Twelve Peaks of Wu Gorge

Introduction to Wushan Twelve Peaks

Wushan Twelve Peaks is the most famous scenic spot of Wu Gorge. The Twelve Peaks are: Denglong Peak, Shengquan Peak, Shengquan (holy spring) Peak, Chaoyun (toward the cloud) Peak, Wangxia Peak, Songluan Peak, and Jixian (fairies get together) Peak. The six peaks in the south coast are: Feifeng (flying phoenix) Peak, Cuiping Peak, Juhe (cranes get together) Peak, Jingtan Peak, Qiyun Peak, Shangsheng (uprising) Peak. The most beautiful peak among the Twelve Peaks is the Goddess Peak, the legend about the Goddess Yao Ji covered a mysterious veil for the Goddess Peak.

Legend of Goddess Peak

Long long time ago, under the Cuiping Peak of Wuxia Gorge there was a Blue Stone Cave where lived twelve dragons. One day, the twelve dragons ran out the cave, stirred the sky into darkness, the houses, trees and sands were ruined. The people were winded up in the sky, caused countless casualties. At this time, the daughter of the Queen Mother of the West, Yao Ji just left the heavenly palace and traveled to the west riding on a cloud, when she came to Wushan Mountains, she saw twelve dragons causing trouble to the people. She was angry and decided to eliminate the evils for the people. she pointed her finger towards the dragons. Thunders began to roar causing mountains and earth to tremor. When everything became quiet again, the bodies of the twelve dragons had turned into twelve huge mountains blocking the flow of the Yangtze. The fields and towns were flooded. The area of today's Sichuan had become a boundless sea.

To harness the flood water, the heroic Yu came to the Yangtze from the Yellow River. He tried to open up the Mountains to lead the water away. But it was such a momentous job that no human being could carry it out. Yu was greatly worried. Moved by Yu's indomitable spirit, Yao Ji called over her six followers, who with their divine magic opened up a passage. She also returned to the Heavenly Palace and asked her mother for help. Queen Mother of the West was very fond of her little daughter, so she took her to find a heavenly book which concerning the water-control while the nap time of Jade Emperor. Then she gave the book to Yu, and Yu used this book to split the Three Gorges, dredged the seeper, from then on, Sichuan became "a land of abundance".

After the flood was controlled, Yao Ji did not back to the heavenly palace, however, she saw there were a lot of dragon bones hidden in the river formed numerous reefs. Yao Ji afraid that the ships would sank by heating the reefs. Yao Ji decided to stay with her sisters at Wushan. Year after year, she turned into the Goddess Peak for people to admire eventually. This is the origin of Wushan Twelve Peaks.