Mt. Wudang

Mt. Wudang, located in Hubei Province, is the most famous Taoist mountain of China. With its magnificent and mysterious ancient temples, the mountain attracts an endless stream of pilgrims
The Taoist temples were built initially in the Tang Dynasty, and extended during the Song Dynasty. Large-scale construction started during the Ming Dynasty. After taking the throne, Emperor Yongle, who is famous for sending his eunuch Zhenghe to the West for 7 times, started two projects one is the Imperial Palace in the north and the other is Mt. Wudang in the south. After 13 years of construction by more than 200, 000 builders, a Taoist building complex composed of 9 palaces, 8 temples and other Taoist buildings, which were scattered about 33 places, was finally completed. Only at this point did Mt. Wudang attain its full glory and became the imperial temple and the Taoist activity center.
In 1994, UNESCO formally inscribed the Ancient Building Complex in Wudang Mountains on its World Cultural Heritage List. The main reason is that the ancient building complex is compact in overall design, distinctive in the division of main buildings from secondary ones, and rationally and orderly arranged according to the sizes of the buildings. All the buildings fall in close harmony with their surrounding environment to create a superb architectural rhythm. This represents the idea of Taoism "Unity of human beings and nature."
Apart from its ancient building complex, Mt. Wudang also gets its name for its mysterious Taoism. As the indigenous religion in China, Taoism shares the same fame with Buddhism. The Taoist culture of Wudang is of long standing and well established. Since the Tang Dynasty, Taoist priests and monks selected from every part of the country had been sent there to exercise management and cultivate themselves. It was not until in the Ming Dynasty that Mt. Wudang emerged as China's preeminent Taoist mountain. This was partly attributed to Emperor Yongle. He seized the throne from his nephew, which severely violated the normal feudal ethic and seize undermined his rule. In order to make his taking of the throne ethic legitimate, Yongle claimed that he got the order from Great Emperor Zhenwu. He ordered the construction of Mt. Wudang to begin and named Emperor Zhenwu as the main protector for imperial court, hence Mt. Wudang's coming into glory. In the later several hundred years of development its followers spread to many parts of the world and its influence still remains very strong.