According to Du Guangting's Tang dynasty text on the so-called Grottoe-Heaven (dongtian fudi), this is the first in the series of the "Big Ten". It's significance in Chinese religious thought and mythology can not be overestimated. The mountain with over 1700 m is one of Henan province' highest elevations, and not far from at least two ancient Chinese capitals (to be precise, it is located ~40 km west of Jiyuan city, 100km NW of Luoyang).
A quote from just one of the many texts discussing Mt. Wangwu:
"In ancient times, the Yellow Emperor ascended Mount Wangwu and received scriptures on the elixirs;..." From
The Scripture of the Nine Elixirs. (See more at http://www.stanford.edu/~pregadio/jindan/jiudan.html) I had applied to local authorities to enter the mountain for fieldwork purposes back in September 1984 and thereafter. Access was denied three times (it was classified military area). Finally visited 23 years later, on June 26, 2007.
All photographs taken with Olympus E-330 and the recommendable 11-22mm wide-angle zoom lens. Some post-processing in ACDsee and Photoshop (perspective correction).
Thomas H. Hahn
Beijing
