Huangshan

(The Yellow Mountains)

Like many ancient civilizations, Chinese culture tends to imbue imposing mountains and lakes with a religious significance. What is striking about Huangshan is that although it is one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in China, it is not classified as a Daoist nor a Buddhist Sacred Mountain. The Yellow Mountains, instead, belong to the realm of poetry. It was Li Bai (701-762), one of the greatest Tang dynasty poets, who discovered and named the Yellow Mountains during his sojourn here:

“Thousands of feet high tower the Yellow Mountains
With their thirty-two magnificent peaks,
Blooming like golden lotus flowers,
Amidst red crags and rock columns.”

In his footsteps followed legions of poets and artists, whose works continue to attract millions of mostly Chinese tourists to this site of dramatic secular beauty. A popular saying goes, “No ordinary mountain is worth seeing after a trip to the Five Sacred Mountains; no Sacred Mountain is worth seeing after a trip to Mount Huangshan.”

Situated in what was known as Huizhou prefecture, the Yellow Mountiains cover 154 square kilometers and climb 1,800 meters. Vertically-jointed granite, eroded and fractured over the millennia, have created soaring columns and sheer ravines. The plunging, jagged rock faces, whose striking views are continually obscured and revealed in a swirl of shifting mists, are famous for an indigenous pine, the pinus huangshanensis. A symbol of determination and persistence, this stubborn tree makes its home in the tiny nook of a cliff. With roots several times longer than its trunk, its top flattened by the wind and its branches growing only in one direction (with the wind or towards the sun), some of this area’s trees have become national symbols as emotive as the stunning peaks themselves. The famous Yingkesong (Welcoming guests pine tree) is reputed to be over a thousand years old.

Huangshan is similarly renowned for its seas of clouds. Although this effect can be viewed throughout the year, its most spectacular occurrence is during deep winter. At this time the cold air compresses the clouds into a dense mass between the mountain ridges. Standing on one of the peaks, and looking into the distance past the frosted peaks and silver-lined pine trees, it appears that seas of white clouds float serenely between the mountain ridges.