仙人洞

Xianren Dong - Immortal Cave - Lushan Fairy Cave - Cave of the Immortals


Useful Information

Location: Huanshan Rd, Mount Lu (Lushan), Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province.
(29.562036, 115.962646)
Open: No restrictions.
[2010]
Fee: free.
[2010]
Classification: Speleologysandstone cave ArchaeologyXianren Dong
Light: bring torch
Dimension: L=14 m, H=7 m.
Guided tours:  
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:  
Address: Lushan Fairy Cave, Huanshan Rd, Lianxi District, Jiujiang, Jiangxi.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

1961 Jiang Qing takes a photo of the cave.

Description

仙人洞 (Xianren Dong, Immortal Cave) is in general called Lushan Immortal Cave or Lushan Fairy Cave to keep it apart from other caves of the same name. It is an erosional cave which forms an abri or rock shelter in sandstone. It is located on the slopes of Lushan (Lu Mountain), southeast of Jiujiang City.

The cave was once called Buddha's Hand Rock, but it was long ago renamed because of Lü Dongbin. Lü Dongbin, a famous Taoist during the Tang Dynasty, lived and meditated in the cave until he became an immortal. Hence, the name Immortal Cave, it was later renamed by fans.

After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor during Ming dynasty, he suddenly fell ill with fever and was on the verge of death. The palace doctors were not able to cure him. The barefoot monk from the Immortal Cave in Mount Lu arrived at the palace with medicine from the Heavenly Eye and the Immortal Zhou Beng. Zhu Yuanzhang was immediately cured after taking it. He sent a messenger to Mount Lushan to look for the immortal. When the messenger came to the immortal cave path to look for the monk, he could not even find the temple. There was only a pale rock boulder with the carved inscription 竹林寺 (bamboo forest temple). The messenger was amazed and returned to the capital to tell his discovery. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the construction of a building called the "Visiting Immortal Pavilion" next to the inscription. Since this time the path was called "Immortal Road".

The "Immortal Road" leads to the "New Pavilion of Visiting Immortals", which was later built. During the Republic of China, once on a clear night with a bright moon and a light breeze, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling went to this pavilion to enjoy the moon and tea. Sitting idly in the pavilion watching the strange peaks swallowing the moon and the stars twinkling.

There is another modern legend, which is very well documented, but as it was used for propaganda purposes it probably never happened this way.

In 1961 Jiang Qing, the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, took a photo of Fairy Cave. Mao Zedong was very impressed by the photograph and wrote a poem abou the cave. This poem was first published in the December 1963 edition of Poems of Chairman Mao by the People's Literature Publishing House. It was reprinted by other media and made the small cave rather famous.

The cave is signposted at the road. From the parking lot you have to enter a round gate, which looks a bit like a Hobbit smial entrance. Its quite characteristic and has the three letters 仙人洞 engraved.