The Taoist Peak with a Thirty-Metre Laozi: Maoshan, Jurong
秦汉神仙府，梁唐宰相家 Qínhàn shénxiān fǔ, Liáng-Táng zǎixiàng jiā – In Qin and Han, a mansion of immortals; in Liang and Tang, the home of chief ministers
正文：茅山 Máoshān Maoshan is the mountain that made Taoism – the birthplace of the Shangqing school, its red-walled palaces strung along the forested peaks where 句容市 Jùróng Shì Jurong City meets the hills east of Zhenjiang. The couplet at the gate gives the mountain’s résumé: a mansion of immortals in the Qin and Han, and the country house of chief ministers in the Liang and Tang, when the Taoist master 陶弘景 Táo Hóngjǐng Tao Hongjing ran the Shangqing tradition from these slopes and answered state questions from a hermitage – the “minister in the mountains” of Chinese history books. Pilgrims have climbed here for two thousand years, and the climb remains the point: shrines, caves and springs spaced along the ridgeline like stations of a very old devotion.
The modern landmark stands at 元符万宁宫 Yuánfú Wànníng Gōng Yuanfu Wanxing Palace, the “Seal Palace” on the mountain’s northern flank: a bronze Laozi, thirty-three metres tall, seated open-handed above the trees – the tallest outdoor Laozi statue in the world, cast in the 1990s and visible for miles. The palace courts below it hold the mountain’s great seal-stone, a Tang-and-Song complex of halls rebuilt on their old footprints, and the terraces frame the whole northern valley in one look.
The summit belongs to 九霄万福宫 Jiǔxiāo Wànfú Gōng Jiuxiao Wanfu Palace, the “Top Palace” on the Big Maofeng – the highest of the mountain’s three ridges, named for the three Mao brothers, Han-dynasty hermits whose cultivation gave the mountain their surname. Incense coils here from dawn, the viewing platform looks across a sea of forest ridges, and the shuttle road between the palaces threads through 华阳洞 Huáyáng Dòng the Huayang Cave and 喜客泉 Xǐkè Quán the Guest-Greeting Spring, whose waters bubble when visitors clap – a party trick the mountain has been performing, by its own account, since the Han.
Plan a full day. The shuttle links the Seal Palace, the caves and the Top Palace, but the old pilgrim paths still connect the shrines on foot through oak and bamboo, and the walking is the mountain’s best argument – cool under the trees, noisy with springs, punctuated by gates that have stopped travellers since the Six Dynasties. In autumn the forest goes copper around the red walls, and the crowds that filled the cable queues thin out along the ridge paths.
Practicalities
Beyond the Taoist peak, the same 镇江市 Zhènjiāng Shì Zhenjiang City keeps more doors on the itinerary: 金山风景区 Jīnshān Fēngjǐngqū Jinshan Scenic Area the wrapped hill, 北固山 Běigù Shān Beigu Mountain the kingdoms crag, 焦山 Jiāoshān Jiaoshan the river island, or 西津渡 Xījīndù Xijindu the thousand-year ferry street – four more doors into the same 镇江市 Zhènjiāng Shì Zhenjiang City. Once the peak is descended, our Zhenjiang food map fills the table.
Practicalities
Words and Names
flowcloud would say Maoshan is the mountain that gave Chinese Taoism its software: two thousand years of hermits, a minister who answered the empire by mail, and now a bronze Laozi tall enough to bless the whole valley at once. All checked November 2026.
Getting there: The mountain lies in Jurong, about forty kilometres southeast of central Zhenjiang – under an hour by car or tourist bus; entry plus the shuttle between peaks is ticketed, the Laozi statue at Yuanfu Wanxing Palace and the summit palaces of the Big Maofeng take most of a day, and autumn and spring are the kindest seasons. All checked November 2026.