Ge Hong and Mount Luofu 羅浮山

The story goes that in the year 331, Ge Hong retired to Mount Luofu 羅浮山 where he lived until his death.

In my ongoing quest to track down every place even remotely connected with qinghaosu, I made a stop at Mount Luofu last year.

It's a couple of hours drive from Guangzhou 廣州, deep in the countryside. When I visited there was a temple, a few souvenir stalls, a fairground-style shooting range - and a stand of Artemisia annua.

The artemisinin maker Artepharm has even sponsored a few plaques and information boards that record Ge Hong's legendary connection with the drug. They are clustered around the A. annua plants.

I took this photo when I visited. The banner reads: 青蒿抗瘧尋源羅浮山. This means
something like: Mount Luofu - the birthplace of antimalarial qinghao.

In 2007, a Chinese journalist wrote an article about Mount Luofu, Ge Hong and artemisinin that is misleading, flippant and, frankly, insulting to the millions who die from malaria every year, so I hesitate to point you in that direction, but you can read it on the Reuters web site.