sacred place: "To watch it from a distance, the peaks pierce through the chaotic clouds. While from a closer footing, the mount looms up seemingly eating up the bright moon." "Hundreds of peaks compete their beauty, while thousands of streams meanders through them. The waterfalls pour down from frightful height while creepers hang down from every cliff. A gust of wind moans over the empty valley, when a tiger growls. And when the moon turns up halfway up the mountain, the monkeys' chattering travels miles away. What do the mountains look like? Heaps upon heaps of jades dyed into dark green, and clouds of smoke shrouded by emerald screen. "Thanks to the increasing prosperity of tourism---the new industry, Mount Dragon and Tiger attracts more and more visitors at home and abroad with its culture of Taoism whose source traces back to the ancient times, as well as its picturesque landscape and mysterious "Cliff Tomb".

   Mount Dragon and Tiger was originally named "Mount of Splendid Clouds". In the middle of the East Han Dynasty, the first Tian SHi( a Taoist priest ), Zhang Dao Ling, started to distill elixirs here. According to the record, when the elixirs were made, a dragon and a tiger were seen winding above the oven. Then the mountain was named after the celestial animals.The mountain is the cradle of Taoism, because Zhang Dao Ling created and practiced Taoism here. Ever since then, Taoism stepped onto the Chinese historic stage. During Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Zhang was granted the highest official rank by the court. Therefore, the original source of Taoism, Mount Dragon and Tiger, leading all the Taoism schools in southern china, became the centre of the development of Chinese Taoism practice and became renowned throughout the south, ranked the family of Confucius in QuFu of Shan Dong Province and both received great attention from the court. Therefore, people always refer to them as "Zhang in the south , and Confucius in the North". The so-far still intact architecture of the Tian SHi Mansion if Han Dynasty in Supreme Purity Palace on the mountain is magnificent and tempered with celestial atmosphere. The Grand Supreme Purity Palace, known as the original site of Taoism and the place where all gods received their official ranks, was built in the East Han Dynasty for Zhang Tian Shi as his workshop. In the palace, there is a well, entitled Demon Suppressing Well, from which many an evil spirit is sand to have sprung out and taken the reincarnation of the one hundred and fight outlaws in the book "All Men Are Brothers" by Shi Nai AN. The whole splendid building is one if the miracles in Chinese architecture.

   As the sacred place of Taoism, Mount Dragon and Tiger today is greatly worshipped by Taoists at home and abroad. Every year, domestic and foreign pilgrims keep on pouring in. Mount Dragon and Tiger has the most peculiar and beautiful landscapes. Numerous grotesque and sky-scraping peaks, formed mainly by jagged red gravel rocks, lend enchantment to the mountain. There are totally ninety-nine peaks, twenty-four huge rocks, one hundred and eight natural and artificial sights, over twenty wells, ponds, streams and waterfalls. The most wonderful scenery of them is the winding Lu Xi River which meanders westwards through the whole mountain area and links sights scattered along the banks like a string of brads. Celestial Water Rock, with its large numbers of delightful sights, boasts the most concentrated places of scenic beauty. Many famous historic literary men, such as Gu Kuang, Zeng Gong, Wang An Shi and Wen Tian Xiang, had visited the mountain and left behind poetic lines like:On the mountain peak towering in the air, A cloud-wreathed celestial city turns up,Making its appearance flickering high on the very summit.The stunning scenery there ranks that of Penglai, the divine isle.

   The Cliff Tombs of the Spring and Autumn Period(770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period(475-221 BC), another wonderful scenery of the Mount Dragon and Tiger, have a history of over two thousand six hundred yeas. It is entitled the best natural archaeological museum of China by "Our Beautiful Motherland"--- a television program of CCTV, owing to its wide disposition, large quantity, dangerous location, unique shape and rich historical relics.

   At present, Yingtan has sixteen travel agencies, more than ten "Star" hotels with over three thousand beds. The reception equipment have obviously improved. The railways and highways extending in all directions provide the tourists with a very convenient transportation service. As the supreme mountain of Taoism of China, Mount Dragon and Tiger displays a broad and rich culture. As a national key scenic area, it offers extensive pleasure of nature. As a new tourism scenery, it yields an extremely pleasing environment for visiting and relaxing.