Mount Wutai

Mount Wutai, named after its five flat peaks, is the highest mountain in Northern China and one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China. It displays the outstanding fusion between the natural landscape and Buddhist culture, representing the religious belief in nature as well as the Chinese philosophical thinking on the harmony between man and nature.

Mount Wutai’s 53 monasteries include the Foguang Temple, the highest surviving timber building of the Tang dynasty, with life-size clay sculptures. The Shuxiang Temple from the Ming dynasty is also featured, a huge complex of 500 statues showing Buddhist stories woven into three-dimensional pictures of mountains and water.

The buildings on the site present a catalogue of the way Buddhist architecture developed and influenced palace building in China over more than one millennium. Temples have been built there from the 1st century CE to the early 20th century. Mount Wutai was recognized as World Heritage in 2009.