Wudangshan Temple Fair

The Wudangshan temple fair is a folk activity that grew from the distinctive incense-offering pilgrimages of believers, popular in the Wudangshan area of Shiyan. It is held twice each lunar year, from the twenty-third of the twelfth lunar month to the sixteenth of the third, and from the first to the tenth of the ninth; the lunar third-month-third is one of Wudang's grandest traditional festivals, said to be the birthday of the Perfect Warrior deity.

During the fair, pilgrims form teams to climb the mountain bearing incense, the temples hold grand ceremonies and Daoist liturgies, folk artists perform martial arts, opera, dragon and lion dance, and vendors crowd to sell incense, offerings and local snacks, the mountain humming with people in a grand mingling of the sacred and the secular that captures Wudang's folk spirit best.

The Wudangshan temple fair carries the cult of the Perfect Warrior, the pilgrimage incense tradition and urban folklore, an important vessel for studying Chinese Daoist folk belief and festival culture, and of real significance for the living transmission of Wudang culture.

The fair unfolds across Wudang's temples and old incense roads, busiest around Zixiao Palace and the Golden Summit.