Postcards of UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List: China - The Four Sacred Mountains as an Extension of Mt. Taishan

"Application of "Four Sacred Mountains as an Extension of Mt. Taishan" is an extension application of Cultural and Natural World Heritages of Mt. Taishan. "The Five Sacred Mountains of China" is a cultural integration with long history. Mt. Taishan of "The Five Sacred Mountains of China" has already been listed on the World Heritages in 1987. And the four nominated sites for application include:

Southern Mt. Hengshan (Hunan Province),

Western Mt. Huashan (Shaanxi Province),

Central Mt. Songshan (Henan Province)

Northern Mt. Hengshan (Shanxi Province).

The core scenic area of the four nominated sites is 54769 ha, and total buffering area is 44658 ha.

"The Five Sacred Mountains" has been worship for over three thousand years from Neolithic Age due to its unique geographical locations and majesty of relative altitude over a kilometre. In 219 BC, Qin Shihuang (First Emperor of Qin Dynasty) held a ceremony of offering sacrifices on the top Mt. Taishan when special national sacrifice codes and systems originated, which was followed by later emperors to show their imperial power's validity and authority. Offering sacrifices to Five Sacred Mountains was held to make the emperors'' achievements informed to all the people and Five Sacred Mountains were regarded as boundaries of their reign. Therefore, as an integration which cannot be divided, Five Sacred Mountains symbolizes the unification and territory in the era of Chinese agricultural civilization."

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List

Postcard 1 - Northern Hengshan
Mid-air temple of Nothern Hengshan, Shanxi, China. It is a postcard from the postcard set of Scenery of Shanxi that I bought in China.