Mount Song (A good destination for your China vacations), known in Chinese as Song Shan is one of the Taoist Five Sacred Mountains and is located in Henan province on the south bank of the Yellow River in China. Its summit is 1,500 meters above sea level.
Geography:
Songshan is made up of several mountains that rise to 1500 m in the Dengfeng district of Henan province.
Religious Structures:
Despite the mountain being one of the Daoist sacred mountains, the mountain is predominantly Buddhist today.It is home to the Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of Zen Buddhism, and even today the temple’s collection of stupas is the largest in China. The Zhongyue Temple is also located here, one of the earliest Taoist temples in the country. The Songyang Academy nearby was one of the four great academies of ancient China. The mountain and its vicinity are populated with Taoist and especially Buddhist monasteries. The 6th century Songyue Pagoda is also located here, as well as Tang Dynasty (618–907) pagodas within the Fawang Temple. (Info for your China vacations)
Songshan Stratigraphic Structure National Geopark:
The Shaolin Monastery is located within the geopark. Three major orogenies formed the area: the Songyang Orogeny of 2.5 billion years ago, the Zhongyue Orogeny of 1.85 billion years ago, and the Shaolin Orogeny of 570 million years ago. They were named after local attractions in the area. The Songshan Geopark is also called “the textbook of geological history”.
[Source: Wikipedia]