From the first year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (1506), a building complex was gradually completed on Gushan Mountain. According to historical records, climbing up the southern slope of Gushan Mountain step by step in those years, there was a ‘Nietyun’ stone archway at the halfway up. The stone pillars on both sides were engraved with couplets: Facing the Yangtze River and Zuo Li, the misty waves are still here today. Standing at the top, how about the wind and moon of the West Lake? The inscription and couplets were all written by the magistrate of Jingjiang County in the 42nd year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1614). It can be seen that the Nietyun Archway has a history of nearly 400 years and is an earlier existing stone archway in Jingjiang City. Under the archway, there is a cliff inscription: ‘In the summer of Bingxu year of Jiajing, Yi Zibozhen, a Taoist from Sanzi in Hunan, prayed for rain here’. It is a commemoration of Yi Zibozhen, a Taoist from Sanzi in Hunan, praying for rain here in the summer of Bingxu year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1526). Not far to the east of the Nietyun Archway, there is the Temple of Emperor Guan. Turning west, there is the Temple of the Earth God. Then turning west and then north is the mountain gate. To the east of the gate is the Temple of the Three Mao Immortals. On the high slope to the west of the gate is the Immortal Terrace. In the cluster of ancient cypresses is the Guanyin Nunnery. Directly north is a double gate. Entering the double gate is the Dongyue Palace, which is the main hall of Gushan Temple. Inside the hall, there are a hundred Buddha statues, resplendent and magnificent. Behind the temple is the ‘Bugu Pavilion’ with upturned eaves and carved beams and painted pillars. On the top of the back mountain is the ‘Wangjiang Tower’. Climbing up the tower and looking into the distance, the clear river is like a silk ribbon, and the flat fields extend for hundreds of miles. After hundreds of years of vicissitudes, except for the remaining ruins of the Nietyun Archway, all the buildings of Gushan Temple in those years have been destroyed. The couplets on both sides of the Nietyun Archway have long been eroded away due to the long passage of time. The landscape of Gushan Mountain has also changed greatly. In 1993, the Gushan Temple Fair was resumed. In more than ten years, Gushan Temple has successively rebuilt facilities such as the mountain gate hall, Guanyin hall, Mahavira Hall, and Sanbao Tower. The more than six-meter-tall white marble Guanyin statue and the eight-meter-tall iron-cast pharmacist Buddha statue in the temple are relatively large Buddha statues of the same material in the surrounding areas. Nowadays, Gushan Mountain has secluded paths and winding trails. The morning bell and evening drum resound, and incense smoke curls. Every year on the third day of the third lunar month, the Gushan Temple Fair is held. Devout men and women from Jingjiang and neighboring counties and towns come to worship and offer incense, and people surge like a tide.?Opening hours: Open all year round and all day.
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