Immortal Sage Delight Scenic Area

Immortal Sage Delight Scenic Area

Immortal Sage Delight is the foremost peak of the front mountain. From afar, its summit resembles an elderly sage seated upright, hence the name “Immortal Sage Peak.” Beginning with Immortal Sage Peak, a series of attractions are arranged in sequence: Black Wind Gap, Sword Path, Rebirth Tree, Rock-Cracking Pine, Guanyin Peak, Mountain God’s Throne, Buddha’s Palm Rock, Wild Wolf Valley, Heavenly Stele, Heavenly Channel, Fox Fairy Cave, Jade Brush Peak, and Worship Platform.

Black Wind Gap is a mountain pass situated between Immortal Sage Peak and Wild Wolf Valley, approximately two meters wide. This gap channels cold winds throughout all seasons; even in the height of summer, visitors feel a refreshing breeze, thus earning the name “Black Wind Gap.” Passing through Black Wind Gap and circumventing to the back of Immortal Sage Peak, you will see a narrow crevice in the rock face—about one meter wide, five meters deep, and nearly thirty meters high—that looks as if cleaved by a sword, hence the name “Sword Path.” Visitors can climb up the mountainside along this path to reach the mid-slope.

Exiting Black Wind Gap and walking about fifty meters along the trail beneath the cliff, you’ll find an oak tree roughly the thickness of a bowl. At one meter above the ground, the trunk bends downward at a seventy-five-degree angle, then at around eighty centimeters up, is wedged by a rock and bends back upward at another seventy-five-degree angle. This is the “Rebirth Tree.” Continuing past the Rebirth Tree for about thirty meters brings you to the “Rock-Cracking Pine,” a truly unique tree whose roots are embedded and fused with the rock, making it nearly impossible to distinguish where root ends and stone begins. The tree could have grown unimpeded against the cliff face, but instead, its main root extends horizontally to the right, reaching under a protruding rock over two meters away—as if the rock had formed specifically to suppress the pine. After encountering the obstacle, the base of the tree curves back about half a meter and burrows into a crevice between two tightly pressing rocks that seem intent on preventing its growth. Yet the pine struggles through the stone, bending slightly before breaking through and soaring toward the sky. Over two meters of the tree’s lower trunk is merged with the rock, as if they grew together. The rock itself dates from the Hercynian orogeny, while the tree is only a few hundred years old—visitors invariably marvel at the sight.

Continuing onward, you’ll come across Mountain God’s Throne, Buddha’s Palm Rock, Wild Wolf Valley, Heavenly Stele, Heavenly Channel, and Fox Fairy Cave. If you ascend Heavenly Channel and descend to the base of the cliff, you’ll see Guanyin Peak ahead. There, Guanyin stands behind the Immortal Sage, with a jade vase holding willow branches placed beside her, while two attendants stand side by side at her feet, as if listening to her teachings. Descending from Heavenly Channel and walking about a hundred meters leads you to the final attraction of the Immortal Sage Delight Scenic Area—the “Worship Platform.”

This “Worship Platform” lies at the end of the ridge extending from Forget-Worry Cliff. Standing beneath the platform, you’ll be faced with a sheer cliff wall over thirty meters high and more than ten meters wide. About two meters above the ground, a red pine grows straight up along the cliff face. Adjacent to the tree is a cubic rock about three meters tall. Some say the pine is the Mountain God’s brush, and the rock his seal; others believe the pine is a welcoming guest tree, and the rock a mirror-like screen; still others refer to the pair as the “Green Pine and Brocade Screen.” Beneath this rocky cliff lies a flat area of about a hundred square meters, seemingly cleared especially for those who come to worship in the mountains. Legend has it that the ancestors of the Manchu people, the Wanyan clan, made pilgrimages here twice.

Address: Xiānsēngshān Forest Park, Nánchà District, Yíchūn City