The name Feilai Feng means “the peak that flew here”. In the legend, Huili, a monk from India, recognises the hill beside Lingyin and wonders how a familiar sacred mountain has reached Hangzhou.
He calls towards a cave. A black monkey and a white monkey appear, just as he remembers from far away. For a moment, even the most settled thing in the landscape seems to have made a journey.
Faces in the rock
The limestone surfaces carry another long story. Buddhist figures were carved here across different periods, their faces and robes following the folds of the rock. Among the best-known is the smiling, round-bellied Budai, whose relaxed presence gives the stone an unexpected warmth.
Around these figures, natural hollows and carved niches share the hillside. The flying mountain belongs to a traveller’s tale; the many hands that shaped its surfaces have left a story we can still see.