Mt. Lushan in South China's Jiangxi Province is famous for its towering peaks, steep gorges, overhanging cliffs and cascading waterfalls. It has inspired many poets and scholars of past dynasties to compose numerous works. The great poet Li Bei of the Tang Dynasty has left such a verse:

"It looks like the blue smoke from an incense burner under the Sun, but looking from afar, it's the smoke from a big waterfall in front of you. The waters looks as though it has been falling from 1,000 meters high, making one doubt if it is the milky way of the heaven."

Another brilliant poet of the later Song Dynasty Su Dongpo wrote: "How could one tell what Mt Lushan really looks like when one is in the midst of the mountain all along?"

Lushan is also called "Kuanglu" or Mt. Kuang. Around 4th century B.C. there was a hermit named Kuang Su, who hid in the mountain to study Daoism. Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty invited him to be official in his court but Kuang Su never received his invites. Later Kuang Su disappeared, and people called his place Immortal's Shed". From here, the mountain was called Mt. Lushan, or Kuanglu.

At the foot of Mt. Lushan is the Donglin Monastery. It was built in 386 for the monk Hui Yuan, founder of the Pure Land sect of Buddhism. The people revered him and the monasteries later become the center for Buddhism in South China. Legend has it that when building the monastery, Hui Yuan was often worried for shortage of building materials. One night, there was a downpour with lightning and thunder. The following morning, the monks were delighted to find that in front of the temple appeared a pond, filled with lumber. The monastery finished, Hui Yuan named the pond "Wood's home Pond" and the hall that built with the wood "God-Send Hall".

There in front of the monastery is a beautiful pond filled with white lotus. Legend has it that the famous traveler Xie Lingyun of the Eastern Jin Dynasty dug the pond during the 4th centuries B.C. Born into a noble family, Xie wanted to join the poets' society founded by Hui Yuan. He later asked Xie to first dig three lotus pond and wait until his mind is as clean as the lotus petals and then he could he would be able to join. Therefore, Xie dug the ponds and later the two became very good friends.