Da Nang Marble Mountains

Located around 7-8 km from city of Danang, Marble Mountains are clusters of 5 mountains close to the sea. This site is extremely famous for its pagodas, caves and sightseeing spots. 5 mountains of it represent for 5 basic elements that created the universe in Oriental philosophy – metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Here is a useful guide of Da Nang Marble Mountains.

How to get there:

There are many ways you can visit this place:

By bus: if you stay from Hoian or Danang, you can take the local bus Hoian- Danang (yellow bus) and ask driver to stop at the marble mountains (Ngu Hanh Son). The ticket for local bus is 20,000 vnd.

By car: there are many car rental services and taxi service to bring you to Marble mountains. Grab car /motorbike taxi is also getting popular here.

By motorbike: you can ride your bike here if you have license and experience on riding bikes. Remember you will be disturbed by many locals about bike parking service there. Don’t bother, just drive to Am Phu cave area (near Elevator tower) they will have bike parking with fix price on ticket.

 

What to see:

Thuy Son (mountain of water)

Thuy Son or mountain of water is the nicest mountain among 5 mountains with many beautiful caves and pagodas on it:

Vong Giang Dai (river watching pavilion):

Located in the southwest of Thuy Son (mountain of water), this pavilion is a great place to observe the beauty of other mountains around marble mountains and the city view of Danang city. It got the curriculum of 5m, with a stele from sandstone with the wring of Vong Giang Dai or river watching pavilion, created since 1837. You can find the way to go there near Tam Ton pagoda. The entrance is quite difficult with high steps, so you should climb carefully.

Tam Thai pagoda:

This pagoda is one of the oldest pagoda in Danang city, built from 1630, then destroyed and rebuilt in 1825 by Minh Mang emperor. People also believed that this is the place where Ngoc Lan princess, a sister of Minh Mang emperor spent her meditation period here. You should not miss the beautiful house on the left of the pagoda with amazing wooden architecture.

Huyen Khong cave, a heavenly spot with stunning view:

You will step through an ancient style gate, visit the small but beautiful cave of Hoa Nghiem and fantastic statue of Quan Am or Goddes of Mercy that naturally sculptured since 1960. By going through this cave, you can see a spectacular view of Huyen Khong cave, with many shrines, altars, stalactites and statues. The way down to the cave is quite dark and high steps, so you walk with care.

Mountain peaks:

There are 3 mountain peaks in Thuy Son, the first one is on the right side of Huyen Khong cave’s entrance, other is located at Linh Nham cave’s left side, and the last one you can go via heaven’s gate or through Van Thong cave by a bit of climbing. By coming there, you can get the whole view around Thuy Son.

Linh Nham cave:

People used to pray for Quan Am or goddess of Mercy here, and unfortunately was destroyed during war. People have brought the altar of Jade Emperor, one of the important god of Taoism to this cave recently.

Van Thong cave:

Van Thong in Vietnamese mean through the cloud. If you can move through this cave, you can see the cloud from the peak (heaven’s gate). The steps are very tall, the entrance from cave to the peak is extremely challenging and not good for little kids/ old people. You should not do it when it is rainy as well.

Vong Hai Dai or Sea watching pavilion:

This is also one of the very popular sightseeing spots with nice view with coast line. If you aren’t happy with few trees cover the view, you can have the better view from elevator tower.

Linh Ung pagoda:

This pagoda is one of the oldest pagodas in Danang city that originally was first used from 1740-1786. Then it was addressed Duong Chan first, then offered the name Ung Chan by Minh Mang emperor since 1825 and finally renamed into Linh Ung pagoda in 1891. This pagoda is very famous for many beautiful statues and sculpture art works.

Tang Chon Cave:

Twork of Mother Nature in this small but lovely cave will make you suprised. They have 3 small caves inside of this place. And It includes Tam thanh Cave (trinity in Taoism, but was replaced by statue of Shakyamuni Buddha since 1960. They also added a shrine with altars of Taoism, Buddhism and native belief.

Xa Loi tower (Buddha Sarira or Buddha Bone relics) has been built from 1997 with the height of 30m, divided in 7 floors with over 200 statues of Buddha, Bodhisattva, Arhats. Usually the local only can pray at the ground floor.

Elevator tower:

This is one of the great spot where you can see 2 other mountains (mountain of wood and mountain of fire, the metal and earth ones are invisible from this place) and the beautiful view of the coastal line of Danang city.  

Am Phu cave:

This cave located near elevator. Right from the entrance, you will walk across a bridge that represents for the connection between our real lives into the afterlife, with 12 statues of animals stand for 12 oriental horoscopes. They also put some statues of crocodiles, demons, monsters, and souls that spread their arms on the bloody river. By going inside, you can decide to go down to hell as the belief of local people. You will see different punishment for different sin, as a warning for people to avoid doing bad things. You can see the lord of hell with his throne; a book that writes down fate or destiny of people, the gods with buffalo head and other with horse face;  the statue of a bodhisattva that gives mercy for the regretful spirits. By going other way to top of the mountain (way to heaven) with very high and dangerous steps, small footpath and tiny handrail, it is definitely not the good place for children and old people to try. But if you can overcome your fear and the difficult steps, the feeling of conquering peak of this place is spectacular.

Marble sculpture village:

This traditional village will impress all visitors with its wonderful artworks. The artists here make all of marble statues and sculpture work with their skillful and talented hand. They have a big collection of big good (statues, table, chair and decorations things) or small good like jewelries from marble or gem stone.

Note:

Opening hour on the site is 7.00 to 17.30 (elevator service can close at 17.00 without announcement)

• Ticket: 40,000 vnd per person for adult, children under 6 years old is FOC
• Elevator 15,000 vnd/way
• Ticket for Am Phu Cave is 20,000 vnd

The only coffee shop and restaurant with a/c nearby is La Luna @ 187 Huyền Trân Công Chúa that serves quite good smoothie/drink and some simple food.

If you need to buy drink/ fruit, you can buy at Vinmart @ 88 – 90 Huyền Trân Công Chúa