Baiyun Mountain (Guangdong)

Baiyun Mountain
Baiyun Mountain
	Entrance to the Baiyun Scenic Area
Simplified Chinese	白云山
Traditional Chinese	白雲山
Jyutping	Baak6-wan4 Saan1
Cantonese Yale	Baahkwàhn Sāan
Hanyu Pinyin	Báiyúnshān
Postal	Pakwan Mountain
Literal meaning	White Cloud Mountain
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Báiyúnshān
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Baahkwàhn Sāan
Jyutping	Baak6-wan4 Saan1
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	云山
Traditional Chinese	雲山
Jyutping	Wan4-saan1
Cantonese Yale	Wàhnsāan
Hanyu Pinyin	Yúnshān
Literal meaning	Cloudy Mountain
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Yúnshān
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Wàhnsāan
Jyutping	Wan4-saan1

Baiyun Mountain
Baiyun Mountain
	Baiyun with Zhujiang New Town in the distance
Highest point
Elevation	427 m (1,401 ft)
Coordinates	23°09′28.4″N 113°17′35.9″E / 23.157889°N 113.293306°E
Geography
Location	Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Baiyun Mountain, also known as White Cloud Mountain, is a mountain located a few miles to the north of Guangzhou, China. It has a height of 427 metres (1,401 ft).^[1]

Name

Báiyún is Mandarin Chinese for "White Clouds", derived from views of the mountain's peaks shrouded in mist during late Spring or after a rain.^[2] Its former English name, Pakwan, is a form of the Cantonese pronunciation of the same name. In English, it is also known as White Cloud Mountain, Mount Baiyun, Baiyun Shan, or—since the "mountain" is, properly speaking, a "mountain range"—the "Baiyun Mountains".^{[citation needed]}

Baiyun is informally known as the "City's Lung" (市肺), from its greenery. It is also acclaimed as the "First Beauty in Guangzhou” (羊城第一秀)^[2] or the “Most Famous Mountain South of Ling” (岭南第一名山).^[3] Moxing Peak, its highest point, is similarly sometimes called the “First Peak under the Southern Sky” (天南第一峰).^[2]

History

Scenes on Baiyun Mountain named in Eight Sights of Guangzhou
Time	Chinese	English
Song Dynasty	蒲涧帘泉	Lianquan Fountain at Cattail Gully
Yuan Dynasty	蒲间濂泉	Lianquan Fountain at Cattail Gully
	白云晚望	Evening Vista from Baiyun
	景泰僧归	Jingtai's Returning Monks
1963	白云松涛	Baiyun's Pine Sea
1986	云山锦绣	Cloudy Mountain's Grandeur
2002	云山叠翠	Cloudy Mountain's Lush Greenery
2011	云山叠翠	Cloudy Mountain, Green and Tidy

Baiyun Mountain has been famed as a scenic spot since ancient times.^[2] Its visitors predated the foundation of Panyu (now Guangzhou) in 214 BC, with various celebrities of the Warring States period (5th–3rd centuries BC) known to have traveled there. Its beauty was again celebrated during the 3rd–5th century Jin dynasty and the 7th–9th century Tang.^[4] Since the Song, various scenes at Baiyun have been named among the Eight Sights of Ram City, lists of Guangzhou's loveliest spots.^[4]^[5]^[3] However, few of the historical sites have survived to the present day^[2] and others—such as the view of Guangzhou's old walled city at dusk—have changed drastically as the city has expanded to and around the mountain.

In its most recent years, Baiyun has become home to a small Kung Fu community. Baiyun Kung Fu or White Cloud Kung Fu. Named after the landscape they train in.