Mount Hua is also called Huashan, its literal name, and nicknamed "Number One Steepest Mountain Under Heaven.

[5] Mount Hua was also an important place for immortality seekers, because many Chinese medicinal plants grew (or were grown) there and powerful drugs were reputed to be found there.

[6] Kou Qianzhi (365–448), the founder of the Northern Celestial Masters received revelations there, as did Chen Tuan (920–989), who spent the last part of his life in hermitage on the west peak.

This was a time when Mount Hua held great importance as it served as the midpoint along the road connecting the two capital cities of the dynasty, Chang'an and Luoyang.

From the time of the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) onward, Mount Hua has been revered as one of China's five sacred mountains and has received offerings as the Western Marchmount.

[13][14][15] Numerous renowned figures from Chinese history, including Qin Shihuang, Tang Taizong, and Sun Yat-sen, have visited Mount Hua.

[1][17] As Ian Johnson wrote in an article exploring the search for Dao in China for The New York Review of Books, Mount Hua "is one of Daoism's five holiest sites, with near-vertical ascents that in the past were only accessible by stairs cut into the rock face and chains slung down as handrails.

In later centuries, the captivating tales of Huayue Sanniang's amorous adventures took on new forms and became known as the "Legend of Chenxiang" and "The Magic Lotus Lantern".

Huayue Sanniang faced imprisonment beneath Mount Hua as punishment for violating the rules of Heaven.

Rising a hundred feet high and neatly split into three parts, it holds a significant place in legends.

Additionally, atop the southernmost peak, there is an ancient Taoist temple which in modern times has been converted into a tea house.

From the North Peak, a series of paths rise up to the Canglong Ling, which is a climb more than 300 m (984 ft) on top of a mountain ridge.

Huashan has historically been a place of retreat for hardy hermits, whether Daoist, Buddhist or other; access to the mountain was deliberately only available to the strong-willed, or those who had found "the way".

[23][24]As tourism has boomed and the mountain's accessibility vastly improved with the installation of the cable car in the 1990s, visitor numbers have surged.

The local government has opened new tracks and created one-way routes on some of the more dangerous parts so that, barring crowds and icy conditions, the mountain can be scaled without extreme risk now.