Hangzhou >> Feilai Peak

Attraction Typ: Amusement Park

Location: City Centre - Central

Recommend: 4 Star

Feilai Peak

Among all the mountains around West Lake, Feilai Peak is the one most likely to simulate the imagination and make one reluctant to leave.

Feilai Peak (Chinese: 飞来峰; pinyin: Fēilái Fēng), or "the Peak that Flew Hither", also commonly translated as "Flying Peak". Among all the mountains around West Lake, Feilai Peak is the one most likely to simulate the imagination and make one reluctant to leave. The tourists praised it that once experience at Feilai Peak, it will leave you with memories that will last the rest of your life.

Feilai Peak, next to Lingyin Monastery, got its name for it being made of limestone, giving it a craggy appearance very different from the surrounding mountains. According to the legend, the mountain had flown all round and destroyed many villages before it settled down in Hangzhou. In order to prevent it from further flying and causing more damage, over 500 Buddha statues dating from the 10th to 14th centuries were carved out of the stone to suppress the mountain.

The statues appear in a variety of poses ranging from standing, sitting, and sleeping. The biggest Buddha image is the Maitreya with cloth bag on shoulder, also known as the Buddha of Joy. With exposed breast and belly, it has occupied a cliff along the brook, laughing since the Northern Song Dynasty up to now. It is with a high artistic value through the world.

Other stones scattered along the peak are resemble animals like a flying dragon, a running elephant, a crouching tiger and a naughty monkey. On the other side of the peak, a pavilion named Cui Wei was erected to immortalize the national hero Yue Fei.

A large number of carvings dot the surface of the peak. More are located in various caves and grottos throughout the peak. Within the main cave, dedicated to the Bodhisattva Guanyin, there is a crack in the ceiling of the cave that stretches up to the surface, so that a person standing at a certain position can see a sliver of sunlight. This is known as the "one thread of heaven" (一线天).