[2025 Dengfeng Attraction] Travel Guide for Songyang Scenic Area (Updated Apr)

Songyang Academy in Dengfeng, Zhengzhou, is an ancient institution of learning that was first built in the eighth year of the Taihe period of the Northern Wei Dynasty (484 AD). It is one of the four great ancient academies in China and one of the birthplaces of Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism. Strolling through the courtyards with their gray bricks and tiles, you can not only feel the spirit of seeking knowledge like Cheng Yi who stood in the snow, but also touch the 4,500-year-old General Cypress. Every brick and tile is engraved with the profoundness of Central Plains culture. 📜Historical Exploration and Cultural Experience Must-See Cultural Relics: • Great Tang Stele: A Tang Dynasty official script stele with a height of 9.02m, recording the story of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang refining elixirs. The inscription was written by the Prime Minister Li Linfu and calligraphed by the calligrapher Xu Hao. It is known as the "King of Steles in Mount Song". • General Cypress: The 4,500-year-old "Second General Cypress" has branches like wings, and the tree hole can accommodate five or six people. According to legend, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty named the cypress tree as a general, which caused the "Third General Cypress" to be struck by lightning. • Two Cheng Planted Chinese Scholar Tree: Planted by Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi of the Northern Song Dynasty when they lectured here. Although the trunk is rugged, the branches and leaves are still lush, witnessing the inheritance of Neo-Confucianism. Featured activities: • Paying Respects to Confucius Ceremony: Perform traditional rituals to the statue of Confucius in the Hall of the Sage, recite excerpts from The Great Learning, and experience the scene of ancient students paying respects to their teachers. • Stele Rubbing: For CNY 30, you can experience the fun of "moving" thousands of years of text onto rice paper and take away an exclusive cultural souvenir. 🍜Food and Accommodation Recommendations Dengfeng Specialties: • Dengfeng Baked Wheat Cake: Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with a rich sesame aroma. It costs CNY 5 per person to fill your stomach. • Braised Mutton: The soup is fresh and the meat is tender, served with special chili sauce. It costs CNY 30 per person. • Mustard Silk: A crisp and appetizing pickle, you can buy a large jar for CNY 15. Recommended Accommodation: • Manhattan Plaza Hotel (Trip.com from CNY 350/night): A 10-minute walk to the academy, the corridor retains elements of the old Zhengzhou Textile Factory. • Songshan Hotel (Trip.com from CNY 600/night): Adjacent to Songyang Scenic Area, a Soviet-style building complex built in 1954, the rooms offer a panoramic view of the academy. 💰Tickets and Opening Hours • Adult Ticket: CNY 30 (half price for students/seniors), you need to make a booking through the "Songyang Academy" official account. • Opening Hours: 8:00-18:30, it is recommended to end the tour before 16:00 to avoid missing the sunset. 🚌Transportation Guide • Self-driving: Navigate to "Songyang Academy parking lot", it is recommended to arrive before 9:00 on weekends. • Bus: Take bus No. 1/6 from Dengfeng city to the Academy Station, the journey takes about 20 minutes. • Subway: There is no direct line for the time being. It is recommended to charter a car or share a car (about CNY 80/person). Songyang Academy is not only a living fossil of the ancient education system, but also a cultural scroll written with history, words and food. This spring, why not use the academy as paper, measure the depth of Central Plains civilization with your footsteps, and capture the wrinkles of a thousand years of time with your lens? 🌿📖

The cave is divided into east and west courtyards, with more than 100 rooms. The two courtyards are 188 meters long from east to west, 64 meters wide from north to south, and cover an area of about 12,032 square meters. The east courtyard is the main courtyard, with three courtyards from the gate to the rear hall. The main buildings are the Wujilaojun Hall, Wujilaomu Hall, etc. The Wujilaojun Hall is located at the end of the east courtyard. It was built in the late Qing Dynasty, with three rooms wide and five rafters deep, and a large hard mountain with yellow glazed tiles on the front eaves. There are two symmetrical coiled dragon wooden columns in the hall. The Qianfo Hall is located on the east side of the Wujilaomu Hall, with three rooms wide and five rafters deep, and a hard mountain with gray tube tiles on the front eaves, lattice doors and windows, and square stone columns on the front eaves. There are more than 20 steles from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China in Laojun Cave, most of which are about renovation, donation, and records, reflecting the development of Taoism among ancient people to a certain extent.

Songshan Scenic Area is very large. It is roughly divided into two areas~ Songshan Shaolin and Songyang Taishi Mountain. The two are about 10 kilometers apart. You can't climb them all in one day with a mobile phone. You can only choose one of the two. Songshan Shaolin is far from the foot of the mountain. You need to take a car to get there. It takes about 3 hours to climb. The attractions at the foot of the mountain and on the mountain in Songyang are different. You can buy them separately according to your preferences. Songyang Academy is 30 per person. Taishi Mountain is 50 per person. It is recommended to drive there. It is far from Zhengzhou City, about 100 kilometers. It is also about 50 kilometers away from Luoyang. The route Zhengzhou-Songshan-Luoyang is recommended.

Songyang Academy is one of the eight places and eleven items of the 'Center of Heaven and Earth' historical architectural complex in Dengfeng, a World Cultural Heritage site, and is a national 4A-level tourist attraction (point). In June 2001, it was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit, located at the foot of the steep Junji Peak on the north side of Dengfeng city, named for its location on the sunny side of Mount Song. Songyang Academy was founded in the eighth year of the Taihe era of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty (484 AD), originally named Songyang Temple, renamed to Songyin Observatory in 605 AD (during the Daye period of the Sui Dynasty), and was granted the name Songyang Academy in the second year of Jingyou of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1035 AD). Songyang Academy was an ancient higher education institution in China, one of the four great academies of the Northern Song Dynasty, and also the source and dissemination center of Neo-Confucianism during the Song Dynasty. Historical figures such as Fan Zhongyan, Sima Guang, Cheng Hao, and Cheng Yi, were here. Songyang Academy was destroyed by war at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and after many reconstructions and repairs over the generations, the current architectural layout of the academy maintains the style of the Qing Dynasty, with more than five hundred existing halls and rooms, composed of five courtyards in sequence on the central axis, including the Gaoshan Yangzhi Archway, Xiansheng Hall, Lecture Hall, Daotong Ancestral Hall, and the Book Collection Tower. Its unique planning layout and physical preservation have irreplaceable exemplary significance for the study of ancient Chinese academy architecture, educational system, and Confucian culture.