The renowned Wudang Mountain continues to captivate the hearts of many, drawing in over 70,000 international tourists every year.
Known for its rich history of martial arts and breathtaking natural landscapes, the Wudang Mountain has become a favored location for movies and TV shows.
Located in central China's Hubei Province, the Wudang Mountain has been known for its magnificent architecture and close association with the spirit of martial arts since ancient times.
The mountain's fame has grown internationally through popular movies, and its iconic sites such as the Carefree Valley, the Zixiao Palace, and the Golden Summit are often featured in major martial arts films, including the American martial arts drama movie "The Karate Kid."
The Zixiao Palace, one of the most well-preserved palaces on the Wudang Mountain, appears as an important scene in the movie, starring Jackie Chan. The unique upturned eaves, brackets, red walls and green tiles of the Zixiao Palace fully display oriental architectural aesthetics.
As the highest point of the Wudang Mountain and an important symbol of martial arts culture, the Golden Summit also frequently appears in major martial arts movies.
"From a young age I watched a lot of Kung Fu movies, and these really influenced me a lot to come here. Of course 'the Karate Kid' was shot right here. My Shifu (master) actually had a small part in the movie. So here the Carefree Valley is where they did all their training, where they prepared to climb the mountain. When they walk on the mountain, almost to the top, they see a bunch of Kung Fu masters, and there's a moment of a master doing stuff, doing some movements, and that's my Shifu. So just a moment, but all of the people in that part of the video are actual martial artists from Wudang. So that's very special," said Jake Pinnick, an American.
The Wudang Mountain has attracted tourists from all over the world, including Pinnick, who came to China in 2010. Now a 16th-generation San Feng Pai disciple, Pinnick has contributed to the cultural exchange and integration between eastern and western civilizations over the years.
With the visa-free policy, this number of international tourists to the Wudang Mountain is showing a steady growth.
"I opened a blog to share information about the temples within the Wudang Mountain, which are definitely worth visiting. With the express train and the airport, it's much easier for people to visit Wudang," said Marc V. a French blogger.
Wudang Mountain's martial arts heritage draws global visitors
Wudang Mountain's martial arts heritage draws global visitors
A veteran agricultural scientist and deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, shared his decades-long mission to reduce the country's reliance on food imports and safeguard its food security by developing high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties.
Gao Derong, a researcher from the Lixiahe Regional Institute of Agricultural Sciences in east China's Jiangsu Province, detailed his relentless pursuit of better wheat varieties while taking a question at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing "two sessions", a major event in China's political calendar.
He has dedicated more than 30 years to wheat breeding and succeeded in the fight against Fusarium head blight, a serious fungal disease of cereals, including wheat and other small-grain crops, by implanting "disease-resistant genes" inside seeds.
"After 30 years of countless and repeated trials, we finally developed our first Fusarium head blight resistant variety in 2021. It exhibits strong disease resistance and high yield, with a yield of up to 600 kg per mu (0.066 hectare) in a demonstration plot. This means farmers can use fewer pesticides, produce more wheats, and secure a more stable harvest," said Gao.
Addressing the tight rotation schedule in the rice-wheat rotation system in south China, his team developed time-smart varieties like "Yangmai 25," which can be sown as late as December and still achieve a yield of 6,00 kg per mu.
"We have also cultivated a high-quality weak-gluten wheat variety tailored for biscuits and pastries, reversing China's long-standing reliance on imports. These grain varieties, like elite guard teams, help us hold our rice bowl firmly and contribute to securing our food security," Gao said.
As an NPC deputy, Gao extends his research from the lab to the field, gathering farmers' concerns alongside experimental data.
"My duty as a deputy is also written in the fields. 'Can we construct high-standard farmland at an accelerated pace?' 'Can we have more targeted agricultural subsidies?' These are the voices I often heard in the fields, which I carefully recorded like experimental data and transformed into suggestions," he said. Gao said he will continue working to enable the land to yield more grain, help farmers increase their incomes, and contribute to ensuring national food security.
This year's "two sessions," the annual meetings of China's top political advisory body and national legislature, opened in Beijing Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. As the world's second-largest economy embarks on the inaugural year of its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) period, these gatherings will serve both as a review of past achievements, and as a strategic compass guiding the nation's future development.
NPC deputy vows to fortify China's food security through seed innovation
