Tianma Mountain East Gate Loop

Buy a ticket at the East Gate booth (天马山东门售票处) — ¥10 adult, ¥5 senior or student, children under 1.3 m free — and note that the park asks for real-name booking through the Sheshan National Forest Park WeChat account on busy days. Past the entrance, the first stone stairs climb the east slope to the Three Recluses' Memorial Garden (三高士文化纪念园), built around the tombs of the late-Yuan literati Yang Weizhen (杨维桢, 1296–1370), Qian Weishan and Lu Juren, who resigned office rather than serve under shifting regimes. The historically documented tomb group sat on this same east slope, though the present mounds are a 1980s reconstruction; the garden also holds the Nine Peaks Stele (九峰一览碑) and three pavilions, 看剑亭/听笛亭/卧松亭, and a 1584 stele once marked the burials.

Caution: The entrance stairs are smooth stone — take them slowly after rain.

Photo suggestion: The memorial garden reads well in soft morning light, before the pagoda crowds build.

From the garden, packed-earth paths and tree-root steps lead to Kanjian Pavilion (看剑亭), named for the sword-viewing pavilion Yang Weizhen built in homage to the Ganjiang legend — the Spring-and-Autumn-era swordsmith said to have forged blades on this hill, source of the mountain's old name Ganshan (干山). The official route continues west to the Huzhu Pagoda before the cave leg, and the map below follows that order, but community reports vary and the on-ground sequence is flagged as pending. Either way, this is the most unpolished stretch of the walk: packed earth, tree roots, and low canopy. Turtle Cave (乌龟洞) is short and dark — a stone turtle sits at the mouth, the floor has uneven step breaks, and a torch is genuinely useful. About twenty metres on, the Pig-Nose Tree (猪鼻子树) offers a trunk pitted like a pig's snout, rope-protected and reliably the children's favourite photo stop.

Caution: The cave is unlit with uneven steps — one torch per adult, slow going, children in the middle.

Photo suggestion: The pig-nose trunk reads best with a child beside it for scale; the turtle statue at the cave mouth is a quick wide shot.

A short climb from the tree brings you to Wujian Terrace (舞剑台), the high point of Tianma at roughly 100 m above sea level — sources give 98.2 m, 99.8 m and 100.2 m, so treat the figure as approximate. The name plays on the mountain's sword lore, as Kanjian Pavilion does; the exact wording of the on-site plaque is unverified. The terrace opens a 360° view over the flat Songjiang plain, with the twin summits of Sheshan clear to the north-east and, on clear days, the glasshouses of Chenshan Botanical Garden. Claims that Tianma is Shanghai's highest mainland peak are common but not settled — some sources rank Dajinshan Island higher — so treat the billing as a claim, not a fact.

Photo suggestion: The terrace is the best spot for the plain-level panorama; late-afternoon light runs along the ridge.

The centrepiece is the Huzhu Pagoda (护珠宝光塔, hùzhū bǎoguāng tǎ — also 护珠塔, and 松江斜塔 in the guidebooks): an octagonal, seven-storey brick pagoda built in 1079 (Northern Song Yuanfeng 2) by the local donor Xu Wenquan. Five-colour Buddha relics granted by Emperor Gaozong were deposited in 1157, and the tower was repaired in 1245. A fire in 1788 destroyed all the wooden members; afterwards brick-hunters dug for coins said to be hidden in the masonry, leaving a ~2 m hole in the north-west base and removing about a third of the foundation. By 1982 the tower leaned 6°51′52″ to the south-east with 2.27 m of top displacement; reinforcement from 1984–87 — bamboo shoring, iron hoops at each storey, and eight steel tendons run through the core and anchored into bedrock — stopped the movement without straightening it. By 2015 the lean had reached about 7.10° and the remnant height is 18.8 m. That exceeds Pisa's lean, which is why the tower is often billed as the world's most leaning — a striking sight, and a claim rather than settled fact. About 18 m east stands the Ancient Ginkgo (古银杏), 670-plus years old (some sources say 700+): the trunk is dead, with a single living south-east branch, and local legend holds that the tree is the mountain god's palm steadying the tower. On the return you pass the recast Copper Guanyin (铜观音) — the Ming gilt-copper original, about 3 m tall and 1,800 kg, stood at the old Shangfeng Temple on the south peak before it was seized during the Second World War; the current statue was consecrated on 23 March 2000. The descent runs past Liuyun Pavilion (留云阁), a modern structure whose name echoes a historic Liuyun Cliff — the link is unverified — and back to the East Gate. An optional West Gate exit via Yuanzhi Temple (圆智寺) is reported, but the gate's current availability is unconfirmed; the temple is said to be under reconstruction, with donation-bowl vegetarian noodles when open.

Caution: The ground around the pagoda is uneven and the weakened north-west base is fenced — keep off the barrier.

Photo suggestion: The pagoda's lean is most obvious from the ginkgo side; late-afternoon light catches the brickwork.