Guizhou · A Pinnacle With Two Temples and a Cleft Between Them
Fanjingshan (梵净山)
A block of very old rock standing above the Guizhou plateau, with a split pinnacle carrying a temple on each half and a bridge across the gap. It is also the only place on earth one species of monkey lives.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | An isolated mountain massif with Buddhist summits on top and a forest reserve around it |
|---|---|
| Where | Tongren, in the northeast corner of Guizhou |
| Listed | UNESCO inscribed it in 2018, for the biology rather than the buildings |
| The pinnacle | Red Clouds Golden Summit, at about 2,336 m, split by a cleft with a temple on each side and a bridge between them |
| The high point | Fenghuang peak at about 2,570 m, which is not the one visitors climb |
| Whose mountain | In Buddhist practice it is associated with Maitreya, the future Buddha |
| The monkey | The Guizhou snub-nosed monkey lives here and nowhere else, in a population of a few hundred |
| Time needed | A full day. Cable car plus a long stairway, with daily visitor caps |
Why Go
An Island That Never Moved
1. Why one monkey lives here and nowhere else
Fanjingshan is a massif of very old rock standing well above the plateau around it, and for a long time it has behaved like an island. Through the climate swings of the last few million years the lowlands around it changed repeatedly while the mountain kept a cool, wet, forested band on its flanks, and species that could not cross the dry ground between mountains simply stayed.
The result is a short list of things that exist here and in no other place: a fir named after the mountain, a number of plants with the same distribution, and the Guizhou snub-nosed monkey, of which a few hundred survive in these forests. That isolation is why UNESCO listed the site in 2018, and the listing is a natural one rather than a cultural one, which is unusual for a mountain with temples on top.
2. The pinnacle, and what it costs to get up it
The thing everyone comes for is the Red Clouds Golden Summit: a near-vertical finger of rock with a natural cleft splitting the top in two, a small temple built on each half, and a short bridge across the gap between them. The way up is a stairway cut into the rock with chains to hold, and it is genuinely steep and genuinely exposed.
Because the staircase is narrow and one way, the site caps how many people come up each day and the queue on the pinnacle itself can be long. Anyone uneasy with heights or with confined stone stairs should plan on the other summit instead, which has the mushroom rock and much of the view without the climb.
The catch. It is in cloud most of the time and that is not bad luck, it is the climate. A reasonable share of visitors ride up, queue, climb, and see white. The site is also capped and popular, so tickets go in advance in season, and the journey out to Tongren is a long one for a mountain you might not see.
Orientation
Cable Car, Two Summits, One Queue
A shuttle bus runs from the gate to the cable car, and the cable car lifts you most of the way. From the top station a stepped path leads along the ridge to the older summit with the mushroom rock, and from there to the foot of the Red Clouds pinnacle.
The pinnacle stairway is the last and hardest part, and it is optional. Doing the ridge and the older summit without it is a full and worthwhile day; the pinnacle adds an hour, most of it queueing, and a climb that some people turn back from.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Book the ticket before you travel
Daily numbers are capped and the allocation goes early in season. Turning up without one in summer does not work.
Check the forecast and be willing to change the day
This mountain makes its own weather. A clear morning here is worth rearranging a trip for.
The stairway is not for everyone
Steep, narrow, one way, with chains. Decide at the bottom rather than halfway up, where turning round is hard.
Dress for a different climate
It can be twenty degrees warmer at the gate than on the summit, and the wind on the ridge is constant.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| April to June | Rhododendron on the upper slopes and the clearest stretch before the summer rain | Cloud still closes the summit often, and the stairs are slick when wet |
| September to October | The most settled weather of the year and the best odds of seeing anything at all | The first week of October is the national holiday and the caps bite hardest |
| July to August | Cool at altitude when Guizhou below is hot, which is the local reason to come | The wettest months and the busiest. Cloud most days |
| November to March | Rime ice on the summit and very few people | Cold, and the cable car stops in high wind or ice |
Context
A Buddhist Mountain That Was Listed for Its Trees
Fanjingshan has been a Buddhist site since at least the Ming, associated with Maitreya, the Buddha who is to come, and the temples on the pinnacle belong to that tradition. Pilgrims have been climbing the same rock for centuries, and the stairway with chains is a modern version of a very old route.
What is unusual is that the world heritage listing of 2018 is a natural one. UNESCO listed the mountain for its biology, for the endemic species that survived on it, and not for the temples. That is a different kind of value from the one that made it famous in China, and the two now sit on the same mountain.
They are not entirely separate. The reason there is intact forest to list is partly that the mountain was sacred and partly that it was remote and steep, and a reserve was established here in the 1970s, well before the tourism arrived. Whether the visitor numbers the listing brings can coexist with what the listing recognised is the live question at every site of this kind.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · 270 km southwest
Hundred-Li Rhododendron Forest (百里杜鹃)
The rhododendron belt in western Guizhou, spectacular for a few weeks in spring and quiet the rest of the year.
Spot · 250 km southwest
Zhenyuan Ancient Town (镇远古镇)
A river town in a gorge in southeastern Guizhou, on the way back toward the Miao and Dong country.
Spot · 340 km west
Huangguoshu Falls (黄果树瀑布)
The big waterfall in western Guizhou, at the other end of the province.
Where to Base
Guiyang (贵阳)
Tongren has its own airport and a fast-train station, and the mountain is about an hour from either. From Guiyang it is around three hours by train, which makes it a long day trip and a comfortable overnight.
Staying at the foot of the mountain is the sensible plan. It lets you go up on the first cable car, which is both the shortest queue and the best chance of clear air.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · full day
The ridge and the older summit
Cable car, the stepped ridge path, the mushroom rock and the views, without the pinnacle stairway.
On site · 1 hr
The Red Clouds pinnacle
The chain stairway up the rock to the two temples and the bridge across the cleft.
Guided · 4 days
Eastern Guizhou
The mountain plus the river town and the Miao and Dong villages south of it, which is the part of the province most worth the time.
Worth the journey if you can be flexible about which day you go up. Book ahead, take the first cable car, and treat the pinnacle stairway as optional rather than compulsory. The mountain is listed for what lives on it rather than what was built on it, which is worth holding in mind while queueing for the temple at the top.
Plan Eastern Guizhou Around the Weather
Tell us your dates and what you are after, and our local team will build the route: the capped ticket booked before you travel, a night at the foot of the mountain, and a spare morning in the plan in case the summit is in cloud.