees around the temples and in the valleys of the plateau.
Wildlife
Siberian crane
白鹤
Winters on Poyang Lake just below the mountain.
Culture and legend
The monk Huiyuan founded Donglin Temple at the foot of the mountain in the late fourth century and gathered a society devoted to the Buddha Amitabha, regarded as the beginning of the Pure Land school. The poet Tao Yuanming lived nearby. Li Bai's poem on the waterfall seen from Incense Burner Peak made Lushan's falls proverbial. In 1179 Zhu Xi revived the White Deer Grotto Academy, whose rules became a model for Confucian academies across East Asia. From 1895 the missionary Edward Little developed Guling as a hill station, and the mountain later became the summer capital of the Nationalist government. In 1959 it hosted the Lushan Conference of the Communist Party leadership.
不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中。Bù shí Lú Shān zhēn miànmù, zhǐ yuán shēn zài cǐ shān zhōng.
“I cannot see the true face of Mount Lu, because I am here, inside the mountain.”
— Su Shi, “Written on the Wall of Xilin Temple” (题西林壁), 1084
Donglin Temple
东林寺
Huiyuan's monastery, regarded as the ancestral temple of Pure Land Buddhism.
White Deer Grotto Academy
白鹿洞书院
One of the most famous academies of imperial China, revived by Zhu Xi.
Lushan Conference site
庐山会议旧址
The hall in Guling where the 1959 party conference was held.
History
386
Huiyuan founds Donglin Temple
The beginning of Pure Land Buddhism in China.
1179
Zhu Xi revives the White Deer Grotto Academy
The academy's regulations become a model for Neo-Confucian education.
1895
Guling developed as a hill station
Foreign missionaries and merchants build a summer resort of stone villas.
1934
Lushan Botanical Garden founded
A pioneer of modern botany in China.
1959
Lushan Conference
A meeting of the Communist Party leadership during the Great Leap Forward, at which Peng Dehuai's criticism of the campaign led to his dismissal.
1996
UNESCO World Heritage
Inscribed as the Lushan National Park cultural landscape.
2004
UNESCO Global Geopark
Among the first group of geoparks recognised worldwide.
Through the seasons
Spring
Misty and damp, with azaleas in April and May; tea is picked on the slopes.
Summer
The classic season: Guling is much cooler than the sweltering Yangtze plain, which is why the hill station was built.
Autumn
Clear skies and good views over Poyang Lake; autumn colour in late October.
Winter
Snow and rime ice on the plateau, often spectacular but with icy paths and some roads closed.
Routes and ways in
Guling and the plateau
Walks from Guling to Ruqin Lake, the Brocade Valley cliff path and the Immortal's Cave, largely on gentle paved paths.
Hanpo Pass and Five Old Men Peaks
Viewpoints over Poyang Lake on the eastern edge, connected by paths along the ridge.
Three-Step Falls
A long stairway descent to the base of the falls and back up; a cableway serves part of the way.
Foot of the mountain
Donglin Temple on the western side and the White Deer Grotto Academy on the south-east are visited separately from the plateau.
Practical notes
- Jiujiang is the gateway city; a winding mountain road climbs to Guling, which has hotels in historic villas.
- Fog can hide the views for days at a time, especially in spring.
- The plateau is several degrees cooler than the plain; bring a warm layer even in summer.
Cities to start from
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Lushan National Park — UNESCO World Heritage Centre (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Lushan UNESCO Global Geopark — UNESCO (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Jiujiang Municipal People's Government — Jiujiang Municipal People's Government (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Lushan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences — Chinese Academy of Sciences (retrieved 27 September 2026)
More mountains and nature in Jiangxi
- MountainJinggang Mountains井冈山Forested border mountains where the first rural Red Army base was built
- Sacred mountainMount Longhu龙虎山Dragon and Tiger Mountain, home of the Celestial Masters
- LakePoyang Lake鄱阳湖China's largest freshwater lake, a sea in summer and a grassland in winter
- MountainMount Sanqing三清山Granite pillars of the Three Pure Ones, walked on cliff-side paths
- National park · 2,158 mMount Wuyi武夷山Red cliffs of rock tea and a forest wilderness on the Fujian–Jiangxi divide
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