What's interesting about Jiuhua Mountain in Nanjing?

Jiuhua Mountain in Nanjing, located in the east of Nanjing, is the first hill where the remaining veins of Zhongshan walk westward into the city. To the north of the Ming city wall, it is adjacent to Xuanwu Lake, and the side facing the lake is as steep as a knife and like a capsize, so it was called Gai Zhoushan in ancient times.

Jiuhua Mountain is located in the downtown area, but it is quiet and serene. Known as the "Urban Mountain Forest", it used to be the Royal Garden Music Garden. There are temples on the mountain, towers on the top of the mountain, lakes on the side of the mountain and cities under the mountain. It has the reputation of "Jiuhua Danqing", one of the 48 scenic spots in Jinling.

According to records, in the Song Dynasty, a monk from Tianxi Temple in Jinling got the parietal bone of Tang Xuanzang from Shaanxi. After welcoming back to Jinling, a stone tower was built in Donggang, Tianxi Temple, and the bones were also propped up. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Sanzang Tower was destroyed by war, and the whereabouts of Xuanzang's spiritual bones were unknown. During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, the Japanese invaders unearthed a stone letter containing Xuanzang's parietal bone in the former site. This discovery caused a sensation in the Buddhist world. The Japanese want to keep it for themselves, which aroused great public anger. After repeated entreaties from the puppet government of Wang, half of the Tang Priest's parietal bone was finally preserved, and a new Sanzang Pagoda was built in Jiuhua Mountain for resettlement. After Japan surrendered, the other half of the parietal bone was also preserved and collected in Xuanzang Memorial Hall of Linggu Temple after liberation.

The bluestone in Taki is also engraved with the portrait of Xuanzang, a monk of the Tang Dynasty, and the route of learning from the West.