Peaking at its 1600-metre Tianzhu summit, Wudang Shan’s 72 pinnacles have, since Tang times, been liberally covered m Taoist temples. Those that survived a wave of thirteenth-century revolts were restored fbIlowing proclamations fur thc development of religion under the Ming emperor Cheng Zi in 1413 - the work toolc three hundred thousand labourcrs ten years to complete- and the mountain is currently enjoying another bloom of religious fervour, with many of the tenaplcs emerging Fabulously decorated and busy after decades of neglect. Wudang Shun is also famous for its martial arts, which command as much respect as those of Henan’s Shaolin Si . It’s said that tine Song- dynasty monk Zhang Sanfeng developed Wudang boxing - fi’om which tai is derived - after watching a fight between a snake and a magpie, which revealed to him the essence of neijia, an internal force used (in typical Taoist manner) to control “action” with “non-action”. Fighting skills would also have come in handy considering the vast number of outlaws who’ve inhabited these mountains over the centuries. The rebel peasant Li Zicheng massed lnis forces and rose to depose the last Ming emperor from here, and there’s a tablet recording the suppression of the RedTurbans on the mountain by Qing troops in 1856. More recently, the Communist Third Front Army found sanctuary here in 1931, after their marcln from Hong Lake in southern Hnbei. On a more peaceful note, Wudang Shun was also the retreat of emperor Zhen Wu, who cultivated his longevity in these mountains during the fifteenth cen- tury, and whose portly statue graces many local temples - his birthday is celebrated locally on the third day of the third lunar month, a good time to visit the mountain. Wudang’s valuable plants later attracted the attention of the sixteenth-century pharmacologist Li Shizhen, who included four hundred local species among the 1800 listed in his Materia Medica, still a source work on the medicinal use of Chinese herbs.