The Kun Lun Mountains (Jade Mountains)
The Kun Lun range is one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending more than 3000 kilometers. It runs southwards beside the Pamir range then curves to the east, forming the border range of northern Tibet. The range has over 200 peaks higher than 6000m. The three highest peaks are the Kongur Tagh (7719m), the Dongbei (7625m) and the famous Muztagata (7546m).
The mountain range formed at the northern edge of the Indian plate during its collision, in the late Triassic, with the Eurasian Plate and which resulted in the closing the Paleotethys Ocean. The Kun Lun range stretches along the southern edge of what is now called the Tarim basin and the infamous Takla Makan or the "Sand buried houses" desert.The Kun Lun Mountains are well known in the Chinese mythology and believed to be a Taoist paradise. It is considered to be one of the ten continents and three islands of Taoist cosmology.
The first to visit this paradise was, according to the legends, King Mu (1001-947 BC) of the Zhou Dynasty. He supposedly discovered there the Jade palace of Huang-Di, the mythical Yellow Emperor and meet Hsi Wang Mu, the Royal Mother of the West which had also her
mythical abode in these mountains. Taoist teaching claims that the palace is nine stories high and whoever manages to climb to the top gains access to the Heavens. It also extends or nine stories below the Earth, thereby connecting the subterranean watery realm of the dead with the realm of the gods. It is told that Xi Wang Mu later visited, riding on a white dragon, Emperor Wu Ti of the Han Dynasty (141-97BC) and gave him a fruit from the mythical peach tree which fruits ripen only once every 3000 years and revealed him the secrets of eternal life.Xinjiang jade aand Kunlun jade is all from this huge mountain that produce world best jade.