2-Day Wudangshan Taiji & Kung Fu Experience: Temples and Training

Overview

Two days, and the balance is deliberately tilted towards the practice rather than the sightseeing. Wudangshan is the home of the internal martial arts as they are taught now, and while the founding attribution to Zhang Sanfeng is historically disputed - your guide will say so rather than repeat the legend - the continuous community of practitioners on this mountain is not. You get two sessions with English-speaking instructors: stance and weight transfer in the first, and the opening section of a bare-hand form in the second, taught slowly enough that someone who has never done it can follow.

Around the sessions you see the mountain properly. Zixiao Palace, on a terrace of 1413, is the largest of the 33 building groups that the Yongle emperor had built between 1412 and 1424; Nanyan is cantilevered over a cliff; and the summit at 1,612 metres carries a gilded bronze hall cast in Beijing in 1416 and carried up in pieces. Meals are Taoist vegetarian where you want them: no meat, no alliums, no strong spice, and better than it sounds.

Highlights

Two instruction sessions with English-speaking Wudang practitioners
Zixiao Palace, the largest surviving Ming complex on the mountain
The Golden Summit at 1,612 metres and its gilded bronze hall of 1416
Nanyan Palace on the cliff face
Taoist vegetarian meals in a temple kitchen
The Wudang Museum and the conservation record

Itinerary

Day 1To Wudang Mountain: Zixiao Palace and the Wudang Museum

Morning - the train west
The high-speed line runs north-west out of Wuhan across the Jianghan plain and into the hills, and Shiyan East is about two hours out. Your guide travels with you, handles the tickets, and has the scenic-area admission pre-booked: Wudangshan runs timed entry and the mountain shuttle is compulsory, because private vehicles are not allowed past the gate.

Afternoon - Zixiao Palace
The Yongle emperor, who reigned from 1402 to 1424, had Wudangshan built as a single project: hundreds of thousands of labourers, nine palaces, nine monasteries, and 33 building groups in all, laid out along a sacred geography that runs from the foot of the mountain to the Golden Summit on the highest peak. The UNESCO inscription covers the ancient building complex, and what makes it exceptional is not any single hall but the way the whole thing is fitted to the terrain - terraces cut into slopes, axes aligned on peaks, and not one courtyard on a flat site.

Zixiao Palace, the Purple Clouds, is the largest surviving complex and the one you see first. Its main hall sits on a three-tier terrace of stone, dated to 1413, with a double-eave roof and the bracket work of the early Ming left unpainted except for the coloured draught that has been restored. Inside is a Ming bronze statue of Zhenwu, the Dark Warrior, the deity the mountain is dedicated to. Around the courtyards are the subsidiary halls, the stele pavilions with Yongle's own inscriptions, and the Taoist clergy, who still maintain the place as a working temple.

The Wudang Museum
At the foot of the mountain, the museum holds what the archaeologists and the conservators have taken off the buildings: roof tiles with reign marks, bronze, and the documentation of the 2003 fire that destroyed the main hall of Yuzhen Palace and the restoration that followed. Forty-five minutes, and worth it before you go up rather than after.

Evening
Dinner at the foot of the mountain. Your guide briefs the group on the morning: if you want the Golden Summit at first light, the shuttle starts before dawn and the cable car opens around seven.

Meals
Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
At the foot of Wudangshan, or on the mountain if booked in advance.

Transport: Wuhan to Shiyan East by high-speed train (about 2 hours), then private vehicle to the Wudangshan scenic area (about 40 minutes)

Meals: Lunch, Dinner

Day 2Wudang Mountain: Nanyan Palace and the Golden Summit

Early start
The mountain opens early and the shuttle runs from the gate through a series of valleys to the separate sites. Going up first is the usual order, because the summit cloud usually burns off by mid-morning and returns after two. Your guide takes the Qiongtai cable car with you - about 1,500 metres of line, twenty minutes - and walks the last stretch to the top.

The Golden Summit
At 1,612 metres, the peak carries a walled enclosure and, inside it, a hall cast in bronze and gilded, assembled in Beijing in 1416 and carried up the mountain in pieces. It is small - about five metres across - and it has stood there through six centuries of lightning, which is why the ridge is fitted with conductors and why the guides have a story about the fire that used to be lit every sixty years. The hall holds a bronze Zhenwu and the original lamps. The enclosure is reached by a narrow stair through a gate in the wall, and the queue in high season is the one thing to budget for: an hour is normal in July and October.

Nanyan Palace
Nanyan, the South Cliff, is the other reason to come. The palace is set into a recess in the cliff on the south face, with halls built out over the drop on timber supports and stone brackets, and a terrace that projects into the air above the valley. The most photographed object on the mountain is here: the Dragon Head Incense Burner, a two-metre stone dragon carved in the Yuan and cantilevered off the edge of the cliff, on which pilgrims used to walk out to set incense, and which is now fenced. The carving, the brackets under the halls and the way the whole complex is keyed into the rock are the finest surviving examples of Ming construction on a cliff anywhere in China.

Lunch
On the mountain. The food is simple - noodles, rice, mountain vegetables, and the local mushrooms - and the guide orders a plain table. Vegetarian food is easy here, since the temples run their own kitchens, and Wudang's Taoist vegetarian cooking is worth asking for.

Afternoon
Down by shuttle to Taizipo, the Prince's Slope, where the Nine-Bend Wall and the hall complex of 1412 sit on a slope with the brackets doing most of the visual work. If the group has the legs, the old stone path from Nanyan down to the valley floor is a real pilgrim route with shrines along it.

Evening
Dinner at the foot of the mountain.

Meals
Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
At the foot of Wudangshan.

Transport: Scenic-area shuttle between sites; Qiongtai cable car to the summit

Meals: Lunch, Dinner

Day 3Wudangshan: Departure

Your guide and driver take you down from the mountain to Shiyan East for the high-speed train, or to Shiyan Wudangshan airport, timed to your departure. Shiyan East is on the line west to Xi'an - about three hours - and east to Wuhan, which is about two. If your train is in the afternoon and you want the morning, the halls at Yuxu Palace or the Wudang Museum are both within half an hour and can be added the night before.

A note on the mountain roads: the descent from the scenic-area gate to the station is about forty minutes on good road, but in winter - December to February - Wudangshan and the passes around it get ice and snow, and we build in extra time and fit winter tyres. If you are travelling in those months, ask us to hold a later train.

Meals
Breakfast at the hotel

Accommodation
Not included

Transport: Private vehicle to Shiyan East railway station (about 40 minutes) or Shiyan Wudangshan Airport

Booking Price

Group Size	Adult(Age:8-80) Price/p.p	Child(Age:4-7) Price/p.p	Infant(Age:0-3) Price/p.p
2 PAX	from $1054	/	/
4 PAX	from $725	/	/
6 PAX	from $622	/	/
8 PAX	from $567	/	/
10 PAX	from $505	/	/
20 PAX	from $485	/	/
30 PAX	from $439	/	/

Includes

Accommodation for 1 night at a 4-star or equivalent hotel, twin share, with daily breakfast
Meals as listed in the daily itinerary (daily breakfast, plus the lunches and dinners listed in the daily programme; on cruise days all meals are taken on board and are included in the cabin)
Private air-conditioned vehicle with professional driver throughout
English-speaking local guide (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian or Japanese on request)
All entrance fees for the sites listed, including shuttle buses, eco-buses and cable cars where the site requires them
Local handling and coordination service throughout the programme
Bottled water (2 bottles per person per day) and audio headsets where group size requires them
Travel accident insurance for the duration of the tour

Excludes

International air tickets and any domestic flights not listed in the itinerary
China visa or visa-free entry documentation fees
Meals not specified in the daily itinerary and all beverages/alcohol
Tips for guides, drivers and hotel staff (suggested USD 8-12 per person per day)
Personal expenses: laundry, telephone, minibar, shopping
Optional activities and any item not listed under Price Includes
Single-room supplement if a traveller requires a room alone
Additional tuition beyond the two included sessions (available, quoted on request)
Residential multi-week training courses, which are a different product entirely

Trip Notes

Published: October 2026 — prices and itinerary reviewed on this date; later updates are shown in the revision note below.

Please read the notes below before you book. Hubei is a province of water and of altitude, and both shape the day. The Yangtze is a kilometre and a half wide at Wuhan and the humidity in July and August is serious: summer in Wuhan is hotter than almost anywhere else in China at this latitude, and the guides carry water and re-order the day around it. Wudangshan sits at up to 1,612 metres and Shennongjia above 3,000, so nights are cold even in summer. The practical rules that matter: the Three Gorges Dam site, the Hubei Provincial Museum, the Jingzhou Museum and Wuhan University all require advance reservation with passport details, the Wudangshan scenic area runs timed entry and does not admit private vehicles, Enshi’s canyons involve eight kilometres of cliff walking, and the mountain roads of western Hubei are not roads we let clients drive themselves. Our guides hold the bookings and change the order of the day when the weather or the crowds argue for it.

Q: Do I need a visa for a trip to Hubei?
A: Most visitors do not. China’s unilateral visa-free scheme currently covers 50 countries for stays of up to 30 days, and 240-hour visa-free transit is available to travellers from 57 countries entering through 65 designated ports, which include Wuhan Tianhe airport and the ports of Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Hubei itself adds no local permit requirement. Rules change, so check your nationality against the National Immigration Administration list before you book flights.

Q: Do I need any experience?
A: None. The sessions assume nothing and start with how you stand and how you move your weight, which is where everyone starts. Most people on this programme have never done a day of it. If you do have experience, tell us and we will ask the instructor to pitch it accordingly.

Q: What should I wear?
A: Flat shoes with a thin sole - you need to feel the floor - and trousers and a top you can move in. Loose is better than tight and there is no uniform. Bring a layer: the training spaces are often outdoors or semi-outdoors and the mountain is cooler than the plain.

Q: Is this a real school or a tourist performance?
A: It is a real school. The mountain has supported a resident community of practitioners for centuries and the schools at the foot of it teach a curriculum with grades and lineage. What we will not do is pretend you are joining a monastery for two days, and we won't sell you the Zhang Sanfeng legend as history.

Q: Can we extend the training?
A: Yes. Multi-day and multi-week residential courses are available at the schools, with accommodation and full board, and we can quote them. They are a genuinely different product from a tour - no vehicle, no guide for most of the day, and a fixed daily schedule - and we will say so plainly rather than dressing them up.

Q: How much sightseeing is there?
A: Enough to justify the trip and not enough to exhaust anyone: Zixiao, Nanyan and the summit in one day, and the museums and Taizipo around the sessions. If you want more mountain, the four-day walking programme is the one to look at.

Q: Is the food vegetarian?
A: By default we book Taoist vegetarian tables, because the temple kitchens here are good and it is part of the place. You are not obliged to eat that way - there are ordinary restaurants at the foot of the mountain and we will use them if you would rather.

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2-Day Wudang: a Taiji and Kung Fu Experience