Chicken Foot Mountain

Mount Jizu (simplified Chinese: 鸡足山; traditional Chinese: 雞足山; pinyin: Jīzú Shān; lit. 'Chicken-foot Mountain') is situated in Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. The mountain is located to the northeast of Erhai and forms the tripoint of three counties: Heqing, Binchuan, and Dali City. Mount Jizu is a famed holy mountain in Buddhism. Its main peak, Tianzhu Peak, rises some 3,240 metres above sea level. The mountain is vegetated with dense forests and bamboo groves. With three mountain ranges to the front and one range to the rear, it appears like a cock's foot, hence its common name Mount Cock's Foot or Mt. Cock's Claw. Yet another name for this mountain is Nine Strata Cliffs.

Haicheng Ling et al. (2005: p. 40) relate the experience of Xu Xiake (1586-1641):

"On the top of Tianzhu Peak, people can admire sun-rise in the east, sea of auspicious clouds in the south, the Cangshan Mountain and the Erhai Lake in the west, and the Yulong Snow Mountain in the north. Xu Xiake (1586-1641), a famous traveller and writer of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), marvelled that on the top of a single peak, people could see the "Four Scenes" - sun, lake, cloud and snow. "

The mountain is now not only a center of Zen, Pureland, and Tibetan Buddhism, but also a popular weekend getaway for Chinese tourists. A cablecar whisking visitors to the summit was installed above Tangyuan Street (汤圆街) in 2011.