Sanqing Mountain

Sanqing Mountain is a granite mountain massif in Jiangxi province, China, about 40 kilometers north of Yushan County, its name meaning Three Pure Ones after the Taoist trinity and the mountain's three main summits, Yujing, Yushui and Yuhua. The mountain's granite dates to the Mesozoic era, though the wider area sits within a much older crustal suture zone reaching back roughly 850 million years to the Neoproterozoic; faulting, weathering and erosion have carved the granite into intricate pinnacles, more than twenty gorges and numerous waterfalls across the massif's 229.5 square kilometers. Its highest point, Yujing Peak, reaches 1,817 meters. Sanqing Mountain is both a sacred Taoist site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated in 2008 for its distinctive granite scenery, and a National Geopark since 2005.