Editor's Note:  This article is produced in collaboration with the Chongqing Institute of Foreign Studies as part of a series of ongoing reports exploring the city's abundant resources in intangible cultural heritages.

Looking down on every inch of plants beneath the giant, Mount Jiu Ling exhibits the splendor of Mount Bayue, especially in spring, and it is worth visiting as if in a golden world. Among the forest hills, white horses roam through. Bayue is not large yet strange, sharp, steep, and soaring.

Xuantian Lake of Mount Bayue (Photo provided to iChongqing)

Located at the boundary between Dazu, Tongliang, and Yongchuan districts, Chongqing, Mount Bayue is one of the "Ten Small-scaled Views of Chongqing." In ancient times, Mount Bayue was called Nukun Mountain, also known as Nufeng Mountain, because there was a stone shaped like a censer at the top of the mountain. In the Song Dynasty, it was renamed Mount Bayue due to its unusual magnificent peaks and ridges and lush vegetation and its location in the suburb of Bachuan County. There is a tale that Ye Yingfan, a deity whose job was somewhat like a plowing farmer, laid out the mountains and rivers in the heaven, whereas the adobe faced north-south like the most in his hometown, except for Mount Bayue. Because Ye Yingfan got tired one time, Bayue set into an east-west direction while he took a rest.

Stepping on the moss-covered stone slabs along the curved path, the well-known Huangjue Door leaps into the eyes. Two ficus virens are slanted and intertwined, and there is a hole at the bottom of the ancient tree, forming the shape of a door, so it is called the Huangjue Door (Ficus Door).

Grandma Li, who lives here all the year-round, told us an unforgettable love story about the trees. Legend has it that Hui Ming, a monk of the Jing Guang Temple in the Mount Bayue, fell in love with a girl Guo Xiangmei who came to offer incense to Buddha, but her mother was strongly opposed, pointing at the two ficus virens under the mountain and swore, "you can marry my daughter only if the two trees combine into one." Having returned to secular life, Hui Ming built a house to guard next to the trees, burning incense and praying day after day, collecting dew to water them. Finally, he moved the gods and the two trees combined. Hui Ming achieved his wish. This tale attracts many couples to come here on Chinese Valentine's Day every year.

Climbing the gentle slope or steep stone, people can enjoy shady trees and jagged rocks there. Once through over 1,000 stone steps, we will arrive at the most precipitous part of Bayue—Sanfeng Cave. Sanfeng Cave has three entrances, which only cover 2 or 3 squares. Beyond, there is a cloud rolling by, looking down, and a bottomless cliff is standing. Into the cave, we can see lifelike carvings of Buddha. It is said that Zhang Sanfeng practiced here for the reiki. At that time, beasts were so rampant on the mountain that villagers nearby did not dare to climb it recklessly. But things have changed since Zhang Sanfeng came, the beasts would no longer harm villagers, so the residents gradually gathered the courage to climb it for firewood. Leaving Sanfeng Cave, along a horizontal road, the Qipanshi (chessboard table) is on the left. There placed two benches, a stone table, and a set of stumped games upon it. From the main mountain 2 or 3 meters away, this stone stands alone above the cliff, extremely steep. Later asking a sanitation worker here, we learn that, as legend has it, once a year, with favorable weather, Zhang Sanfeng's friend Yang Zen descended to the earth after the spring plowing. Two friends then had a fierce competition over chess here.

Ten minutes of a walk later, we reached the pinnacle of Ba Yue—Tiandengshi, depicted in the "Furnace Smoke" as "after the furnace of alchemy is split open by the sky, the light is scattered, and the colors overlap." Ascending to the peak, then I understood that it was more perilous than the step, just as Granny Li said. In a legend, a priest in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties of the Xuantian Temple in Mount Bayue erected a wooden pole on the boulder, and a lamp was topped with it. Every night he mounted the boulder, climbed up the pole, lit up the oil lamp, and illuminated half the sky, which could be seen for dozens of miles. Standing above the Tiandengshi, overlooking the landscape below, we can not help but exclaim: "when shall I reach the top and hold all mountains in a single glance."

Mount Bayue stands on 35 peaks, and each can cut a golden lotus.

There is always a peak of that mountain that haunts you.

Chinese script: Liao Caifan
Tutored by: Wang Yanying

Translation: Wan Fengsha
Tutored by: Lu Siying,  Wei Jingjun

Voice-over: Wang Xin
Tutored by: Gui Shushu