Dining at Wudang

Updated: 2011-07-12

Restaurants on Wudang Mountain mainly serve Hubei and Sichuan dishes, but the special items can be three types:

1. Taoist fast food

Taoist fast food is the main thing Taoist priests eat, and especially for pilgrimages. It is all vegetarian, with no meat, green onions or garlic. A common characteristic of a vegetarian meal is that the dishes are made to look like meat and have meat names. They consist of glutenous foods and use beans and fern fronds.

Taoist temples can also have banquets inside or open-air and visitors can get a taste of this at the Crow Range, Purple Heaven Palace, Tian Lu Villa and the Tai He Palace.

2. Han River fish

One major banquet features turtles, mandarin fish, whitefish, various eels, and whitebait as the ingredients different cooking methods such as frying, steaming and stewing. They come in diverse shapes and unique flavors and are nutritious.

3. Wudang natural food banquet

This uses different types of wild mushroom and vegetables such as fungi, fern fronds and bamboo shoots as well as edible flowers, which are popular for their Wudang flavor nutritious nature.