This is a site that I really enjoyed exploring. It’s not difficult to check out all the inscribed sites, and Mount Songshan has a lot to offer: landscape, religions, architecture... Again I’ll only make comments complementary to previous reviews. Sites are mentioned in chronological order.

Que Gates are important cultural relics that embody ancient Chinese ceremonial or funerary traditions. They are also considered as lithic replications of wooden structures that no longer exist nowadays. The three Han Que Gates at Mount Songshan were built during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the heyday of Que Gates. Due to their importance, all three were protected in sheds around 2010 to alleviate erosions caused by nature and fast-growing tourism. Now the only visible Han Que is Shaoshi Que, which can be seen through newly installed glass curtain walls. One can still appreciate on its body the carved paintings with religious or aristocratic themes.

Juha’s summary of the Songyue Temple Pagoda is very precise. I’d like to add that its dodecagonal shape stands as proof of imported Indian influence on early Chinese architecture, and makes an isolated and unique case in the evolution of domestic Chinese pagodas.

The Shaolin Temple is indeed considered as a tourist trap to some extent, as the majority of the kernel compound is a 20th-century reconstruction and the Kung Fu shows are highly commercialized. But it is still worth visiting because of the Pagoda Forest and the Chuzu Temple. The Pagoda Forest consists of 248 pagodas, some dating back to Tang Dynasty. The Chuzu Temple was built in 1125 AD, shortly after the publication of Yingzao Fashi, the earliest Chinese architectural treatise, in 1103 AD. Researches on the Chuzu Temple greatly helped the modern interpretation of Yingzao Fashi. It commemorates the first Zen master Bodhidharma.

The extant Mahavira Hall of the Huishan Temple and the Gaocheng Observatory were both constructed during the Yuan Dynasty, with noticeable architectural traits from the period. Several central columns were intentionally omitted in the Mahavira Hall to make space for the Buddhist altar. Such practices were never adopted again in Ming- and Qing-style architecture.

The Zhongyue Temple, the Songyang Academy and the Shaolin Temple stand respectively for the center of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism at Mount Songshan. Apart from the 11 inscribed sites, there are other important Chinese national monuments such as the Fawang Temple Pagoda near the Songyue Temple Pagoda, and the Tang Stele inside Songyang Academy.