Wudang, in the hills of northwestern Hubei, is the mountain of Chinese Taoism — "the foremost Taoist mountain," where the Ming emperors built a sacred city of palaces up a single granite peak and the legendary Zhang Sanfeng is said to have created tai chi. Its ancient building complex is UNESCO World Heritage, and the mountain still works: monastics chant at dawn in the Purple Cloud Palace, martial-arts students drill in the courtyards, and pilgrims climb the stone stair through three "Heavenly Gates" to the golden hall on the summit of Tianzhu Peak, 1,612 meters up.
