Yangyuan Mountain

Yangyuan Mountain

Yangyuan Mountain faces Danxia Mountain (Laoye Peak) across a river and is named after the world-famous wonder rock — Yangyuan Rock. This area is a mountainous region centered around Yangyuan Rock and is a unit sightseeing zone within the Danxia Mountain scenic area. The most distinctive feature of the entire scenic area is the richly varied and uniquely shaped rocks, resembling humans, beasts, and objects, as if it were a sculpture garden of red stone, with over twenty scenic spots to admire.

Yangyuan Rock is a towering monolith whose shape — from the upper part (the head), through the middle, to the lower part — closely resembles an erect male genital organ, even in color and veining. The rock stands 28 meters tall and has a diameter of 7 meters, classified as a stone pillar type. According to expert research, as a natural stone pillar, it has been separated from the large rock wall of Yangyuan Mountain for 300,000 years. It is called Yangyuan Rock, taking “yang” from masculinity and “yuan” from vitality, symbolizing masculine energy. Locally, it is also known as the “Ancestral Stone,” which makes sense: in ancient Chinese pictographs, the character for “ancestor” (祖) was written as “且,” modeled after the shape of the male organ.