Ma'ren Mountain

Ma'ren Mountain

(Photography: China)

Ma'ren Mountain is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a national forest park.

The Ma'ren Forest Tourism Area is located in Fanchang County, Wuhu City, Anhui Province. It is currently a national 4A-level tourist attraction, a national forest park, a national agricultural tourism demonstration site, a provincial geological park, a Wuhu City patriotic education base, and a Wuhu City science education base.

Ma'ren Mountain stretches over 20 kilometers from east to west. For hundreds of millions of years, wind and rain, like a knife, have carved out the mountain’s dreamlike peaks, secluded valleys, and sheer cliffs; for hundreds of millions of years, time, like water, has washed away the flashy and the superfluous, revealing Ma'ren Mountain’s unique charm, tranquility, and elegance. Peaks such as “Ma’ren Peak,” “Lu Xun Peak,” “Fairy Ferry,” “Golden Rooster Announcing Dawn,” and “Eighteen Arhats Facing the South Sea” appear both real and illusory, competing in wonder. No wonder Pan Zhiheng, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, after visiting Ma'ren Mountain, exclaimed that it was like a peerless beauty standing apart from the world, a lotus transcending the mundane, with its steepness, fantasy, clustering, dispersal, gathering, and spreading, unmatched by the stone bamboo shoots of Huangshan or the Tianping Mountain of Suzhou.

The mountain is made beautiful by its forests. Forests of nanmu, evergreen oaks, litsea trees, and lush bamboo spread boundlessly, forming the unique forest landscape of Ma'ren Mountain. The nanmu forest, covering 150 acres, is the highest-latitude and largest primitive nanmu forest on Earth. Rich in negative oxygen ions, the forest is quiet and refreshing, truly a natural oxygen bar. Ma'ren Mountain boasts a rich cultural heritage and has been famous in the Jiangnan region since ancient times. He Qi, a renowned filial son of the Eastern Jin Dynasty; hermits Wang Yuzhongxiao, Li Yun, and Chen Shang of the Tang Dynasty; the famous scholar Chen Zhuo of the Song Dynasty; and the Ming Dynasty imperial scholar Xu Jie all once lived in seclusion or lectured in Ma'ren Mountain. In the early Ming and Qing Dynasties, Xiao Yuncong, leader of the “Gushu Painting School,” depicted two scenes of Ma'ren Mountain in his “Taiping Mountain and Water Map”: “Twin Osmanthus Peaks” and “Ink-Washing Pool.” Ma'ren Mountain is also a famous Buddhist mountain. The Ma'ren Temple on the mountain, first built in the Tang Dynasty, has withstood over a thousand years of history and still echoes with the sound of Buddhist bells. The plaque of today’s “Ma’ren Temple” is the final masterpiece of Zhao Puchu, former president of the Buddhist Association of China.

Below the main peak of Ma'ren Mountain stands a magnificent large incense burner, 9.9 meters high and weighing 99 tons, with 999 characters for “blessing” cast on its body—truly deserving the title of “The World’s No.1 Incense Burner.” The “World’s No.1 Incense Burner” was built to commemorate the discovery of the “Renzi Cave” site and to pray for human peace and happiness. The “Renzi Cave” site, located in Fanchang County, is an ancient human activity site dating back approximately 2.2 to 2.4 million years and is a national key cultural relics protection unit. The top of the incense burner features a 48-square-meter exhibition hall displaying animal fossils unearthed from the “Renzi Cave” and stone tools used by ancient humans.

The Ma'ren Peak Red Collection Museum is currently the largest and most distinctive museum dedicated to complete sets of Mao Zedong badges. It houses nearly 10,000 Mao Zedong badges and other red historical relics.

The three-star Ma'ren Mountain Villa, a tourist hotel, is adjacent to the scenic area, built along the mountain and by the water. From the villa, one can enjoy panoramic views of the peculiar peaks, dramatic cliffs, green mountains, and bamboo seas. The villa offers 100 comfortable and elegant suites, scenic standard rooms, and luxury villas. Facilities include various banquet halls, a large multifunctional hall, meeting rooms, tennis courts, a gym, and a business center. The large conference hall can accommodate 350 people, and the main dining hall can host 300 guests for meals. It is an ideal choice for holding various meetings, conducting business negotiations, engaging in team-building training, sightseeing, leisure, or family gatherings.

Ma'ren Mountain embodies five major cultures: landscape ecological culture, ancient culture, historical celebrity culture, red culture, and Buddhist culture. Leveraging these five cultural elements and aiming to build a first-class leisure resort, Ma'ren Peak will continue to showcase its magical charm as a “source of blessings and a leisure paradise” in the years to come, welcoming guests from all directions.