What makes Maisan unusual is the rock itself. The mountain is conglomerate — gravel pressed and cemented together with mud and sand into sedimentary stone — so up close the peaks show pebbles of every size embedded in the surface. Unlike the soil hills around it, this material held out against erosion far longer, and two masses were left standing. The strange shape is not an aesthetic accident; it is a difference in stone.
The peaks are called Ammaibong and Sumaibong. Standing side by side, they differ slightly in height and form, so the impression shifts with your angle. From out on the Jinan plain the two ears separate clearly; approach closely and they read as one large cliff. Maisan really wants to be seen twice — once from a distance and once from beneath.
In the valley between the peaks stands Tapsa, a temple surrounded by stone pagodas built up from natural stones one at a time. They are known for having stood a long time without mortar holding them. Various explanations circulate for why they have not fallen, but the method of construction is not settled in the documentary record. Seen in person, the scale and density differ from what photographs suggest.
Cherry blossom and moss phlox ring the mountain in spring, autumn colour in the season after. Moss phlox planted on the slope below the peaks gives the spring composition many people come for: two peaks seen across a field of pink. The trails include long stair sections that tax the legs even when short, and access to the summit stretches is restricted at times, so it is worth checking before you go.