Heavenly Lake of Changbai Mountain

The Changbai Mountain Range is one of China’s famous mountains. It is the birthplace and sacred cultural mountain of the Manchu people. Its earliest record dates back more than 4,000 years in Chinese ancient documents. In Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas), it was named Mount Buxian; in the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was known as Mount Tutai; in the Tang Dynasty, it was called Mount Taibai; and the name Changbai Mountain was first adopted in the Jin Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, it was regarded as a sacred mountain. Emperors would either come in person or send senior ministers to Jilin Ula (present-day Jilin City) to hold remote worship ceremonies for Changbai Mountain.

The total area of the Changbai Mountain Range covers 196,400 hectares, including a core zone of 75,800 hectares. The highest peak of the Changbai Mountain system is General Peak on the Korean side, with an altitude of 2,749 metres. Baiyun Peak, the highest peak within Chinese territory, rises to 2,691 metres above sea level, ranking as the highest mountain in Northeast China.

In the narrow sense, Changbai Mountain refers to the main peak in the southeastern part of Jilin Province. In the broad sense, Changbai Mountain collectively covers the eastern mountainous areas of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces in China, as well as numerous branches in the Russian Far East and the Korean Peninsula. The narrowly defined Changbai Mountain lies between 127°40′–128°16′ East Longitude and 41°35′–42°25′ North Latitude in southeastern Jilin Province, serving as the boundary mountain between China and the DPRK.

The Changbai Mountain Range is the source of the Songhua River, Tumen River and Yalu River.

The vertical vegetation zones and volcanic landforms of Changbai Mountain were among the first national natural heritage sites inscribed on the Tentative List of China’s World Natural Heritage and Mixed Natural and Cultural Heritage. It has been designated successively as one of the first batch of national nature reserves, one of the first national AAAAA-level tourist attractions, a UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Reserve, and an international Class A nature reserve.

Changbai Mountain, together with its Heavenly Lake, waterfalls, ice sculptures and vast forest seas, has repeatedly been included in Guinness World Records. It has also won such reputations as one of China’s Top Ten Famous Mountains, one of China’s Five Most Beautiful Lakes, and one of China’s Ten Most Beautiful Forests. Changbai Mountain possesses outstanding universal value, remarkable natural features and profound cultural connotations in ecology, biology, geology and history.