Gechanjian Scenic Area

Gechanjian Scenic Area

Gechanjian Scenic Area is a national AAA-level tourist attraction.

Gechanjian is a national AAA-level scenic spot, located in Jinchuan Township, She County, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, bordering Lin’an and Chun’an counties of Zhejiang Province. It belongs to the Baiji Mountain Range, an extension of the Tianmu Mountain Range (stretching over 100 kilometers), and is folklorically known as Liujia Ling Mountain. It features thirty-six Heavenly Door Steps and forty-eight ponds (villages). The stone gates here are completely natural, the result of nature’s craftsmanship, later infused with cultural meaning. Each mountain gate represents either a Yang or Yin line, and some gates hide an earth-buried “Yin” gate, subtly aligning with the numerology of the Qimen Dunjia. The trigrams are symbolic of river-crossing boats. To find the mountain gate of the Ming religion, one must understand the gates of life and death and the numbers of the primordial Taiji Bagua. Only then can one successfully reach the other shore. The colloquially named “Ten Gates, Nine Unlocked” refers to ten consecutive natural rock walls, resembling an age-old cluster of stone gates, each with extraordinary presence—truly a marvel in China. The third gate, according to folklore, appears locked when worshippers ascend, but upon sincere prayer and looking back, it opens. In essence, the Nine Realms represent the Buddhist realm (where Liu Lang is ordered not to enter). The ancients believed that the number nine, the greatest of the Yang (odd) numbers, signifies the utmost nobility, while five, being central among the Yang numbers, represents harmony. Together, these two numbers embody both nobility and harmony, making them the most auspicious symbol of an emperor. “The ‘Supreme Sovereign of Nine Five’ enjoys the destiny of the Human Emperor. King Wen of Zhou developed the sixty-four hexagrams of the post-heaven sequence into the 'Book of Changes' (Zhouyi), with the first hexagram being Qian (Heaven). All six lines of the Qian hexagram are Yang, representing extreme Yang and supreme prosperity. The fifth line is called Jiǔ Wǔ, where Jiǔ stands for Yang. This line corresponds to the number ‘Nine Five,’ which is the first line among the 384 lines of the 64 hexagrams, symbolizing the image of an emperor.” The interplay of Yin and Yang is called the Dao. The entire “Ten Gates, Nine Unlocked” sits upon this Taiji path. Passing through the Ten Gates, Nine Unlocked, is like traveling through a tunnel of time and space. Above the stone gates, exquisitely shaped rocks stand like figures, vivid and lifelike. Among them, the Four-in-One Mani Light Buddha stone statue, the Tathagata Stone Buddha, the Water-Moon Guanyin Stone Buddha, the Manjushri Stone Buddha, the Samantabhadra Stone Statue, the Peacock Maha Vairocana Stone Statue, the Christian Jesus Stone Statue, the Taoist Xuan Tian Da Di Stone Statue, the Zoroastrian Mazda Stone Statue, and the ten heads representing the King of Darkness are all marvels of nature, truly astonishing. In reality, they conceal the Five Glories (sensation, reasoning, thought, imagination, and will) and Five Spiritual Qualities (compassion, sincerity, fulfillment, endurance, and wisdom—the Five Bestowals) of the Supreme Deity of the Bright Kingdom— the Great Brightness. They also represent the ten scriptures and ten precepts of the Ming religion.

Ten Great Heavenly Mysteries: the mountain’s “Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams,” the Four-in-One Mani Light Buddha stone statue, the “Qiankun Great Shift,” the Ten Gates, Nine Unlocked, the Heavenly Gates That Never Close at Night, Gechanjian, the Liujia (Liuding) Ling Mountain, the Golden Empty Space, the Cabin of the Great Brightness Ship, and the Mani Rotation.

The Stone Buddha Mystery: the Four-in-One Mani Light Buddha (Tathagata Stone Buddha, Zoroastrian Mazda Stone Statue, Christian Jesus Stone Statue, Taoist Xuan Tian Da Di Stone Statue), the Water-Moon Guanyin Stone Buddha, the Manjushri Stone Buddha, the Samantabhadra Stone Statue, the Peacock Maha Vairocana Stone Statue, the Luo Shen Stone Statue, the Dragon King Stone Statue, the Skanda Arhat Stone Statue, the Budai Monk Stone Statue, the Nine-Heaven Lion Stone Statue, the Tang Seng Stone Statue, the Sun Wukong Stone Statue, the Zhu Yuanzhang Stone Statue, the Fang La Stone Statue, the Zhu Bajie Stone Statue. On the eighth gate, there is also a man-made Four-in-One Mani Light Buddha (Purity, Brightness, Power, Wisdom). Twelve deities reside on the four sides of the statue, three on each side (the Twelve Eternal Treasure Light Kings).

Ten Major Scenic Areas: the Ten Gates, Nine Unlocked Scenic Area, the Shuitangwan Scenic Area, the Sujiawan Scenic Area, the Tianpan Mountain Scenic Area, the Jiazi Pond Scenic Area, the Wulangzhuang Scenic Area, the Qinglong Gorge Scenic Area, the Huangniu Gorge Scenic Area, the Changbi Stone Forest Scenic Area, and the Summit of Brightness Scenic Area.

The Blessed Spring Goddess Temple: The "Sunflower Secret Scripture" records the beautiful legend of the “Goddess Rescuing the Boat” at Gechanjian and its related scenic wonders.

In ancient southern She County, west of Zhejiang, there is a place called Zaoya (now known as Liujia), a key passageway into Fúquán Mountain. An ancient couplet reads: “The spring flows vigorously, like a flying pavilion streaming with cinnabar; the towering rocks stand solemnly, resembling layers of verdant peaks.”

In ancient times, during a great flood, the Jade Emperor rode a precious boat to inspect the people’s conditions. Passing through this area, he encountered the dark demon of Huangshi Beach, who used ten gates to lock the mountain and wreak havoc. The demonic curse tightly sealed the peak, causing it to suddenly rise and block the sacred boat, nearly capsizing it. In the crisis, a red-clothed goddess appeared. A stone mirror (the origin of the name Shijing Ridge) revealed the demon, and she smashed nine of the ten demonic locks on the gates (giving rise to the natural wonder of the Ten Gates, Nine Unlocked), plus one earth lock to trap the demon mountain (origin of the Earth Lock Trapping the Demon). In an instant, the peak stopped rising at 1,468 meters, and the sacred boat stabilized. The Jade Emperor and the Seven Fairies disembarked to ask the goddess, only to learn that the red-clothed figure was the transformed Guanyin (hence the origin of the name Gechanjian). The Jade Emperor and others then turned westward to thank the Buddha. This is the beautiful legend: “The Goddess Rescues the Boat.”

Then, the red-clothed goddess’s wide sleeves and flowing ribbons instantly transformed into two springs that flowed down the valley, converging at the Ten Gates to form a heavenly lock—a feng shui treasure where Heaven, Earth, and Humanity unite (giving rise to the concept of “Heaven and Earth Connected at Heart”). The Jade Emperor laughed heartily: “A blessed spring holy land!” A poem in the temple attests: “The spring is named for blessings, wishing the heavens to pray together, sharing a dipper to receive grace; the maiden is a fairy, yet she leaves behind one shoe to mark her celestial trace.” To permanently subdue the demon mountain, Guanyin and the Shrine Goddess, along with the Seven Fairies, took up permanent spiritual residence here (hence the stone statues on the gates and the origin of the Seven Fairy Maidens). Thus, Gechanjian gained the “Blessed Spring Goddess Temple,” and Fúquán Mountain got its name. The saying “Above lies the peak where the boat was grounded, below lies the land of emperors; outside are the Ten Gates, Nine Locked, inside resides the Golden Lord and Golden Lady” has been passed down to this day. (Guanyin the Sacred One is worshipped, and Mazu the Heavenly Queen is also known as the Golden Lady.)

The risen demon peak, after being traversed by the Jade Emperor and the Seven Fairies, transformed into a magical 8,000-acre alpine meadow. The demonic nature of the peak was further mythologized by the later Ming religion into the eternal “Gechanjian.” To this day, no one has truly reached its summit.

After the eye of the Qianlong Emperor’s favorite concubine was healed by a girl from Fúquán Mountain in southern She County, he visited the “Goddess Temple” during his southern tour. Looking up at the statue of the Goddess, he realized it was the red-clothed goddess who had appeared. He paid homage in gratitude. Later, a bronze goose goddess statue was cast, and the Emperor inscribed: “Fúquán, the sacred mountain.” Its fame has endured to this day. Ancient plaques such as “Sacred Virtue Illuminates the Heavens,” “Protects the Nation and Shields the People,” and “Mother of the World” display the goddess’s divine grace. Every year on the Qixi Festival, the Goddess’s birthday, the roads are jammed—her power is truly efficacious. Commonly known as: the Temple of Lovers.

It was later utilized by the Ming religion, which used the boat as a symbolic emblem of the faith, teaching local people and establishing it as the headquarters of the Ming religion in western Zhejiang. It launched several peasant uprisings with great influence and even propelled the commoner Zhu Yuanzhang to the peak of imperial power before gradually fading away. It left behind many sacred sites of the Ming religion.

Jinchuan Township: Jinchuan Township covers an area of 52 square kilometers, with 12 village committees, 67 natural villages, 81 villager groups, a resident population of 3,179 households totaling 11,498 people, and 6,713 current laborers. In 2003, the township’s total rural economic income was 41.3 million yuan, including 23.3 million yuan from the primary industry, 14.6 million yuan from the secondary industry, and 3.4 million yuan from the tertiary industry, with a ratio of 56.4:35.4:9.2. The per capita net income of farmers was 1,874.5 yuan, fiscal revenue was 425,000 yuan, and 2,504 people worked outside the township... More detailed information about Jinchuan Township++