Mountain Riyue (Sun-and-Moon) was called Russet Ridge during the Tang Dynasty, because of its sunset mountaintop.
With the highest peak reaching 4,877m above sea level, it extends tens of kilometers southward from Gahai, a small lake east of the Qinghai Lake, to Qunjia in Huangzhong County.
It is the watershed between outflowing and continental rivers, and the natural demarcation line between the eastern agricultural area and the western pastoral area in Qinghai Province. Standing on the top of the mountain and looking to the east.
You can see villages lying on terraced fields connected by crisscross footpaths, green crops growing sturdily and rapes blossoming in yellow flowers.
Looking to the west then, you will get a full sight of continuous mountains and vast grasslands with white sheep, black yaks and brown horses scattered here and there.
Precipitously and strategically located, Mountain Riyue has always been a vital communication pass between Central China and the southwest frontiers.
It provides a natural defense for the Qinghai Lake. Many stories about the mountain have been handed down from generation to generation, among which a well-known one relates to Princess Wencheng. As is recorded, in the 14th year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty (641 A.D.).
Songtsan Gombo, king of Tubo, dispatched his prime minister Lu Dongzan to Chang'an, capital of Tang, to express the King's wish to marry a Tang princess.
Lu Dongzan trekked a long way, taking with him 5,000 Liang of gold and countless rare curios. Emperor Taizong (Li Shimin) granted Songtsan Gambo his request, and chose Princess Wencheng to go to Tubo, to be escorted by Li Daozong.
Duke of Jiangxia. Accompanied by a band and gigantic retinue made up of guards, palace doctor, and maidservants. Princess Wencheng left Chang'an for Tubo, taking along a great deal of silk and medicine, as well as classics.
Buddhist sutras and crop seeds. On her arrival at the Russet Ridge, the princess ascended to the top of the mountain and looked to the west.
She saw boundless grasslands and rolling mountains all in her sight. At the thought that she would enter a remote land, she took out the Sun-and-Moon Treasure Mirror given by her mother at departure, expecting to see her homeland in it.
Tears trickled down her cheeks when she saw surprisingly neither her parents nor the city of Chang'an. She threw the mirror behind on the mountain and resumed her journey determinedly, for the cause of the unity of two nationalities, and she never returned during the 39 years before her death.
Later on, people changed the name of the mountain from the Russet Ridge to Mountain Riyue, in memory of the princess.
Admission fee: RMB ￥ 20 per person |
Asia Travel 
Articles: (
Newest publication