Huangshan Mountains - God's Miniature Landscape
Huangshan Mountain (also known as Yellow Mountain), renowned worldwide for it "strangeness", is located in southern Anhui Province. It is the central mountain of the mountains in southern Anhui and the watershed between the Yangtze and the Qiantang river systems. It has a history more than 2000 years, with its flourishing Huizhou culture.
In antiquity it was known as Mount Yi, but its name was changed because, as legend has it, it was here that the Yellow Emperor ascended to Heaven and became immortal. Huangshan covers an area of 250 square kilometers. Its mountain body is extraordinary and magnificent, with dangerous cliffs thrusting skywards, and crisscrossed by quiet gullies. It is a place where strangeness, depth, magnificence, sheerness and mystery concentrate in a single body.
It has 72 names peaks. They are either towering and powerful, or steep and beautiful, laid out in graceful disorder and naturally formed. The Tianudu (heavenly Capital) Peak, Lianhua (Lotus) Peak and the Guangming (Brightness) Peak stand high in the central area, all 1,800 meters above sea level. The Huangshan Scenic Area radiates from this center, sinking into deep valleys or rising into high peaks, forming classical peak and forest configurations.
Huangshan has for superb characteristics: No rock without a pine tree and no pine without a curious form; range upon range of grotesque peaks and outlandish rocks, seemingly sculpted; flying clouds and moving mists like seas seething into a vast expanse of roaring waves; every spring gushing with crystal clear water, flowing in every season irrespective of droughts. The other attractions are the sunrise, sunset, bright colors, Buddhist light and hoar frost.
The praises of visitors of every age are condensed in the saying, "All famous sights under the sun are found at Huangshan" - the magnificence of Mount Tai, the steep height of Huashan, the smoky clouds of Hengshan, the flying falls of Lushan, the grotesque rocks of Mount Yandang and the pleasant coolness of Mount Emei. The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) geographer Xu Xiake wrote the following famous lines, "Once you've seen the Five sacred Mountains, you've no need to visit another mountain. Once you've seen Huangshan, you don't need to visit the Five Sacred Mountains."
The wonderful scenery of Yellow Mountain has attracted many visitors. Among them were said to be immortals, like the Yellow Emperor, the Dragon King and even the Eight Immortals. The story goes that once on the day of the annual gathering of the Eight Immortals, seven of them arrived on time, while Han Xiangzi was late. Zhang Guolao guessed that Han must have been fascinated by the scenery of Huangshan Mountain on his way. Then Zhang Guolao flew into the sky to look for Han Xiangzi. Just as Zhang expected, Han was sightseeing on Huangshan Mountain. He was enjoying himself so much that he forgot the gathering. Zhang tried every possible way to persuade Han to leave. Han, however, was reluctant to go, and turned a stone into a replica of himself, in case he forgot the way to Huangshan Mountain the next time. The stone therefore was named Immortal Showing the Way. Zhang, for fear that Han would slip away again, rode backwards on his donkey to keep Han in sight and also to keep seeing the Mountain.