The Must-see Sacred Mountain –Mount Huangshan

Mountain Huangshan is located in the southern part of Anhui Province. Added to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1990, Mountain Huangshan is generally regarded as China’s most picturesque mountainous area, with the fantastic pines, the grotesque rocks, the sea of clouds and the hot springs, which is called the four major attractions of the mountain Huangshan.

The Mountain Huangshan was formed in the Mesozoic era, about 100 million years age, when an ancient sea disappeared Later, in the Quaternary Period, the landscape was molded by glacial action. Mountain Huangshan is a body of granite, often with vertical joints, which help form many beautiful caves and tunnels. Within an area of 154 square kilometers, the mountain offers a crowd of peaks. 72 of them have names indicating the shapes they resemble. Lotus, Brightness Apex and Celestial Caital are the three major ones, all rising above 1,800 meters.

Each of the 72 peaks in different shapes has its own charm. Lotus Peak and Celestial Capital Peak are distinguished for their loftiness, steepness and grandeur, while Shixin Peak shooting out from the deep valley impress us with its slenderness, quietness and delicacy. The harmony of strength and gracefulness, the two qualities of beauty, make a superb picture of Mountain Huangshan.

Although the mountain are not that high (the highest peak is 1,873 meters), the peaks are often enshrouded in mist and fog, and covered in snow during winter months. Because the mountain tops are often above cloud level, they offer spectacular views of the clouds from above and glorious lighting, and Mountain Huangshan is renowned as a photographer’s paradise. When it is cloudy the pinnacles loom in mists as if the were illusionary. When the sun shines, they unfold in all their majesty and splendor.

Because of its peculiar terrain, Mountain Huangshan’s climate is marked by a vertical change, and the vertical distribution of vegetation is also distinctive: plants on the summit, on the middle levels and at the foot belong to the frigid, temperate and subtropical zones respectively. There are more than 1,500 species of plants, which makes Mountain Huangshan so important for China’s botanical research. One of the species is pines, for which Mountain Hiangshan is beautiful.

The hardy, old pines are all beautifully shaped by nature, some growing out of the rock cracks, some standing adhering to the cliff, some overhanging over the deep valley, and some capping the head of rock. There are pines stretching out their arm-like branches like earnest ushers greeting guests year after year. There are also pines with twisted and gnarled roots that look like flying dragon or couching tiger keeping one inawe. Stretching or twisting, standing or crawling, Mountain Huangshan’s pines growing in various styles are all natural works of art.

The beautiful scenery of the various vegetation is not only for visual enjoyment, but also fro medicinal herbs store. More than 300 kind are found here, in which the notable ones is glossy ganoderma, Chinese gold thread rhizome and Chinese cinnamon. Moreover, Maofeng tea of Mountain Huangshan, regarded as one of the top ten green teas of China, is well known at home and abroad.

Mountain Huangshan has captivated and inspired artists for hundreds of years. Poetic phrases in handsome calligraphy can be found in many spots on the mountain. They have become part of the fascinating scene themselves.

However, Huangshan Mountain is too beautiful for words, so the best thing to do is to tour it and get some idea of it for yourself. The hot spring here is not only suitable for bathing but also serves as a form of herbal bath for curing various types of disease. Don’t miss the Cuisine in Anhui Province, often called Hui Cuisine,  is one of the eight major cuisines of China.