Tickets: (kids under 1.1 m are free of all charges)Mount Huang occupies a very unique position in Chinese history and culture. It has been considered to be with the most beautiful mountain scenery.
Standing in southern Anhui Province, Mt. Huangshan was named Mt. Yishan in ancient times. According to the legend, the ancestor of Chinese people, Huang Di researched the alchemy here and became an immortal at last. Mt. Huangshan got its present name in Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) as a remembrance of Huang Di.
Varied peaks converge on Mt. Huangshan, of which seventy-seven have names. Thirty-six of them are bigger, lofty and sheer; while the other thirty-six peaks are small, steep and beautiful. On every peak, stones there have taken on a variety of queer shapes.
Besides craggy peaks and jagged stones, pines on this mountain are also very famous. No matter on the cliff or summit, green pines stand everywhere. The pines have curving trunks and branches, plat top and short and thick needle viridian leaves. There is no soil on stones on the cliff, so pines stick their roots deeply in stone seams and rely on the soil in the crevices. Those pine trees on the Mt. Huangshan, growing firmly with dignity and defying storm, heavy snow and severe cold, show very powerful vitality and strength. Tourists are not only attracted by the charming scenery of pine trees, but also moved by the spirit on these trees. In Chinese culture, Mt. Huangshan pines have become synonymies of 'tenacity' and 'pertinacity'.
If stones and pines are flesh and blood of Mt. Huangshan, then the sea of clouds are the temperament and charm of Mt. Huangshan. As clouds and mists rise and the main peak of Mt. Huangshan is gradually cloaked by white sea of clouds, only the lofty top stands above the clouds. When wind blows to move clouds, the mountain peaks, near and far, are veiled for a while and reappear again. This gives visitors a feeling of being in fairyland. Especially at sunrise and sunset, multicolored sea of clouds is very spectacular.
Mt. Huangshan is a combination of all kinds of attractive beauty of other mountains: craggy peaks and jagged stones are majestic; pine trees and waterfalls are graceful and clear; sea of clouds is mysterious and romantic. The well known Chinese traveler of Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) - Xu Xiake wrote a famous poem for Mt. Huangshan: no need to visit other mountains after you visit the Five Sacred Mountains and no need to visit the five after you visit Mt. Huangshan.
The scenery of Mt. Huangshan aroused many previous poets' and painters' inspiration. According to an incomplete statistics, from the glorious Tang Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), there were more that 20,000 poems to praise Mt. Huangshan during these 1,200 years. In the field of painting, the scenery of Mt. Huangshan has impacted significantly on the development of traditional Chinese landscape painting. At one time a new school of painting was formed by taking Mt. Huangshan as the theme, which is called Huangshan schools of painting.
Nowadays Mt. Huangshan is one of China's most popular tourist attractions. It was listed by UNESCO as an official World Cultural Heritage Site in 1990.
More Visitor Attractions in Huangshan:
Guniujiang Natural Reserve Tunxi Ancient Street Tangyue Memorial Archway
