The Wudang Mountains

In 1412 emperor Yongle mobilised three hundred thousand workers over twelve years to cover the mountain with monasteries, in thanks to the deity Zhenwu, said to have favoured his seizure of power. The Golden Hall on the heavenly peak, cast in gilded bronze and assembled without mortar at 1,612 metres, is its culmination. Tradition credits the hermit Zhang Sanfeng, said to have lived here, with inventing the internal martial arts, founded on softness rather than force, as against Shaolin’s external style. Schools here still train students year-round.