Mount Qingcheng — "the most secluded mountain under heaven" — is where religious Taoism was born: in AD 142 the first Celestial Master, Zhang Daoling, founded his school in these green folds west of Chengdu, and the mountain has been a place of temples, hermits and quiet cultivation ever since. It divides into two very different halves: the front mountain of ancient temples, and the back mountain of gorges, waterfalls and family farmstays. With Dujiangyan below it, it forms a UNESCO World Heritage pair.
