Mount Jizu is situated to the northwest of Binchuan County in Dali City, Yunnan Province. Mount Jizu is a famed holy mountain in Buddhism. Tianzhu Peak, rising some 3,240 metres above sea level is the main peak of Mount Jizu. 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.
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