Cold mountain is literal place in north carolina, but it is also a symbol for all sorts of things in the book.
it, s home to Inman and becoming home to Ada, and it symbolizes waht it means to have a home at all.
Cold Mountain also imagined as a place with spiritual significance, where someone can enter a better world if they know how to reach the right state of mind . Frazier does tis by linking the place in North Carolina to the works of a Chinese poet.