The booking wall verified
These sell out or block foreigners if you arrive unprepared — the dates, the official link, and whether your passport works.
Mount Jiuhua scenic area (entrance ticket)
✓ 2026-06-13- Price
- ¥160
- Foreigners
- Passport works
The entrance ticket is around ¥160 in peak season (about ¥140 in the off-season), real-name with your passport, bought at the scenic-area gate. It covers entry to the mountain and the temple-village; the cable cars and some individual sites are separate.
officialBookingUrl left null: entry is real-name at the gate and I won't render a booking button I can't confirm completes for an overseas visitor. Budget the entry as the base layer, then add whichever cable cars you ride. Confirm the season's price at the gate — peak/off-season rates shift around the ¥140–160 range.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
The cable cars (Baisui Palace, Tiantai and others)
✓ 2026-06-13- Price
- ¥100
- Foreigners
- Passport works
Several separate cable cars and a funicular serve different parts of the mountain (Baisui Palace, the long Tiantai/Phoenix Pine line and more), each paid on the spot. A typical line runs roughly ¥55 one way or ¥100 return in peak season. You can also walk the stone pilgrim paths instead.
The cable cars are the easy way up to the higher temple groups, especially the long haul towards Tiantai (Heavenly Terrace), the highest accessible peak. Each line is a separate ticket, so a day combining two or three cars adds up — decide your route before you ride. The fit can climb the old stone stairways between temples, which is the traditional pilgrim experience but a long, steep effort.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
The monasteries & Tiantai (Heavenly Terrace)
✓ 2026-06-13- Price
- —
- Foreigners
- Passport works
- Resellers
- None official
The working monasteries around Jiuhua Street and up the mountain are the main draw; some charge a small individual fee paid at the gate. Tiantai, the high peak, is reached by a combination of cable car and a stair climb. No advance booking needed.
Jiuhua Shan is the bodhimanda of Ksitigarbha (Dizang), the bodhisattva of the underworld, so it's a serious pilgrimage mountain dense with active temples and pagodas rather than a single sight — including halls displaying the preserved bodies of revered monks. Treat it as a place of worship: dress modestly, be quiet in the halls, and give pilgrims room. Pace it over a full day or an overnight.
Source: official ticketing · re-checked monthly
Landing & registration
The first-24-hours facts: hotels, police registration, and whether your card works.
- Hotels take foreigners
- Mixed — check first
- Foreign card via Alipay/WeChat
- mixed
- Police registration
- Most visitors stay up in the temple-village in the heart of the scenic area (around Jiuhua Street), where the monasteries, restaurants and guesthouses cluster, rather than down in Qingyang county town. It's a small mountain settlement, so confirm passport registration before booking — a larger hotel is the safer bet for foreigners. An overnight is normal given how long the journey in takes.
Eat like a local
What to order, where locals actually queue, and the food-street traps to skip.
As on China's other sacred Buddhist mountains, the local specialty is su-cai — clean vegetarian cooking served by temples and restaurants in the village, with mountain vegetables, bamboo shoots, tofu and noodles. It fits the setting and is reliably good. Order it deliberately rather than defaulting to generic tourist fare.
You're in Anhui, so look for local mountain ingredients — wild vegetables, freshwater dishes, bamboo and the region's stronger, fermented flavours. The village restaurants do hearty post-hike food; ask what's local rather than ordering off a photo menu.
Restaurants concentrate around Jiuhua Street; once you're climbing towards Tiantai or out on the further cable-car lines, options thin and prices rise. Eat properly in the village and carry water and a snack for the stairs and the higher temples.
The honest layer
The part a tourism board will never print.
Come for the living Buddhist culture, not a single panorama. Mount Jiuhua is Ksitigarbha's sacred mountain, thick with working monasteries, incense, chanting and pilgrims, plus the famous halls of preserved monk bodies. If you arrive expecting one big view you'll be underwhelmed; if you come to wander temples and soak up the atmosphere over a day or two, it delivers. Behave as you would in any place of worship.
The ¥160 (¥140 off-season) entrance is just the base. The mountain has several separate cable cars and a funicular — typically around ¥55 one way or ¥100 return each — and a day that rides two or three of them, especially out to Tiantai, climbs well past the ticket price. Decide which peaks and cars you actually want before you start, or the costs creep.
The nearest gateways are Chizhou (about 45km, with an airport and high-speed station) and Jiuhuashan Railway Station (about 30km) — but note Jiuhuashan station still needs an onward bus with a transfer, roughly 1.5–2 hours, so it isn't as close as the name suggests. Cheap scenic-area buses (around ¥12) run from roughly 7am to 5pm. Build in the transfer time and check the last bus.
The guesthouses, restaurants and monasteries cluster up on the mountain around Jiuhua Street, which is where you want to be for early-morning prayers and quiet temples before the day-trippers arrive. Sleeping up top beats commuting from Qingyang town. Confirm the place registers foreign guests first — it's a small settlement and registration is mixed.
Straight answers
How much does Mount Jiuhua cost?
The entrance ticket is around ¥160 in peak season and about ¥140 off-season, real-name with your passport at the gate. The cable cars are separate — several lines, each roughly ¥55 one way or ¥100 return — and some individual temples charge a small fee. A day riding two or three cars out to the high peaks adds up well beyond the entry price, so plan your route first.
How do I get to Mount Jiuhua?
The closest gateways are Chizhou (about 45km, with an airport and high-speed rail) and Jiuhuashan Railway Station (about 30km). Despite the name, Jiuhuashan station still needs an onward bus with a transfer of roughly 1.5–2 hours, and cheap scenic-area buses (around ¥12) run from about 7am to 5pm. Allow for the transfer time and check the last bus up.
What is there actually to see at Mount Jiuhua?
It's the sacred mountain of the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha (Dizang), so the draw is the dense cluster of working monasteries, pagodas and pilgrim trails — including halls displaying preserved monk bodies — rather than one big view. The high point, Tiantai (Heavenly Terrace), is reached by cable car plus a stair climb. Treat it as a pilgrimage site and give it a full day or an overnight.
Will my foreign card and phone work at Mount Jiuhua?
Mobile pay is your best tool — a foreign Visa or Mastercard linked to Alipay or WeChat Pay covers the ticket, cable cars and meals. Physical foreign-card terminals are uncommon on the mountain and small temple gates often prefer cash, so carry some yuan too and set up the wallet apps before you arrive.