Yunlong Mountain (Dragon in Clouds Mountain)

Entrance of Yunlong Mountain, Xuzhou

Yunlong Mountain lies to the south of Heping Street, in the southern suburb of Xuzhou City. It is also called Shifo Mountain (Stone Buddha Mountain) because of the stone Buddha housed in Xinghua Temple on the Mountain. As legend has it, Liu Bang, an emperor of the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD), once came here, and his wife, unable to find him, began to search for him. She finally was able to find him when she saw a misty mountain, upon which a dragon appeared, surrounded by clouds. Though, in truth, she only saw a series of nine small cloud-covered hills, the name Yunlong (Dragon in the Clouds) Mountain remained.

The Yunlong Mountain is 142 meters (155 yards) above sea level and about three kilometers (about two miles) long from north to south. From the top of the mountain, the view is incredible – with the Yunlong Lake to the west, and the Yellow River to the east. Yunlong Mountain is famous for both its natural scenery and its historical relics, of which Setting Free Cranes Pavilion (Fanghe Ting) and Xinghua Temple are the most well known. Many other historical areas are located throughout the mountainside, including Dongpo (Su Shi) Stone Bed (Dongpo Shichuang), Clothes Trying on Pavilion (Shiyi Ting), Boat Pavilion (Chuan Ting), Zhang Shanren's (Zhang Tianji) Former Residence as well as the inscriptions carved on cliff surfaces of the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) Dynasties.
 (Fanghe Ting)
Setting Free Cranes Pavilion (Fanghe Ting) is located on the flat roof of the Mountain, and it is 11.95 meters (13 yards) long from north to south and 4.95 meters (five yards) wide. It was originally built by Zhang Tianji of the Northern Song Dynasty (960 - 1127), who often fed two cranes in Yunlong Mountain. Each morning, Zhang Tianji allowed his cranes to wander free in the pavilion, so his good friend Su Shi, a great litterateur and artist in the Northern Song Dynasty, named the area Setting Free Cranes Pavilion (Fanghe Ting).
 

Xinghua Temple was formerly known as Shifo Temple (Stone Buddha Temple) or Dafo Temple (Big Buddha temple). It originated in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and has been rebuilt and renovated many times. It currently contains six courtyards and almost all the necessary halls and rooms of a Buddhist Temple. The famous stone Buddhist statue of the North Wei Dynasty (386-534) stands about 10 meters (11 yards) high in the Great Buddha Hall. To the south and north of the Great Buddha Hall are the Bell Pavilion and Drum Pavilion respectively. The bell of the Bell Pavilion holds an inscription which reads 'Good weather and ample harvest', and you can hear the melodious sound of it at dawn or at dusk.
 

The Temple Fair on Yunlong Mountain is a very popular folk activity, which is held annually, on the 29th of Chinese lunar calendar, the birthday of Kwan-yin. The fair dates back to Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when Jiang Zhuo, the official leader of Xuzhou, asked to build a statue of Kwan-yin. As time passed, more and more people came to worship the statue, and before long a fair was created specifically for this purpose. Throughout the fair, people sing, dance, eat local snacks, and show their handicrafts.

Compared with other mountains, Yunlong Mountain is relatively small; you can either climb it by foot or use the modern cable-car and slide, which conveniently connect you with various scenic spots.

Admission Fee:	Free or charge (excluding CNY 4 Xinghua Temple)
Cable-car and Slide (one-way trip):	Cable-car: CNY 10 (Yunlong Lake to Sight-seeing Platform) CNY 15 (Yunlong Lake to the south gate of Pengyuan) Slide: CNY 10 (Sight-seeing Platform to Yunlong Lake)
Opening Hours:	07:00-18:00 (winter) 06:00-18:00 (spring, summer and autumn)
Bus Route:	take bus no. 9, 38, 47, 53, 63, 69, 603, 604 or Tourist Bus 3, and get off at Yunlongshan Station