Wudang's Golden Summit to increase ticket prices

Tickets to enter the Golden Summit in the Wudang Mountains will cost 27 yuan ($4.35) per person, up 7 yuan since March 15. A public hearing has been made for the price increase.

The Golden Summit is one of the temples supervised by the Wudang Taoist Committee. In 2005, when the municipal bureau of price supervision integrated the prices of the scenic spots, the Golden Summit and Zixiao Palace were not included in the all-inclusive ticket.

These two sites sold their own tickets separately. Since 2005, the entrance fee of the Wudang Mountains has risen up from 110 yuan to 140 yuan, while ticket prices for the Golden Summit and Zixiao Palace remained the same.

Maintenance of the Golden Summit is quite laborious due to its height of over 1,000 meters, the capricious climate, and the short period of damage to wooden buildings thanks to moisture, rain and snow. The limitation of transportation increases the cost of construction materials and manual workers.

The outlay on maintenance, which comes from ticket earnings and donations, is far from enough to support such expenses. Therefore, the Wudang Taoist Committee and Wudang special zone management board has made a proposal to increase the ticket price to both the Wuhan and Hubei bureaus of price supervision.