Dr. Mark Nan Tu

The Mao status at the foot of the YueLu mountain

Aiwan Pavilion in winter

Yuelu mountain is located on the river bank of the Xiang river in Shanghai, the capital of Hunan
Mount Yuelu Scenic Area consists of hills, pinnacles, rivers, lakes, wide variety of species of flora and fauna, cultural historic site, revolutionary monuments. A visit to Changsha is not complete without climbing the Yuelu mountain.

Besides the beautiful natural sceneries, The mountain is dotted with inspiring cultural heritages including the Yuelu Academy, Lushan Temple, Yunlu Palace, Aiwan Pavilion, Baihe Spring, the Monument to Huang Xing and Cha Er. Monument to King Jiu and other minor historical traces.

Aiwan Pavilion
This pavilion was built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty and was made famous from the poem by Du Mu, a poet from the Song dynasty, which says ” Stop my carriage, for I love the maple forest in the deep autumn; the leaves in the frost are redder than the flowers in February.
The Pavilion is made even more famous because the Chinese leader Mao zhedong spend his spare time with fellow students when he was studying in Changsha normal collage in the early 20th century.

Lushan Temple
Lushan Temple in located in the middle section of the mountain and is one of the most ancient temples in Hunan built in Western Jin Dynasty. Today, it is a rather small temple but due to its location, it is still popular among those devoted followers.

Monument to Cha Er and Huang Xing
Both are national hero in the movement overthrown the imperial system.

Residence of King Jiu, the founding father of south Korea
This monument is located in the middle section of the mountain. One will easily miss it if not for its Korean writings. It is the hide out for King Jiu, the founding father of the modern south Korea. Mr. King Jiu stayed in Changsha Yuelu mountain during the Japanese occupation in Korea in the 1940s.

Yuelu Academy
Yuelu Academy was like the Harvard or Cambridge in the west or Beijing University in China. Yuelu Academy was the top Intellectual training ground for thousands of years until the early 20th century.

A leisure hike up the Yuelu Mountain takes about 1 hour. There is a viewing platform at the top of the mountain. From there, one can see the Xiang River passing through and the Juzizhou Island in the middle of the river and the Changsha city skyline at the distance. Mao zhedong once wrote in his poem: The Xiang river flow north and with the Juzizhou island in the middle. The trees levels are turning red and thousands of the boats are traveling in the Xiang river.

Yuelu Academy

One of the teaching room in the Yuelu Academy

The entrance to the Lushan Temple

Monument to HuangXing

From the top of the mountain, Xiang river and the JuZiZhou island and the Changsha city on the other side of the Xiang river