Dayan Mountain Qingfeng Cave

Dayan Mountain Qingfeng Cave

The Qingfeng Cave Scenic Area is located on Dayan Mountain, six kilometers from Anxi County Town, in Pengting Village, Kuidou Town. Its main attractions include Dayan Mountain, Qingfeng Cave, and Daiping Rock. The area is covered with ancient trees that create a dense, lush green canopy, epitomized by the saying “Birds chirp but monkeys are nowhere to be seen; fallen blossoms remain on the still-beautiful trees.”

Dayan Mountain is a veritable orchard and flower garden, offering a continuous bounty of mountain fruits throughout the seasons. Fruits such as mountain peaches, mountain grapes, kumquats, bayberries, Phyllanthus emblica, and guavas are not only thirst-quenching but also filling, delighting both the eyes and the palate. As you walk through the woods, colorful butterflies may suddenly flutter past, or mountain sparrows dart out, making you feel the wonder of nature.

Dayan Mountain is also a herbal garden, with various precious medicinal herbs scattered across its rolling peaks—such as Asparagus cochinchinensis, lilies, calamus, coptis root, herba asari, and fire-burned herb—found everywhere.

The Qingfeng Cave Scenic Area has a long history and beautiful scenery, yet it has long remained “a hidden gem unknown to the world.” Today, thanks to the generous donation and initiative of overseas Chinese Mr. Wang Quancheng, along with the collective efforts of the local community, temples have been restored and roads built. A brand-new mountain road now winds up from Pengzhou Bridge in Kuidou Town, unveiling the once-mysterious Qingfeng Cave. With its profound historical significance, unique cultural landscape, and stunning natural beauty, it has become a new highlight for tea country tourism.

The magnificently scenic Dayan Mountain

Upon ascending Dayan Mountain, you will surely be moved to admire the unspoiled and pristine beauty of this tea-growing region. The ancient cypresses, banyans, and podocarpus trees, weathered by time yet still standing tall, stretch out their lush canopies to welcome visitors from all directions.

In the valley, a crystal-clear mountain spring cascades down from above, harmonizing with the rustling of pines, the whisper of bamboo, and the chirping of birds, echoing melodiously through the quiet ravine. On the slopes, uniquely shaped rugged rocks stand in various poses—some jutting straight up, others lying flat like grinding stones—worn smooth by centuries of wind and rain, their surfaces dotted with patches of moss.

Dayan Mountain features two peaks facing each other, resembling two lions playing with a ball when viewed from afar. From the mountaintop, one can overlook the azure streams below like ribbons and the emerald green fields like carpets, creating a truly refreshing and uplifting sight. This natural scenic area, which combines ancient trees, peculiar rocks, caves, and temples, is not only a blessed site for worshippers, a favorite spot for poets and scholars to compose verses, but also a great place to escape the summer heat.

The mysterious Qingfeng Cave

Qingfeng Cave

, also known as Dripping Water Cave, is located on the cliff at the top of Dayan Mountain. Only a narrow path allows one person to climb up or down. Inside the cave, one can hear the gentle dripping of water, which feels extraordinarily cool and refreshing. In summer, the breeze is pleasant; in winter, clouds and mist shroud the area, creating ever-changing and marvelous scenes. Legend has it that the cave is unfathomably deep and connects all the way to Quanzhou, though no one has dared to explore it to the end.

The scenery around Qingfeng Cave is picturesque, with overlapping pines and bamboos, birdsong, and floral fragrances. Legend says that in the late Qing Dynasty, the renowned Anxi monk Libo was drawn to this auspicious site on Dayan Mountain and resolved to build a temple here, living up to the old saying that “famous mountains are often home to monks.”

At the time, Dayan Mountain was densely forested and teemed with wild animals. Libo led his disciples and devotees to clear the thorny underbrush. To raise funds for the temple’s construction, he made two sea voyages to places like Singapore in a wooden boat to seek alms—a testament to the hardships endured.

Qingfeng Cave is built against the mountain and is quite large in scale, featuring a traditional folk-style corridor architectural layout. The roof of the temple is clean with tidy tiles, and bell towers stand on both sides of the cave temple—bell tower on the left, drum tower on the right. The main structure lies along the central north-south axis, flanked by two wing rooms on the east and west: the western wing serves as the mountain gate, while the eastern wing houses the Qianan Treasure Hall. A couplet beside the murals in the hall reads: “Worldly affairs cannot deceive the all-seeing eyes of the Buddha; visitors should carry hearts as compassionate as the Tathagata’s.”

Qingfeng Cave enshrines the Immortal Father, namely Xingchun Zhenxian, a deity skilled in medicine. Legend has it that when selecting the site to build the shrine, the immortal rode in a sedan chair, directing the bearers to cross the stream and head straight up the cliff at the top of Dayan Mountain. When the clouds cleared, the immortal and the four bearers had fallen off the cliff—but emerged unharmed. Thus, the site was chosen for the shrine. After the shrine was completed, incense burned brightly, and people from nearby villages came to pray here, finding their wishes granted.

The serene and classic Daiping Rock

Daiping Rock is situated in a mountain hollow on Dayan Mountain, about 500 meters east of Qingfeng Cave. It was first built in the Song Dynasty and rebuilt in the second year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1663 AD).

Also called Daping Rock, the main hall of Daiping Rock is grand and solemn, with a three-bay width and depth, facing west and sitting east. Adjacent to it are auxiliary rooms. The temple still preserves Qing Dynasty column bases and other valuable cultural relics. From the main gate to the hall, there are three couplets:

“Daiping stands awe-inspiring, lifting human gaze; the rock enhances purity, the Buddha enriches the heart.”

“Majestic Daiping, resplendent and divine, inherits teachings of civil and martial sages; heroic Daiping, shining bright, reveals the compassionate wisdom of bodhisattvas.”

“Daiping’s radiant spirit blesses for ten thousand years; Daiping’s ancient Buddha protects all directions.”

The temple of Daiping Rock enshrines the Clear Water Ancestor, namely the famous Song Dynasty Zen master Puzu. Daiping Rock and Qingfeng Cave are separated only by a small hilltop, their bells and drums within earshot, forming a rare religious landscape where Buddhism and Taoism coexist.

Peculiar rocks and strange cliffs cover the hills

About 100 meters east of Daiping Rock lies a three-tiered rock formation that resembles a tiger descending a mountain. Standing atop it, one can gaze far into the scenery of Anxi County Town. When it rains, the area beneath the rock can shelter dozens of people.

Near Qingfeng Cave, there is a foot-tub-shaped rock, over ten meters in diameter, with an extremely flat top. The imprints of a celestial being’s footprints, complete with distinguishable toes, are visible on it. Every year during the Immortal Father’s Fire Invitation Ceremony, this rock is a must-visit.

The Stone Bell and Stone Drum not only resemble their namesakes in shape but also produce bell and drum-like sounds when struck, leaving all visitors amazed.

The Valley Cabinet Rock, located about 200 meters west of Qingfeng Cave, resembles a grain storage cabinet. It is six meters long and eight meters wide, with an 80-centimeter-wide stone fissure in the middle, as if cleaved by a sharp blade—an extraordinary work of nature, truly marvelous.

Eagle Rock, located on the Middle Path, features two small stones branching off from a large boulder, resembling an eagle stretching its neck and spreading its wings — incredibly lifelike.

Beneath Qingfeng Cave lies another massive rock that strikingly resembles an awakening lion, with two smaller rocks behind it shaped like cubs. The three lions gaze eastward, and locals call this formation “Lions Gazing at the Moon.”

The most interesting is Tiger Cabinet Rock, situated beneath the cliff. Legend has it that in ancient times, tigers would roam the area around Dayan Mountain even before nightfall. Tiger Cabinet Rock looks like a large cabinet divided into upper and lower sections. Villagers would tie a goat in the upper section, and the goat’s constant bleating would lure tigers in through the lower crevice. In nine out of ten cases, the tigers would get trapped inside. People say this was a kind deed performed by the Immortal and the Patriarch.

Additionally, Dayan Mountain is home to other vividly shaped rocks such as Bat Rock, Butterfly Rock, Sheep Rock, and Ox Rock. It is said that when Yang Wenguang pacified one of the Eighteen Caves of Southern Fujian — Qingfeng Cave — birds returned to their nests and beasts were subdued, turning into stone and thus creating the mountain’s array of peculiar rock formations.