Located at the intersection of He'nan Province and Hubei Province, Mountain Jigong Resort covers an area of 287km2. It is close to No.107 State Highway, Jing-Guang Railway and Jing-Zhu Expressway, only 38km away from Xinyang City to the north.
As one of the first group of state key scenic spots and state natural reserves, the place is noted for its beautiful scenery, clear springs, vernal woods and cool weather. Historically there are four best summer resorts in China as follows, Bedai River, Mountain Lushan, Mountain Mogan and the last one is Mountain Jigong Resort. In the period of Northern Wei Kingdom 1,400 years ago, it was recorded in Shuijingzhu, a geographic book by Li Daoyuan. Afterwards myriads of works have been left by celebrities, learned men to admire the beauty of the mountain. Nowadays, it has become a place of interest largely of scenic values, supplemented by some cultural and historical sights and a paradise for convalescing, summer escape, travel, sightseeing, research and so on.
Baoxiaofeng, the peak, stands like a rooster watching the east and therefore that is what the name implies (Mountain Jigong, literally it means a rooster). The mountain lies in the transitional region between subtropical zone and warm moderate zone, which brings plenty of rainfalls and humid climate. Every year there is a long winter and a short summer. The days of spring and autumn are equally distributed. In cool summer days the average temperature stays at 23.7℃ and the maximum is around 32℃. At the beginning of last century, the mountain had already been noted as a summer resort. There are over 200 exotic villas built on the mountain, which gives it a fine name of “A Museum of Foreign Architectures”.
The unique natural views on the mountain could be summed up to eight sights, namely, Buddha's Light, Sea of Clouds, the Rime, the Verglas, Rosy Clouds, Exotic Flowers and Herbs, Unique Peaks and Rocks and Waterfalls and Springs. Although the mountain is only seven to eight hundred meters above the sea level, its special geographic location causes a mountain climate without altitude reaction that the deep and flat-bottomed valleys on both sides bring gusts of wind all the year round. All these favorable factors make the mountain an ideal place for summer escape and convalescing. It has also healing effects on some diseases like pneumonia, beriberi, heart attack, trachitis and hypertension. In all seasons the mountain is enveloped in clouds and therefore derives another name, the Park in Clouds. There is a cluster of waterfalls in the Donggou area of the mountain, which features water views along the way. This “scenery corridor” stretches around ten miles long. You can have access to the place by cable cars. Since ancient times many celebrities have paid a visit to the mountain, like Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng, the leader of farmer rebels, and legendary herine——Hong Hua Nv, and so on, all of which has made the mountain colorful and mysterious.
As a dividing line of the south and north, the mountain lies in the transitional area of Subtropical zone and warm temperate zone. Climate here is suitable for the growth of plants across the country. The vegetation coverage reaches over 87%. There are over 2,000 kinds of plants, of which more than 600 are TCM herbs and therefore the mountain is reputed as a natural botanical garden. Li Shizhen, a famed doctor in ancient China had once come all the way to the place. He found a lot of medicinal herbs here and enriched enormously his famous book, Ben Cao Gang Mu or Compendium of Material Medica. At the beginning of last century, the western botanists had made researches and experiments here in Mountain Jigong. No doubt, it is an ideal research and teaching base as well as a natural green gene base.
A place noted for its blending of Chinese and western cultures, numerous buildings and villas of different styles had been built here. In 1903, two American missionaries had a trip here and made it known to the west. Through years of war, out of over 300 buildings, 212 of them are preserved now. The architectural styles range from Roman, Gothic, German to the hybrids. Distantly seen, the buildings stand like exhibits on the show in this museum of foreign architectures. Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT leader had been here twice. Other generals, warlords who had sought sanctuary from summer heat here include Wu Peifu, Feng Yuxiang, Zhang Xueliang, Yang Hucheng and so on. Now the mountain has become a hot destination for tourism, summer escape and rest. Every year thousands of tourists flock to the place. |
Asia Travel 
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