Lushan District, also anglicised as Kuling, (simplified Chinese: 庐山区; traditional Chinese: 廬山区; pinyin: Lúshān Qū) is the name of a district in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. With a history dating back thousand of years it is a popular domestic and foreign tourist attraction as well as home to the mountain resort town of Lushan and the 1,474 metres (4,836 ft) high Mount Lu.
The resort town of Lushan was established in the late 1800s by and for European and American travellers and is distinguished by the colonial architecture of its buildings. Because of its mild summers, the mountain town of Lushan is often referred to as 'Natures' Air Cooler'. Many travellers spend the summer months in the mountains to avoid the heat of nearby cities.
Prior to 1949, Lushan was a frequent training and marshalling area for the nationalist Kuomintang army. The then President of China, Chiang Kai-Shek often visited Lushan whilst on vacation and many tourist attractions commemorate this fact. It was here that in 1946 the U.S. special diplomatic mission representing the President of the United States led by General George C. Marshall met with Chiang Kai-Shek to discuss the role of post-WWII China.
After the communist revolution in China in 1949, it became famous as a favoured meeting place for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. It hosted the Eighth Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee, also known as the "Lushan Conference" or "Plenum", which began on 23 July and convened on 2 August, 1959. Lushan also hosted the Second Plenum of the Ninth Central Committee in August 1970.
The movie "Lushan Lian", which has been shown in the Lushan theatre non-stop since 1980, was recognised by Guinness World Records as the longest running movie in theatres. Each ticket sold to this movie is numbered according to ticket sales to date. As of May 2006, this number is close to 140 million tickets.
In 2007, a biography of Grand Canyon pioneer Harvey Butchart entitled Grand Obsession: Harvey Butchart and the Exploration of Grand Canyon by Elias Butler and Tom Myers was published. This book contains several chapters about Mount Lushan where Butchart spent several years as the child of missionaries.[1]
The town was also the birthplace of English author Mervyn Peake.
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