It is located approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) southwest of the provincial capital Shijiazhuang and close to the border with Shanxi Province.

Mount Cangyan forms the eastern tip of the Taihang Mountain Range (Chinese: 太行山; pinyin: Tàiháng Shān), its tallest peak has an altitude of 1,000 metres (3,281 ft).

The most famous building complex on Mount Cangyan is the Fortune Celebration Temple (Chinese: 福庆寺; pinyin: Fúqìng Sì).

It achieved equal fame in the West when it was used as a setting for the 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which fictionally located it within the Wudang Mountains.

It was also used in the opening sequence of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor as well as lesser known Chinese films such as The Butterfly Lovers and Mulan: Rise of a Warrior.