The Wudang Mountains are a sacred site of Chinese Taoism. Also known as Taihe Mountain, Xieluo Mountain, Canshang Mountain, and Xianshi Mountain, they were called in ancient times "Taiyue," "Xuanyue," and "Dayue." They are located in Danjiangkou City, Shiyan City, in the northwestern part of Hubei Province. To the east they connect with Xiangyang City, to the west they lie near Shiyan City, to the south they face Shennongjia, and to the north they border the Danjiangkou Reservoir, the source of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.
During the Ming Dynasty, the Wudang Mountains were conferred the titles "Dayue" and "Zhishi Xuanyue" by the emperor and were honored as the "Imperial Family Temple." The Wudang Mountains are renowned worldwide for their status as "the foremost of the Five Great Mountains," expressed in the saying "The Four Great Famous Mountains all bow in salute, and the Five Sacred Peaks all pay homage together." The Wudang Mountains are the birthplace of both a famous Taoist mountain and Wudang martial arts, and are known as "a matchless scenic spot since ancient times, the number one immortal mountain under heaven." Wudang martial arts is an important school of Chinese martial arts. In the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, the Taoist Zhang Sanfeng synthesized its teachings and founded the Wudang school. As of 2013, the Wudang Mountains had 53 ancient buildings with a floor area of 27,000 square meters, 9 building sites covering more than 200,000 square meters, and a total of 5,035 cultural relics of various kinds preserved throughout the mountain.
In December 1994, the ancient building complex of the Wudang Mountains was inscribed on the World Heritage List, and in 2006 it was listed as a whole as a "Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level." In 2007, the Wudang Mountains, together with the Great Wall, Lijiang, Zhouzhuang, and other scenic areas, were selected as one of the "Top Ten Chinese Scenic Areas Most Loved by Europeans." From 2010 to 2013, the Wudang Mountains were respectively rated as a National AAAAA-Level Tourist Scenic Area, a National Forest Park, one of China's Top Ten Famous Summer Resorts, and a cross-strait exchange base, and were selected as one of the most beautiful "National Geoparks."