Jiao shan

Jiaoshan Hill is located about 4.5 km northeast of Zhenjiang City in the middle of Yangtze River with its beautiful greenery and is compared to a piece of floating jade hill, hence gains its another name "Floating Jade Hill". Actually, this hill has gained many names in history such as Lion Hill, Lion cave, Double Peak Hill and so on because of its looks and appearance. It was originally named "Qiao Hill" after Qiao Guang, the famous hermit in Eastern Han Dynasty who once lived in the hill. In order to memory this famous hermit, Emperor Zhenzong of the Song renamed the hill as Jiao Hill.

Jiaoshan Hill enjoys its fame for the well-known sites there including Dinghui Temple, Forest of Stone tablets, Cliff of Scripts, Emperor Qianlong's Xanadu and so on. Among them the most famous are Dinghui Temple and Cliff of Scripts.

Dinghui Temple is the oldest Buddhist temple south of Yangtze River with a history of about 1800 years and the largest one in Jiaoshan Hill. It was firstly built in the Eastern Han Dynasty in the year of 194 and named Puji Temple. In Song Dynasty it was renamed as Puji Buddhist Temple since Buddhism was well practiced there. Till the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi went over to supervise the southern China and paid a visit to the temple and changed its name as Dinghui Temple, which we use today. Buildings in Dinghui Temple are featured Ming Dynasty style because it reached its golden age during Ming Dynasty. All the buildings there give people a sense of peace for its harmoniousness with its surroundings and the greenery.

Jiaoshan owns the fame of "the first forest of stone tablets in the south" with its counterpart of Xian Forest of Stone Tablets Museum in the north. It has attracted numerous of calligraphy fans from China and overseas very year to the cave and cliff to study and appreciate the art of writing and the thoughts of the authors. Among the about 400 tablets engraved by more than 200 figures in history, the most famous one is "Singing the Crane" with seventy four characters by Lu You, a well-Know Chinese patriot poet in Song Dynasty in the memory of a dead crane. The characters are so well written and engraved that there are like a picture of a dancing crane, which are beloved and enjoyed by foreigners who even know little about Chinese. Now this piece of inscription has been regarded as the beginner of modern Chinese calligraphy and a pearl of its kind and is under national protection.

As Jiaoshan enjoys beautiful natural beauty, travelers can visit it in any time except winter. In autumn, Jiaoshan is full of the sweet scent of osmanthus fragans and poets come here for thinking and writing. They compare Jiaoshan as the Heaven，for Chinese people think the osmanthus trees are only planted there.