Shipan Mountain

Shipan Mountain

Shipan Mountain is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Shipan Mountain is an area within the Jinping Mountain scenic zone that boasts both rich natural landscapes and cultural heritage. It is located not far east of Haizhou City, nestled among hundreds of acres of peach orchards that burst into a sea of blossoms in spring. Though not particularly tall, Shipan Mountain features bizarrely shaped rocks in all kinds of fantastic forms. In their rich imagination, ancient people imbued many of these rugged stones with life — formations such as the Ten Thousand Flowers Rock, the Buddha’s Hand Rock, Turtles Exploring the Sea, the Rhino Fighting the Elephant, the Heavenly Gaze Leaping Alone, the Seal Watching the Moon, the Golden Monkey Worshiping the Mountain, as well as marvels of nature like the Sword-Testing Rock, the Lotus Cave, and the Little Nine-Turns, all of which are more than enough to captivate visitors and keep them lingering.

At the mountain’s summit lies an oval-shaped boulder as if fallen from the heavens, roughly thirteen to fourteen meters long and three to four meters thick, supported by two or three smaller stones beneath, forming a natural stone chamber. Inside the chamber are natural stone beds and stools where one can sit or lie down. One corner of the giant rock hangs precariously in midair, seemingly ready to topple at any moment. Standing beneath it, one feels a constant sense of impending danger — staying is frightening, yet leaving is hard. This is the famed Stone Shelter from which the mountain takes its name. Engraved on the shelter are four large characters, “Noble Conduct and Pure Integrity,” written by Wang Tong, the magistrate of Haizhou during the Ming Dynasty, in praise of Shi Manqing, whose fame was as enduring as the mountain itself. Not far southwest of the shelter stands a large rock cliff called the Big Herald Head Cliff, facing the sun and sheltered from the wind, with a relatively flat, grassy meadow stretching out before it. Visitors resting here, with the emerald-like South Mountain standing before them, may feel as though they’ve become one with the verdant landscape, transcending the mundane world. Legend has it that Shi Manqing often read, played the zither, drank, and enjoyed feasts here, which is why later generations carved the six bold characters “Shi Manqing’s Reading Spot” deeply into the rock face — primitive yet charming. There are also two seven-character quatrains commemorating Shi Manqing. These cliff inscriptions show just how highly the people of Haizhou regard Shi Manqing, considering his years of service in the region a source of local pride.