Hengshan is one of the Wuyue (Five Peaks) of China and is located in southern Hunyuan County in Shanxi Province. The base of the mountain is made up of Precambrian metamorphic rock, and its upper part is composed of Cambrian and Ordovician limestone. It is a fault-block mountain, and the main peak, Xuanwu Peak, has an elevation of 2,016 m. The Datong Basin is located to the north, and the relative elevation difference is more than 1,000 m. The mountain looks majestic, and the rift valley and Jinlong (Golden Dragon) Gorge cuts through the mountain from north to south and carries a muddy flow. The narrowest part of this gorge is only 10 m wide. Hengshan has a long cultural history. It was honoured as the world’s second mountain during the Qin Dynasty. It was named Xuanyue in the book ‘Shui Jing Zhu (A Note on Water)’, which was written during the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, it began to be called Beiyue Hengshan (Northern Mountain Hengshan). There are many cultural relics...
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(2020). Northern Mountain Hengshan. In: Chen, A., Ng, Y., Zhang, E., Tian, M. (eds) Dictionary of Geotourism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_1764
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_1764
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