"Wutai Shan - sacred Buddhist mountains " a Wutaishan Travel Page by agaiax

Wutaishan is located in the northeast of Shanxi and is one of China’s sacred Buddhist mountains. It is also the only mountain where both Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Lamaism are practiced, that's why some call it "Little Tibet".
This is a mountain area with some of the peaks reaching up to 3.000 meters, nice little vallies and many many Buddhist temples and monasteries scattered around the mountains.
Nowdays not only Buddhist monks and pillgrims visit, but also many Chinese tourists. If you want to enjoy the place in quiet go there during the week, when there's not so many tourists.
Wutai Mountain is also famous scenic spot and it is under national protection. To enter the area you have to pay 140 RMB (65 RMB for the students) and in some of the temples an additional yuan or two.

Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags for luck, happiness, longevity
and prosperity in practice of Tibetan Buddhism.
The flags are placed outdoors on the way to the temple, hung on strings or ropes for the wind to carry their prayers accross the land.
Sets of five colour flags are put in order: yellow, green, red, white and blue. The colours represent the elements: earth, water, fire, cloud and sky.

Even though the Wutaishan area had experienced lots of changes and a real tourist boom in last couple of decades, local people still lead their lives in traditional way. There is a little stream (a river in rainy period) flowing through Taihuai town and you can still see locals washing their vegetables and cloths there, taking their drinking water out of the stream, kids playing and making little boats to flow the stream...