Saving China's holy mountains

For centuries, China's holy mountains were protected by Taoist and Buddhist and the respect of the pilgrims who visited them. Now, in the face of growing tourist and business pressures, a new effort is being made to save them from destruction. To climb some of the great and ancient sacred mountains of China is to risk life and limb. Not just because some of them, like Hua Shan in Shaanxi Province, are amongst the most dangerous in China, but because of the swirling hordes of visitors. Sacred Mountains in China are big business and a major threat now exists to the delicate balance of ecology on many of those mountain ranges. For centuries they have attracted pilgrims. Now they are attracting tourists but, more worryingly, big business interests as well.

China has nine senior sacred mountains, five of which are associated with Taoism, the indigenous religion of China, and four with Buddhism. They range from the small mountain island of Pu To off the coast near Ningbo to the massive 200 mile long range of Heng Shan in Hunan Province. Then there are scores of lesser sacred mountains dotted across the landscape of China, each with its own aura of the holy which has helped to protect them down the millennia of Chinese civilization.