Qianshan National Park

Qianshan National Park lies seventeen kilometres southeast of Anshan, and it is the best argument for spending more than a quick day trip in this corner of Liaoning. The park covers 44 square kilometres of quartzite peaks, forested ridges, and mountain valleys, with a remarkable concentration of Buddhist and Taoist temples that have shared these sacred heights for centuries. Wuliang Temple and Xiantai Temple are among the best-preserved on the mountain; the Maitreya Pagoda and various smaller shrines punctuate the paths between them.

Motor cars are not permitted inside the park, which keeps the atmosphere relatively civilised. Visitors walk, take electric carts, or use one of several cable car routes to reach the higher areas. The full circuit of the major peaks and temples takes a full day. A weekday visit in autumn — when the foliage turns across the forested ridges and the crowds thin — is significantly better than a summer weekend, when the park can become genuinely congested. The highest peak reaches 708 metres, accessible on foot from several directions.

things to do sight
A story
The name Qianshan — Thousand Mountains — does not exaggerate. There are said to be 999 peaks within the park boundaries, all of them formed from the same quartzite that was laid down here hundreds of millions of years ago and subsequently folded into these characteristic knife-edged ridges. Buddhist and Taoist monks chose to build here for the same reason visitors come today: the combination of dramatic rock formations and dense forest is unlike anything on the relatively flat Liaodong Plain below.