City guide · Jiangxi

Lushan travel guide: Guling, the Three Step Spring, Wulao Peak and how to ride the mountain

A cloud-wrapped granite mountain with a Victorian hill station on top, waterfalls in three tiers, and the mist that Su Shi said you could never see through.

Known forCloud, waterfalls · the film Romance on Lushan
Typical spend¥1,000–1,500 for three days
Ideal length3 days
PaceSlow — buses, steps and long views

Plan this trip Lushan tours

Reviewed by our Beijing team Updated 2026-10-10

The short version

Lushan is a 1,474 m mountain in northern Jiangxi whose 22°C summer once made it China's favourite hill station, and 3 days is the sweet spot — one for the villa town and the Lushan Conference site, one for the sunrise at Hanpokou plus Wulao Peak and the Three Step Spring, and one for the western gorges. Stay up on the mountain in Guling rather than day-tripping from Jiujiang: the road alone takes an hour.

Stay in Guling, the villa town at 1,100 m — hotels, restaurants and all the sightseeing buses start there.
The park gate ticket is ¥180 in peak season and ¥135 in winter; the mountain minibus pass is a separate ¥80 for seven days.
Book your accommodation ahead in summer — Guling is a resort town and fills up fast.
Have motion-sickness pills ready: the road up has 396 bends.
Best months are May–August for cool air and full waterfalls; December–February for the occasional snow.

City guide

First impressions

Photographs from the coast, and what other travellers wrote afterwards.

Guling, the villa town at 1,100 m on the mountain top

The Three Step Spring, Lushan's signature waterfall

Wulao Peak and the 'five old men' above the cloud

The 'three stones and a tea' — stone fish, stone ear, stone frog and cloud-mist tea

I was stunned by what lay in front of me — sheer walls, jagged rock, an enormous drop. I was exhausted when I reached the top, but when I saw the sign reading 'one foot from heaven' all the tiredness fell away. Standing at the edge, it felt like rising to immortality.
Traveller note — 'Three Days Walking Lushan'

Between Hanpokou and the Three Step Spring you really feel the scale of the mountain. At the bottom, the waterfall has already poured down a thousand li, and the stream in the pool begins to murmur. Standing there, hearing it hit the rocks, the whole thing is extraordinary.
Traveller note — 'Deep in Lushan, Lost in the Clouds'

Lushan is a mountain you stay on, not one you look at. It stands alone on the Jiangxi plain, the Yangtze on one side and Poyang Lake on the other, and the two great waters feed it so much mist that cloud is almost a resident. That is the appeal: not a single summit to bag but 90-odd ridges that appear and vanish as the weather moves through, and a whole resort town of villas and hotels sitting at 1,100 m in the middle of it.

The Chinese relationship with Lushan runs through poetry first. Su Shi wrote the line every schoolchild knows — 'I cannot tell the true face of Lushan, because I am inside the mountain' — and Li Bai saw a waterfall here and called it the Milky Way falling from the sky. Much later, in 1980, a film shot all over the mountain became a national phenomenon, and watching it in the little Guling cinema before retracing its scenes is still a Lushan ritual.

That town is what makes Lushan different from China's other famous peaks. Guling was laid out by British missionaries in the 1890s as a summer escape and took its name from the English word 'cooling'. Nearly a thousand foreign-style villas survive among the pines, so the setting is as much a hill station as a sacred mountain — cool, slightly old-fashioned, and very easy to enjoy.

Come in summer for the cool and the waterfalls, when the plain below bakes at 39°C and the mountain holds at 22°C. Come in deep winter for snow and rime, which southern China rarely gets. Spring is late and autumn early up here, so carry a jacket whatever the month.

Lushan

Don't leave without

Seven things that are worth rearranging a day for.

Catch the sunrise at Hanpokou, where the ridge opens toward Poyang Lake
Walk down to the Three Step Spring and feel the spray on all three tiers
Ride the sightseeing bus up and have your breath taken by the 396-bend climb
Stand on Wulao Peak at the 'one foot from heaven' sign
Watch Romance on Lushan Mountain in the little Guling cinema
Eat the 'three stones and a tea' — stone frog, stone fish, stone ear and cloud-mist tea
Spend an afternoon among the old villas and the story of Meilu

Highlights

What not to miss on Lushan

The Three Step Spring

Lushan's signature sight: a waterfall that drops off a sheer cliff in three stages, the first alone plunging more than 70 m. 'Until you have seen the Three Step Spring, you are not a true Lushan visitor,' goes the saying.

Sunrise at Hanpokou

A huge notch in the eastern ridge that seems to open its mouth to drink Poyang Lake, and the best place on the mountain to watch the sun rise. Get there before first light from Guling.

Wulao Peak

Five peaks in a row, at 1,436 m, likened to five old men sitting on the ground. The wildest, most dramatic corner of Lushan, and a childhood pilgrimage for anyone raised on the Saint Seiya cartoons.

Guling, the hill station

A whole resort town at 1,100 m, laid out by British missionaries as a summer escape, with a curved main street of 600-odd shops, hotels and restaurants and a scatter of century-old villas.

The old villas and Meilu

Lushan's colonial villa district, with Meilu — Chiang Kai-shek's summer residence — at its heart. Timber shutters, stone footings and climbing ivy with a century of stories behind them.

The 'three stones and a tea'

Stone frog, stone fish, stone ear fungus and cloud-mist tea — Lushan's signature flavours, all drawn from the mountain. Expensive now, but the one meal to have up here.

Suggested itineraries

Three days on the mountain, and the one-day sprint

The three-day plan is the classic loop, in no hurry. The one-day plan is only for the short of time and fit of leg — it leans hard on the buses and cable cars.

Three days on Lushan

3 days

The comfortable classic: villa town, waterfalls, then the western gorges, with a sunrise in the middle.

Day 1

Guling and the Lushan Conference site

Drop your bags in Guling and ease in. Take the bus to the Lushan Conference site and its museum, look at the mountainside villa district and the story of Meilu, then ride out to Lulin Lake and its 30 m dam-bridge.
Walk on to Huanglong Temple and the Three Treasure Trees, and past Huanglong Pool and Wulong Pool, back to Guling for dinner.

Stops: GulingLushan Conference siteMeiluLulin LakeHuanglong TempleThree Treasure Trees
Day 2

Sunrise and waterfalls

Leave Guling in the dark for Hanpokou and watch the sun come up over the cloud. Then walk to the botanical garden, ride to Wulao Peak and climb to its ridge for the view.
Ride on to the Three Step Spring and walk down to the falls — this is the day's high point. Come back by way of Meilu and the Zhou Enlai memorial room; if you have energy, finish with a screening of Romance on Lushan Mountain in Guling.

Stops: HanpokouBotanical gardenWulao PeakThree Step SpringMeiluGuling cinema
Day 3

The western gorges and Shimen Ravine

Ride out from Guling to Tianqiao, walk down through Huajing and the Jinxiu Valley to Xianren Cave, then on to the Great Heavenly Pool and the descent to Longshou Cliff.
Cross the suspension bridge by cable car back to the Great Heavenly Pool entrance, then ride to Shimen Ravine, the mountain's 'west gate', for its falls before returning to Guling.

Stops: TianqiaoHuajingJinxiu ValleyXianren CaveGreat Heavenly PoolShimen Ravine

One day, the greatest hits

1 days

For the short of time and steady on your feet — buses throughout, but the mountain still delivers.

Day 1

Hanpokou to the Three Step Spring

Take an early bus to Hanpokou, walk to the botanical garden, then ride to Wulao Peak for the view. Push on to the Three Step Spring, take the cable car or walk down to the falls, and return.
Finish at Meilu and the Zhou Enlai memorial room on the way back, and end with the film in Guling if you still have an hour.

Stops: HanpokouBotanical gardenWulao PeakThree Step SpringMeilu

Sights

The places worth your time

Chinese ticket prices change without much notice. Treat these as a guide and confirm on arrival.

Waterfall · ¥64

The Three Step Spring (Sandie Quan)

Lushan's most famous sight and its favourite boast: a waterfall that pours off a cliff in three tiers, the first more than 70 m high, spraying white into the pool below. It is the '3,000 feet' of Li Bai's poem and the place where the mountain's cloud turns into thunder. The descent and climb back is a proper walk, so allow time and water.

Ticket: ¥64 (small train inside ¥80 extra)
Hours: 05:00–17:00
Where: Southeast of the mountain; on the East sightseeing line
Getting there: Sightseeing bus from Guling, then cable car ¥35 up / ¥55 down, or a steep walk
Time needed: 2.5–3 hours

Tip The paved stone stairs are long and hard on the knees. Take the small train or cable car on the way back up rather than climbing both ways, and go early before the tour groups arrive.

Sunrise · Included in the gate ticket

Hanpokou

A great notch where the eastern ridge is cut open, giving a view toward Poyang Lake and, at dawn, the sunrise the mountain is known for. On the ridge above stands Wangpo Pavilion, a carved and painted tower that is the classic spot to stand and watch. One of the nine great sunrise places in China, they say.

Ticket: Included in the ¥180 gate ticket
Hours: Best at dawn; buses start early in peak season
Where: Eastern ridge, on the East sightseeing line
Getting there: Sightseeing bus from Guling to Hanpokou
Time needed: 1–1.5 hours

Tip If you are staying in Guling and want the sunrise, you need real resolve — it is an early start. Check the sunrise time the night before and allow for the bus queue.

Peak · Included in the gate ticket

Wulao Peak

Five summits in a row at 1,436 m, looking like five old men seated together, joined to Poyang Lake below but with their tops in the sky. It is the wildest and most dramatic corner of Lushan, all bare granite and big views, and a place Chinese visitors raised on the Saint Seiya cartoon treat as something of a pilgrimage.

Ticket: Included in the ¥180 gate ticket
Hours: Daylight; allow the climb
Where: Southeast of the mountain
Getting there: Sightseeing bus to the trailhead, then a climb to the ridge
Time needed: 2 hours

Tip Climb to the fourth peak for the best of it — and, if the tea-seller is at the top, buy a cup; he hauls his water up the mountain himself each dawn.

Hill station · Walking

Guling and the old villas

The town at the top: a curved main street of hotels and shops, and behind it a district of nearly a thousand villas in foreign styles, most built from the 1890s on. Meilu, Chiang Kai-shek's summer residence, is the famous one; 'The Story of the Old Villas', a group of six century-old houses with a guide, is the best way into their history.

Ticket: Town free; Meilu ¥25 · Old Villas ¥30
Hours: Meilu 08:00–17:00 · Old Villas 08:00–17:30
Where: The mountain top; Guling town centre
Getting there: Where you stay; all buses leave from here
Time needed: Half a day

Tip Walk the villa lanes in the late afternoon when the day-trippers have gone and the mist sits low. It is then that Lushan feels most like the hill station it was built to be.

History · ¥40

White Deer Grotto Academy

At the southern foot of Wulao Peak stands one of China's four great ancient academies, founded in the tenth century and rebuilt by the neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi, who taught here and wrote its founding rules. It was for centuries a cradle of Chinese learning, and its stone-flagged courtyards and library still carry that hush.

Ticket: ¥40
Hours: 08:00–17:00
Where: Southern foot of Wulao Peak
Getting there: By road below the mountain; usually paired with a south-gate stop
Time needed: 1–1.5 hours

Tip It sits below the mountain, so pair it with a descent via the south gate rather than making a special trip up and down. The plum and osmanthus plantings and the old stone steps are the quiet pleasure of it.

Gorge · ¥52

Shimen Ravine

Called Lushan's west gate, this ravine is where a stream cuts between Tianchi Mountain and Tiechuan Peak, gathering into waterfalls — a compressed version of everything the mountain does, cliffs and water and old inscriptions. Long ranked among Lushan's finest scenes, it is a good final gorge before you head down.

Ticket: ¥52
Hours: Daylight, roughly 08:00–17:00
Where: Western foot of the mountain
Getting there: Sightseeing bus and a walk; often the last stop before descending
Time needed: 2 hours

Tip The walk is mostly downhill to the ravine and uphill back, so pace yourself. It pairs naturally with the western-gorge day, finishing with the suspension bridge and the Great Heavenly Pool.

Eating

What Lushan tastes like

The mountain's signature is 'three stones and a tea', and it is not cheap — the ingredients are scarce and the mountain has to be supplied. Still, eat it once.

Stone frog (huangmen shiji)

A local frog from the mountain's damp cliffs, braised 'yellow' with ginger and soy until the meat falls off the bone. The best-known Lushan dish, mild and rich — not the chilli-heavy cooking of the Hunan plains.

Stone fish (shiyu)

A tiny transparent fish, no longer than a sewing needle, that lives in Lushan's springs and waterfalls. Fried into an omelette or dropped into soup, it is delicate and faintly sweet — the 'stone fish egg-poach' is the classic.

Stone ear (shi'er)

A rock-growing fungus, flat and ear-shaped, harvested from cliffs. It goes into soups and stews, gives a faintly earthy depth and is prized as a tonic; the local claim is that it is good for the lungs.

Cloud-mist tea (yunwu cha)

One of China's ten famous teas, grown on the mountain since the Han dynasty and a tribute tea by the Song. Light, brisk and faintly sweet — the one thing on Lushan that is a real bargain, so buy a packet to take home.

Bamboo shoots and mountain greens

Lushan's fresh shoots, sold as a health food with a long list of virtues, and the small mountain cabbages that turn up in every restaurant. Simpler and cheaper than the 'three stones', and often better.

Osmanthus cakes and pastries

The 'four fragrances in one' tea-oil pastry, made with black sesame, osmanthus and local flour — crisp, thin and sweet, and a fine souvenir that survives the trip home.

Where to eat

Restaurants worth the address

Phone numbers are local landlines; add +86 and drop the leading 0 if calling from abroad.

Local · On the main street

Shiniu Restaurant

The best-known restaurant on Guling's main street, busy and reliable, doing the mountain's own dishes well. Order the braised pork with bamboo-shoot skin, Lushan baby cabbage, stone-fish egg-poach and braised stone frog. Standards of hygiene and service are ordinary; the food is the point.

Order: Braised pork with bamboo shoots, stone-fish egg-poach, braised stone frog
Where: 15-1 Lushan Main Street, Guling
Phone: 0792-8288093
Spend: About ¥40 a head

Local · Old-courtyard setting

Xiaoyuanzi (Little Courtyard)

An old-fashioned little walled courtyard just off the main drag, with a slightly hushed, historic feel and the local specialities on the menu. Prices are middling for a mountain restaurant, and the setting is worth a bit of a premium.

Order: The house local dishes; ask what is in season
Where: Beside the culture hall, Yaowa Road, Guling

Local · Down in Jiujiang

Yangguang Jiayuan Hotel

A Jiujiang city restaurant rather than a mountain one, and worth the trip down if you have been eating mountain food for days. The cooking, service and prices are all a step up from the summit, and it is where locals go for a proper Jiangxi meal.

Order: Jiangxi home cooking; ask for the local specialities
Where: 437 Lushan Road, Jiujiang
Phone: 0792-8237777
Spend: About ¥50 a head

Snacks · Cheap

Guling street stalls

The length of Guling's main street is lined with stalls selling everything from tea and dried bamboo shoots to hot snacks and noodle bowls. It is the easy, cheap meal on the mountain, and good for a plate of whatever the season has brought up.

Order: Noodles, hot snacks, dried mountain produce
Where: Guling Main Street and its side lanes

Tea · On the way up

Tea stalls on the trails

On the walk up to Wulao Peak, small tea stalls sell cups brewed with spring water and fresh mountain tea. The famous one is run by an old man at the fourth peak who carries his water up himself before dawn — a cup there is half the reward of the climb.

Order: A cup of cloud-mist tea, brewed with mountain spring water
Where: Fourth peak of Wulao Peak, and along the trails

Sleeping

Where to stay

Stay in Guling and you can walk to the buses and restaurants. Book ahead in summer; a mountain three-star is roughly a city two-star, so temper your expectations.

Hostel · from ¥30 a bed

Lushan Nature International Youth Hostel

A small villa hidden among trees by the Moonlit Pine Grove, ten minutes' walk from Guling's main street. Quiet, green and sociable, with birdsong instead of traffic. Beds from ¥30, standard rooms from ¥100.

Price: Beds from ¥30 · standard rooms from ¥100
Where: 1 Hubei Road, Lushan
Phone: 0792-8296327

Hotel · from ¥200

Taiji Hotel

An old-fashioned hotel on the shore of Lulin Lake, at the junction of sightseeing lines 1 and 2. Its location is the selling point: five minutes on foot to the lake for sunset, and an easy early start toward Hanpokou for the sunrise.

Price: Standard rooms about ¥200
Where: 11 Lulin Road, Guling
Phone: 0792-8283007

Hotel · from ¥450

Guomai Hotel

Set on Houhu Ridge facing Lulin Lake with Big Moon Mountain behind, this former postal workers' sanatorium has one of the best positions on the mountain and decent service to match. A reliable, comfortable choice if you want a proper hotel.

Price: Standard rooms about ¥450
Where: 15 Dayue Mountain Road, Guling
Phone: 0792-8297666

Historic villa · from ¥400

Chen Cheng Villa (Donglu Guesthouse)

A private villa of the Nationalist general Chen Cheng, next to Meilu in the East Valley villa district, where Zhou Enlai once stayed. If you want to sleep inside Lushan's villa history rather than just visit it, this is the place.

Price: Standard rooms about ¥400
Where: 10 Zhong'er Road, Lushan
Phone: 0792-8503102

Resort · from ¥350

Tianmu Lushan Hot Spring Resort

Down in the hot-spring town at the southern foot of the mountain, where the open-air baths are the draw — 72.5°C radon-rich water facing the mountain. A good contrast to the cool summit, and an easy base for the south gate.

Price: Deluxe rooms about ¥350
Where: Wenquan town, Xingzi county (south foot of Lushan)
Phone: 0792-2615138

Getting around

Arriving, and moving about

Everything on the mountain funnels through Guling. There is no ordinary city bus up top — you ride the sightseeing lines.

By air

The region's main gateway is Nanchang Changbei (KHN), about two hours away by road, with dense domestic and some international routes. The small Lushan airport at Jiujiang handles a few services and sits close to the south gate.

Main airport: Nanchang Changbei (KHN)
Nearby: Lushan airport at Jiujiang (fewer routes)
To the mountain: Airport bus to Jiujiang (¥16), then a mountain bus up to Guling; taxi ¥70–100 direct

By rail

Jiujiang Station is the useful one for the mountain, about 52 minutes from Nanchang by high-speed rail. Lushan Station is also possible. From the station, a short taxi or bus ride reaches the mountain bus station.

Jiujiang Station: The main rail gateway; buses up to Guling from here
From Nanchang: High-speed to Jiujiang in about 52 minutes
To the bus station: Taxi about ¥5; bus 15 for two stops

Aim for Jiujiang rather than the smaller Lushan Station — connections up the mountain are easier and more frequent from there.

The road up

The climb from Jiujiang to Guling takes about an hour and packs in some 396 bends. Buses and minibuses run up all day; minibuses leave when full, roughly 07:00–18:00.

Fare: Bus about ¥12 · minibus ¥15
Journey: About 1 hour, 396 bends
Note: Tourist vehicles are not allowed up between 22:00 and 06:00

Sightseeing lines

From Guling, two green bus lines serve the sights. The East line runs to Meilu, the Lushan Conference site, Lulin Lake, Hanpokou, the botanical garden, Wulao Peak and the Three Step Spring; the West line to Huajing, Xianren Cave, the Great Heavenly Pool and the dam.

East line: Meilu · Conference site · Hanpokou · Wulao Peak · Three Step Spring
West line: Huajing · Xianren Cave · Great Heavenly Pool · dam
Pass: ¥80 for seven days · ¥150 for a month
Season: 07:00–19:00 in peak season (Apr–Nov)

In peak season the buses are shared and you may wait an hour to board — this is normal on Lushan. Carry your belongings every time you get off, as lost items rarely come back.

Cable cars

Cable cars cover the steepest sections, most usefully at the Three Step Spring, where the climb back up is hard on the knees.

Three Step Spring: ¥35 up · ¥55 down · ¥80 return
Dakou cable car: ¥50
Xinglong (single line): ¥30
Xiufeng cable car: ¥40

On foot

Much of the best of Lushan is on its stone paths — the descent to the Three Step Spring, the climb up Wulao Peak, the western gorges. None of it is technical, but it is steep and often wet, so decent shoes and a rain jacket matter more than anything else in your bag.

Surface: Paved stone stairs, often wet and mist-slick
Bring: Grippy shoes, a waterproof, trekking poles if your knees complain
Note: Take the cable car or small train back up from the Three Step Spring

Shopping

What to take home

Guling's main street is a single long market — if Lushan sells it, you can find it here.

Lushan Cloud-Mist tea

The souvenir to buy. One of China's ten famous teas, grown on the mountain and a Song-dynasty tribute tea — light, brisk and sweet. Buy from a proper tea shop and taste before you commit; prices track the grade closely.

Stone ear fungus (shi'er)

The rock-growing fungus the mountain cooks prize, sold dried for taking home. It keeps well and makes a tonifying soup, and a packet is a genuinely local gift.

Bamboo shoots and dried mountain produce

Fresh shoots, dried bamboo, mushrooms and mountain greens, sold all along Guling's main street. Cheap, light and useful — check what will clear customs before you load up.

Osmanthus pastries and tea cakes

The 'four fragrances in one' tea-oil pastries and osmanthus sweets, and the tea cakes that go with osmanthus sugar. Boxed, sturdy and popular, they survive the journey home better than most mountain food.

Practical

The numbers to save

Staffed English help is not guaranteed up here. Save these before you need them.

Emergency (police / ambulance / fire)	110 · 120 · 119
Lushan visitor centre	800-8692511
Lushan tourism bureau	0792-8282998
Complaints hotline	0792-8287906
Lushan police	110 · 0792-8282153
Best months	May–August for cool air and waterfalls; December–February for snow
Money	Bank of China, CCB, ICBC and ABC all have outlets on the mountain — you need not carry much cash
What to pack	A warm layer (the top is 7–10°C cooler than the plain), rain gear, and motion-sickness pills for the 396 bends

Tips

Small things that save a trip

Take motion-sickness pills before you climb

The road up has 396 bends and almost everyone feels it. Take the pills half an hour before you board, not after. The drivers are excellent; the road is not.

Expect a mountain three-star, not a city one

Lushan's hotels are decent but a notch below their star rating, and the summit's water supply is limited, so hot water for showers often comes on a fixed schedule. Ask when you check in.

Pack a real jacket even in July

The top is 7–10°C cooler than Jiujiang, evening temperatures can fall to 15–20°C, and the mist is damp and persistent. A warm layer and a waterproof matter more than anything else.

Queue patiently for the sightseeing buses

In peak season the green buses are shared and a one-hour wait to board is normal. Lushan deliberately rotates vehicles to ease the pressure. Build slack into the day and do not rush the last bus.

Do not try to drive up late at night

Tourist vehicles are banned from the climb between 22:00 and 06:00 for safety. Plan to be up on the mountain, or down on the plain, well before the cut-off.

Keep the pass and your belongings with you

The ¥180 gate ticket covers many sights, so keep it — and take your bag every time you leave a sightseeing bus, because things left behind on Lushan rarely find their way back.

Background

Why Lushan looks like this

Geography and climate

Lushan stands alone in northern Jiangxi, wedged between the Yangtze and Poyang Lake, so both great waters wrap around it and push moisture up its flanks. The result is one of the wettest, mistiest mountains in China, with more than 90 ridges that rise above 1,000 m and a set of waterfalls carved by a mix of crustal movement and old glacial action. The Chinese poet's image — 'how towering is Mount Kuang, between the vast rivers and lakes' — captures it exactly.

The summit sits well above the plain, and the mountain's own weather is cool and wet: while the Poyang basin below reaches 39°C in midsummer, the top holds around 22.6°C, with evenings between 15 and 20°C. Spring arrives late, summer is short, autumn comes early and winter is long. Snow falls about 30 days a year, heaviest from late December to February — which is why a southern mountain can look, for a fortnight, like a northern one.

History and culture

The name Lushan comes from legend: a hermit named Kuang Su is said to have sought immortality here in the early Zhou, and the place was called 'the hut of the immortals' — Kuanglu — before being renamed Lushan in the Song. What follows is a thousand years of poets: Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Bai Juyi, Su Shi, each adding a line that lodged itself in the language. The mountain has always been as much a literary idea as a physical one.

It is also, unusually, both a religious and a political mountain. Huiyuan founded the East Grove Temple here in the fourth century, beginning the Chinese Pure Land school of Buddhism; Taoist masters including Zhang Daoling practised here; at its height the mountain held some 500 temples and shrines. Later, Lushan became a seat of modern Chinese politics — the 1959, 1961 and 1970 party meetings were held in the great hall that now houses the Lushan Conference museum. And from the 1890s, British missionaries and Chinese notables built the villas of Guling, turning the summit into a hill station that has never quite stopped being one.

Travel with them

Lushan on screen and in print

Not guides — a film, a book and two songs made for or shaped by the mountain.

Film

Romance on Lushan Mountain

Dir. Huang Zumo, 1980

The film that gave China its first on-screen kiss and burned Lushan into the national imagination. Shot all over the mountain, it made its leads Zhang Yu and Guo Kaimin into stars, and a small Guling cinema has screened it every couple of hours ever since — more than 12,000 showings by 2012. Watch it first, then walk its scenes.

Book

A Bitter Journey Through Culture

Yu Qiuyu

Yu Qiuyu's essays on Lushan treat the mountain not as rock and pine but as a carrier of thought — admiration, regret, helplessness and a thread of anger, all mixed. His image of mist drifting down over the eyes is a fair description of the mountain's hold on the Chinese literary mind.

Music

Zui Chu (At First)

Dou Peng & Hu Weina

The theme song of Romance on Lushan Mountain 2010, deliberately nostalgic — a return to the pure romance of thirty years earlier. Its refrain, that the world changes but love does not, is the mountain's own romantic myth in three minutes.

Music

Xiyue (Joy)

Xu Wei

Xu Wei's quiet, rolling song folds in the evening bell of the East Grove Temple and a sense of peace settling over the mountain. It is the sound many people put on for the drive down, watching Lushan recede into its cloud.

The questions visitors ask us most about Lushan, answered plainly.

Frequently asked questions

Prices and practical details are reviewed every month by our Beijing team and updated the day a rule changes.

How many days do I need on Mount Lushan?

Three days is the comfortable answer, and two is the sprint. Day one is the villa town and the Lushan Conference site; day two the sunrise at Hanpokou, Wulao Peak and the Three Step Spring; day three the western gorges — Huajing, Xianren Cave and Shimen Ravine. Add a day for the White Deer Grotto Academy and a hot spring.

Should I stay on the mountain or in Jiujiang?

Stay on the mountain, in Guling. That is where the hotels, food and sightseeing buses are, and the climb from Jiujiang takes an hour each way. Staying up means you can be at Hanpokou for sunrise without a pre-dawn drive, and you catch the mountain when the day-trippers have gone.

Is Lushan worth visiting in winter?

Yes — for the snow. Lushan snows around 30 days a year, heaviest from late December to late February, and a snow-covered mountain this far south is rare and beautiful. The gate ticket drops to ¥135 and the crowds disappear. Just watch the icy paths and dress for 7–10°C colder than the plain.

How do I get up to Guling?

Buses and minibuses climb from Jiujiang to the Guling mountain bus station in about an hour for ¥12–15. The road has 396 bends, so motion-sickness sufferers should prepare. Private cars pay an ¥85 park entry fee, and tourist vehicles are banned from climbing between 22:00 and 06:00.

How do I get around once I am up there?

On the sightseeing lines rather than ordinary buses. The East line runs to Meilu, the Lushan Conference site, Hanpokou, Wulao Peak and the Three Step Spring; the West line to Huajing, Xianren Cave, the Great Heavenly Pool and the dam. A seven-day pass is ¥80. Expect queues for the buses in peak season.

What is the single thing I should not miss?

If you only do one thing, make it the sunrise at Hanpokou followed by the walk down to the Three Step Spring — the mountain's cloud and its most famous waterfall in a single morning. If you have a little more time, watch Romance on Lushan Mountain first so you know what you are looking at.

What should I eat on Lushan?

The 'three stones and a tea': stone frog (a local frog, yellow-braised), tiny stone fish from the streams, stone ear fungus, and Lushan Cloud-Mist tea. Local vegetables and bamboo shoots are good too. Try Shiniu on Guling's main street, a long-standing favourite with the mountain's own dishes.

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The same places, with a driver, an English-speaking guide and the tickets already bought.

Lushan Jiangxi · 0 tours Lushan is a 1,474 m cloud-wrapped mountain in northern Jiangxi whose cool 22°C summer and 90-odd peaks of waterfalls made it China's original hill sta

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Dali City guide · 12 tours A walled Bai town between a 4,000 m mountain and a great lake — wind, flowers, snow and moon, and life at a slower speed.

Shuhe City guide · 12 tours The quiet version of Lijiang — a Tea Horse Road village of canals, stone bridges and slow afternoons, 4 km from the crowds.

Lijiang City guide · 12 tours A UNESCO Naxi old town of canals and cobbles beneath a 5,596 m snow mountain — the cultural heart of north-west Yunnan.

Xiamen City guide · 12 tours A subtropical island city of temples, fishing-village lanes and the best street food in Fujian — with the car-free islet of Gulangyu a 20-minute ferry away.

Gulangyu City guide · 12 tours A car-free island of colonial villas, pianos and cats, twenty minutes off Xiamen — and the one place where the trick is simply to stay the night.

Fuzhou City guide · 12 tours A 2,200-year-old capital of banyan trees and mountains-within-the-city, where the Ming lanes of Sanfang Qixiang meet the dockyard that built China's modern navy.

Lugu Lake City guide · 12 tours A 2,680 m lake on the Yunnan–Sichuan border, home to China's last matrilineal people, pig-trough canoes and a great deal of doing nothing.

Xishuangbanna City guide · 12 tours China's tropical south — rainforest, wild elephants, Dai villages and the Mekong, wrapped around the gateway city of Jinghong.

Shangri-La City guide · 12 tours A Tibetan town at 3,300 m in Yunnan's Diqing prefecture — monasteries, grassland, prayer wheels and cold thin air.

Nanchang City guide · 12 tours Jiangxi's 'hero city' on the Gan River — one great Tang pavilion, a 160-metre Ferris wheel, and the best claypot soup you will eat in China.

Hefei City guide · 12 tours Anhui's 2,000-year-old capital: the hometown of China's model judge, a moat-turned-garden ring, and the fast rail gateway to Huangshan.

Hongcun City guide · 12 tours A 900-year-old Hui village laid out as an ox, with water running to every door and a mirror-still crescent pond at its heart.

Wuhan City guide · 12 tours Three towns, two rivers and the best breakfast in China — a huge, blunt river city of bridges, lakes and cheap, brilliant street food.

Changsha City guide · 12 tours Hunan's loud, young capital: a 3,000-year-old city that eats chilli-hot food, stays up all night and treats foot massage as a civic duty.

Fenghuang Ancient Town City guide · 12 tours The stilt-house river town of Shen Congwen's 'Border Town' — glowing lanterns, stepping stones and the best two nights in western Hunan.

Wuyuan City guide · 12 tours China's 'most beautiful countryside' — dozens of white-walled Huizhou villages strung along streams and terraced into the hills, and two weeks a year of gold.

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Huangshan City guide · 12 tours Yellow Mountain: 82 granite peaks of twisted pines and grotesque rock, a sea of cloud that changes by the hour, and hot springs at the foot.

Wudang Mountain City guide · 12 tours The Taoist first mountain of China — a gilded bronze hall on a 1,612 m summit, temples hung off cliff faces, and the birthplace of tai chi.

Luoyang City guide · 12 tours Thirteen dynasties, 100,000 Buddhas carved into a river cliff, China's first Buddhist temple — and a whole city that turns peony-pink every April.

Yuntai Mountain City guide · 12 tours A UNESCO geopark in Henan where red-stone gorges squeeze a river to a slot, a 314 m waterfall drops in one plunge, and every path leads to another pool.

Rizhao City guide · 12 tours A low-key Shandong beach town where the sun rises straight out of the Yellow Sea, the sand runs 60 km and a seafood dinner costs less than a coffee in Shanghai.

Yantai City guide · 12 tours A northern Shandong port of fairy-tale cliffs, wine cellars and long golden beaches — where emperors once hunted the elixir of life and China's wine industry still begins.

Lianyungang City guide · 12 tours A working Jiangsu port with a myth in the middle of it — the Flower-Fruit Mountain of Journey to the West, a sea causeway to a big island beach, and some of the cheapest seafood on the coast.

Sanqing Mountain City guide · 12 tours A vertical forest of granite pillars in Jiangxi — the Python Out of the Mountain, the Goddess of the East Sea, two cable cars and a cliff-hugging walkway at 1,660 metres.

Tianjin City guide · 12 tours Beijing's port city next door — a river of 24 bridges, 2,000 colonial villas, and the best street breakfast in northern China.

Datong City guide · 12 tours A frontier capital of carved Buddhas — the Yungang Grottoes, a temple pinned to a cliff, and the oldest wooden tower in China.

Taiyuan City guide · 12 tours Shanxi's provincial capital and noodle heartland — the spring of Jinci, two Ming pagodas, and a museum that explains the whole province.

Pingyao City guide · 12 tours China's best-preserved ancient walled town — a Ming wall, the first Chinese bank, and two temples of painted clay just outside the gates.

Wutai Mountain City guide · 12 tours China's foremost Buddhist mountain — fifty-plus temples in one valley, crowned by five flat-topped peaks up to 3,058 m.

Hulunbuir City guide · 12 tours China's finest grassland — a 263,000 km² sweep of steppe, birch forest and border river, best driven with the windows down.

The Forbidden City City guide · 12 tours Beijing's 600-year imperial palace — 8,700 rooms behind a 72-hectare wall, and the largest surviving wooden palace complex on earth.

Sanya City guide · 12 tours China's only true winter-sun coast — four very different bays, a coral island and a 108 m sea Buddha, all at 18° north.

Haikou City guide · 12 tours Hainan's capital is the island's living city — 600-year-old arcade streets, a volcanic village, and a morning-tea-to-midnight food culture.

Beihai City guide · 12 tours 24 km of fine white sand on one side, a volcanic island of coral and lava on the other — plus a 19th-century arcade old street in between.

Nanning City guide · 12 tours Guangxi's green capital is a gateway to Detian Falls, Beihai and Vietnam — and a genuinely excellent food city if you let it slow you down.

Guangxi City guide · 12 tours One autonomous region, a dozen landscapes — limestone peaks and rice terraces in the north, a Vietnam border and a warm gulf coast in the south.

Huizhou City guide · 12 tours A free West Lake, a Taoist mountain and 200 km of white-sand coast — the Pearl River Delta's most underrated weekend.

Beidaihe City guide · 12 tours Northern China's classic beach escape — one sunrise headland, 10 km of calm swimming water, and a bird flyway overhead twice a year.

Shanhaiguan City guide · 12 tours The town where the Great Wall stops being a rumour of mountains and walks into the Bohai Sea.

Baiyangdian City guide · 12 tours The biggest freshwater lake on the North China Plain — and almost none of it can be reached except by boat.

Qinhuangdao City guide · 12 tours 126 km of Bohai coast in one municipality — a working port, two famous resorts, and the only desert dunes that meet this sea.

Yesanpo City guide · 12 tours Gorge country where the Taihang and Yan ranges collide — 52.5 km of canyon walls, a cave that spits fish, and a river to fall off.

Zhuhai City guide · 12 tours The delta's slow city: a 28 km promenade, 146 islands, oysters fattened where the river meets the sea.

Wuyi Mountain City guide · 12 tours Nine bends of clear water, red sandstone cliffs, and the tea that made a mountain's name.

Jiuzhaigou City guide · 12 tours 108 mineral-blue lakes in one 55 km valley — the place that ruins water everywhere else for you.

Mount Siguniang City guide · 12 tours Four snow peaks, three valleys, and the friendliest 5,000 m mountain in China to stand on top of.

Hailuogou City guide · 12 tours A glacier that comes down to 2,850 m, hot springs in the forest, and Gongga Shan filling the sky above both.

Daocheng Yading City guide · 12 tours Three 6,000 m sacred peaks, glacial lakes at 4,600 m and twenty hours of road — the hardest, highest payoff in Sichuan.

Shunan Bamboo Sea City guide · 12 tours Seventy thousand mu of bamboo over twenty-eight hills, a red sandstone corridor under a closed green roof, and a banquet made entirely of bamboo.

Dujiangyan City guide · 12 tours Not a monument but a machine: three pieces of engineering with no dam, still doing their job after 2,270 years.

Qingcheng Mountain City guide · 12 tours The mountain where Daoism was organised, and the one Chengdu escapes to when the basin turns into an oven.

Qingdao City guide · 12 tours Red-tiled roofs, cold beer and a granite mountain that walks straight into the sea — the easiest good time on the Yellow Sea.

Mount Tai City guide · 12 tours 1,545 metres, 6,290 stone steps and three thousand years of emperors — the one mountain in China that is also a document.

Jinan City guide · 12 tours A provincial capital with 700 springs under the pavement — people still queue at the spouts to fill their kettles.

Weihai City guide · 12 tours 1,000 km of clean coast, a free bathing beach, the island where the Beiyang Fleet died — and thousands of wild swans every winter.

Qufu City guide · 12 tours One family, two thousand years of steles, and a ¥150 pass that covers the lot — the easiest serious day trip in Shandong.

Penglai City guide · 12 tours China's immortals' coast — a Song-dynasty naval harbour you can walk for free, a mythology nobody ever found, and the ferry to 32 islands.

Changdao City guide · 12 tours 32 islands, one causeway, a ¥150 land pass, tens of thousands of gulls and nowhere you can drive — the place where everything happens by boat.

Nanjing City guide · 12 tours Capital of six dynasties, capital of the Republic, and the city that eats more duck than anywhere else on earth.

Suzhou City guide · 12 tours Two thousand five hundred years of canals, sixty surviving gardens, and a city that shuts its gates at half past five.

Zhouzhuang City guide · 12 tours Nine hundred years, fourteen bridges, one ticket — and a town that only makes sense before eight in the morning.

Tongli City guide · 12 tours Fifteen canals, seven islets, forty-nine bridges — and a town that still gets up at dawn because it lives here.

Wuxi City guide · 12 tours Taihu on one side, a Grand Buddha on the next hill, and ribs sweet enough to argue about — the most underrated city on the Yangtze delta.

Yangzhou City guide · 12 tours A city built by salt merchants who had more money than restraint — gardens, a narrow lake, and the best breakfast in China.

Zhenjiang City guide · 12 tours Three hills, one ferry landing, and an unreasonable share of Chinese literature — the Yangtze city people drive past.

Changzhou City guide · 12 tours A 2,500-year-old canal city that built a dinosaur park and refuses to apologise for it.

Wuzhen City guide · 12 tours A town that is two towns: the older, quieter East Zone and the lit-up West Zone you sleep inside.

Xitang City guide · 12 tours Nine canals, 122 lanes, one long roofed corridor — and a town that still works for a living.

Hangzhou City guide · 12 tours A lake in the middle of a city, a tea village in the hills, and two thousand years of getting the mood right.

Xixi Wetland City guide · 12 tours Ten square kilometres of marsh inside Hangzhou, and the only way into half of it is a boat.

Ningbo City guide · 12 tours A 7,000-year-old port with Asia's oldest private library, a free waterfront 20 years older than Shanghai's, and the best seafood before the islands.

Mount Putuo City guide · 12 tours A Buddhist island with no cars, three great temples and a ¥10 lunch that is the point of the place.

Qiandao Lake City guide · 12 tours A thousand islands that did not exist sixty years ago, and the cleanest big-lake water in China.

Shaoxing City guide · 12 tours Two and a half thousand years of water-town China, and Lu Xun's house is free.

Zhoushan City guide · 12 tours 1,390 islands, one road bridge in, and a harbour that lands more fish than almost anywhere on earth.

Hengdian City guide · 12 tours A backlot the size of a town, where the palaces are copies and the film crews are real.

Yandang Mountain City guide · 12 tours A volcano that weathering turned into scenery — 500-odd sights of peak, cave and waterfall across eight scenic areas.

Zhejiang City guide · 12 tours One small, mountainous, absurdly rich province that holds a lake, two canal towns, a Buddhist island and a dead volcano.

Hong Kong Outlying Islands City guide · 12 tours Two hundred-odd islands, half an hour of ferry from the financial district, and not a car on three of them.

Hong Kong Shopping City guide · 12 tours A duty-free port where the tag starts lower, two citywide sale seasons knock a third off, and every mall sits on an MTR exit.

Macao City guide · 12 tours Four hundred years of Portuguese streets, a fake Venice under a painted sky, and the best egg tart in Asia.

Urumqi City guide · 12 tours The city furthest from the sea, with a snow range on its doorstep and dinner starting at nine.

Hong Kong SAR, China City guide · 11 tours A harbour skyline you already know by heart, dim sum trolleys at dawn, and 260 islands an hour from the neon.

Taiwan, China City guide · 11 tours Night-market alleys, high-mountain railways, and a coastline that changes character every hundred kilometres.

Qinghai Lake City guide · 12 tours A 4,400 sq km inland sea at 3,200 m, ringed by rapeseed gold, prayer flags and the best cycling road in China.

Mount Emei City guide · 11 tours A 3,099-metre Buddhist summit you can reach by cable car before lunch — and a mountain full of monkeys that will absolutely rob you.

Beijing City guide · 11 tours Six centuries of imperial red walls, a Great Wall you can climb before lunch, and the best roast duck on earth.

Taipei City guide · 11 tours A 24-hour bookstore, a night market that never stops sizzling, and a city that apologises when you bump into it.

North Xinjiang City guide · 11 tours Alpine lakes the colour of poured enamel, a village of log cabins under birch trees, and the last tear the Atlantic ever sheds.

Lanzhou City guide · 11 tours A city split in half by the Yellow River, where beef noodles are a breakfast ritual and the Silk Road still runs through the streets.

Mount Hua City guide · 11 tours Five granite peaks, one plank road bolted to a cliff face, and a sunrise that justifies the 2am start.

Dunhuang City guide · 11 tours A desert oasis where Buddhist cave art survived a thousand years and a crescent lake refused to dry up.

Gannan City guide · 11 tours 433 kilometres of the Yellow River's first bend, a 3.5 km prayer-wheel circuit, and Tibetan grasslands almost nobody has commercialised yet.

Sichuan–Tibet Highway City guide · 11 tours 2,142 kilometres of cliff-edge switchbacks, four of China's most beautiful mountains, and a road the Tibetans walk on their knees.

Kangding City guide · 11 tours The town that gave Asia its most famous love song, a 7,556m sacred peak on its doorstep, and the last real Tibetan town before the road climbs to Lhasa.

Lhasa City guide · 12 tours A city of prayer wheels and butter lamps at 3,700 metres, where the sun shines 3,000 hours a year and the world's highest palace watches over it all.

Nyingchi City guide · 11 tours Tibet's greenest corner — peach blossom valleys, a 7,782 m peak that hides from almost everyone, and the world's deepest canyon.

Namtso City guide · 11 tours A 1,920-square-kilometre sheet of impossible blue at 4,718 metres, ringed by snow peaks and prayer flags.

Chongqing City guide · 12 tours A vertical city of fog, cable cars and cliff-side stilt houses, where the火锅 never stops boiling and the night skyline outshines Hong Kong.

Qiandongnan City guide · 11 tours A thousand Miao households stacked up a mountainside, drum towers and wind-rain bridges in Dong villages, and a 600-year-old Ming garrison town on the road to Guiyang.

Libo City guide · 11 tours Emerald rivers threading through karst peaks, a 600-metre forest growing out of a riverbed, and China's largest wild plum grove.

Guiyang City guide · 11 tours China's summer capital at 1,100 metres, where the nights run on sour fish soup, street-side barbecue and mahjong that never quite stops.

Zhenyuan City guide · 11 tours A 2,000-year-old river town where the Wuyang River carves an S through the mountains and every lane hides a story.

Huangguoshu City guide · 11 tours Asia's biggest waterfall, and the only one on earth you can walk behind, above and around — plus 600-year-old Ming dynasty villages a short drive away.

Harbin City guide · 11 tours Minus 30 degrees, a frozen river you can walk across, and a cathedral built by Russians who never went home.

Yunnan City guide · 11 tours Snow mountains, tropical rainforest, twenty-five minorities and a plate of rice noodles — all in one province.

Shanghai City guide · 11 tours A 1920s waterfront of colonial banks facing a science-fiction skyline, soup dumplings you eat with a straw, and 20 million people moving like clockwork.

Zhangjiajie City guide · 11 tours Three thousand sandstone pillars straight out of Avatar, a glass skywalk bolted to a cliff, and a cable car that leaves from downtown.

Guangzhou City guide · 11 tours A 2,200-year-old trading port where dim sum is a religion, colonial islands sit beside 600-metre towers, and the food never stops.

Guilin City guide · 11 tours Karst peaks rising straight out of a green river, rice terraces carved into mountainsides, and the best bowl of noodles you'll eat in China.

Shenzhen City guide · 11 tours A fishing village that became a megacity in forty years — and it still has 500-year-old banyans, empty beaches and dim sum worth the border crossing.

Chengdu City guide · 11 tours A 3,000-year-old city where the schedule is tea, mahjong and hotpot — and the pandas are just the opening act.

Xinjiang City guide · 11 tours Snow peaks, grassland, desert and oasis — one-sixth of China, and the longest road you will ever ride.

Xi'an City guide · 14 tours Thirteen dynasties of emperors, a terracotta army buried for 2,200 years, and a walled city you can cycle in 100 minutes.

Qinghai City guide · 11 tours China's high-altitude blue heart: a salt lake you can walk on, a 3,200-metre sea, and yak butter tea at the roof of the world.

Tibet City guide · 11 tours A plateau the size of Western Europe where the sky starts at your feet, prayer flags carry the wind, and the roads run past 8,000-metre peaks.

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Free itinerary design, a revised plan within one working day, and nothing charged until you approve the final version.

Stay in Guling, the villa town at 1,100 m — hotels, restaurants and all the sightseeing buses start there.
The park gate ticket is ¥180 in peak season and ¥135 in winter; the mountain minibus pass is a separate ¥80 for seven days.
Book your accommodation ahead in summer — Guling is a resort town and fills up fast.

Lushan travel guide: Guling, the Three Step Spring, Wulao Peak and how to ride the mountain

The Three Step Spring

Sunrise at Hanpokou

Wulao Peak

Guling, the hill station

The old villas and Meilu

The 'three stones and a tea'

Guling and the Lushan Conference site

Sunrise and waterfalls

The western gorges and Shimen Ravine

Hanpokou to the Three Step Spring

The Three Step Spring (Sandie Quan)

Hanpokou

Wulao Peak

Guling and the old villas

White Deer Grotto Academy

Shimen Ravine

Stone frog (huangmen shiji)

Stone fish (shiyu)

Stone ear (shi'er)

Cloud-mist tea (yunwu cha)

Bamboo shoots and mountain greens

Osmanthus cakes and pastries

Shiniu Restaurant

Xiaoyuanzi (Little Courtyard)

Yangguang Jiayuan Hotel

Guling street stalls

Tea stalls on the trails

Lushan Nature International Youth Hostel

Taiji Hotel

Guomai Hotel

Chen Cheng Villa (Donglu Guesthouse)

Tianmu Lushan Hot Spring Resort

Lushan Cloud-Mist tea

Stone ear fungus (shi'er)

Bamboo shoots and dried mountain produce

Osmanthus pastries and tea cakes

Take motion-sickness pills before you climb

Expect a mountain three-star, not a city one

Pack a real jacket even in July

Queue patiently for the sightseeing buses

Do not try to drive up late at night

Keep the pass and your belongings with you

Geography and climate

History and culture

Romance on Lushan Mountain

A Bitter Journey Through Culture

Zui Chu (At First)

Xiyue (Joy)

Frequently asked questions

Explore next

Lushan trips and tickets

More city guides

Combine Lushan with

Sort out before you fly

Understand the place

Tell us your dates.We'll do the rest.

Tell us your dates.
We'll do the rest.