Mt Yandang

Fascinating as the landscape is in such a frame, the splendeur of the Yandang Mountain has been noticed since the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Located by the East China Sea and infused in a natural as well as cultural climate, the charisma of the mountain can by no means be framed in photos.

Still, words may sometimes function obscure.

It's immensely large-- a large natural reserve named Mt. Yandang National Scenic Zone (Yandang literally means the wild goose and marsh). Situated in the southeast of Zhejiang Province, China, Mt. Yandang extends an area as large as 450 square kilometers. High rocks, fascinating caves, a good deal of waterfalls are specked everywhere in the zone thai defines the Chinese scroll painting.
Large as it be to a many ancient travelers, such as Xu Xiake, a famous traveler-geographer in the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644) who paid three visits to Mt. Yandang in his life time. "l would have seen all the wonders in the mountain if I were a flying celestial."

The scene of the Spiritual Peaks

"The beauty is beyond description," said a poet in the same way. "Yes, it denies words", a prose writer could hardly disagree. However, it's become the very reason to attract people to Mt. Yandang generation after generation.

The earliest visitor known to the Yandang Mountain was Xie Lingyun, a poet-governor of Yongjia Prefecture in the Southern Dynasties (385-433). As a matter of fact, he learned very little, if any, he had possibly seen only a small portion of the mountain.

Yandang's early reputation owes much to the following three men, or actually three monks in the Tang Dynasty (618-960). One was an Indian monk called Nuojuna, the founder of the first Buddhist temple in the area, who came settled here with his 300 disciples. The second was the well-known Master Yixing, who left behind with a painting of the mountain named "the Landscape And Its Two Borders". And the third was Guan Xiu, a poet-monk whose poem depicting Mt. Yandang is still remembered. I reads: "Strolling along the path of the Yandang Mountain, I felt the peaks crowned with a misty gauze; while drinking tea by the side of the Dragon Waterfall, I myself was imbued in a drizzly cloud."

The Double Bamboo-Shooting Peaks

Mt. Yandang came to be widely known during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Though it's too late to be made famous as those of the Five Mountains in China, but it's her fortune: being better preserved, and absolutely natural.

Well, we might have to feature it in some way if necessary: It's magnificent with no lack of tender; it's loosely simple but with no short of greenery; it's deeply dense but also has broad views, and it appears steep and sharp where the very charming remains... Yet, whatsoever it should be, two words simply put by Shen Kuo(1031-1095), a Northern Song Dynasty scientist are mostly quoted: It's "uniquely fascinating".

Lingfeng (the Spiritual peaks) are the eastern gate of the Yandang Mountain. Two huge rocks of about hundred meters in height, gently touch on the top, just like two palms being put together that evokes a Buddhist gesture. It is the case that Buddhism always blends in or with a scenic landscape in China. Not only the temple, the Guanyin (Avalokitesvara) Temple nested subtlely inside the palms, but the peak of Greeting Monk, the most vivid spiritual symbol at the Puxi Stream that horalds visitors coming from afar.

The Plough Star Cave

Such a place that the Taoist also is active to have a share. Beside the Buddhist Guanyin Temple, to its left, lies the Taoist Beidou (the Plough) Temple that contributes to the landscape as well.

Marvellously, the Spiritual Peaks, on the other hand, pose a secular aspect at night. Silhouetted against the moonlit sky, the peaks turn into a group of images as discribed as "a pair of hugged lovers", "a rhino looking at the Moon" etc. Yet, these images can only be perceived at some certain spots or from some appointed angles.

The Spiritual Peaks, the Spiritual Rocks and the Big Dragon Waierfall are the "Three Wonders" in the Yandang Mountain, and they attract sworms of visitors daily.
An Eagle at Rest

Here, a special mention should be given to the night scenes of the Spiritual Peaks. The Peaks silhouetted against a moon-lit sky, work out a group of images, such as the "Wife-and-Husband Peak", "A Rhino Looking at the Moon" etc. that are vivid and amusing.

The Guanyin (Avalokitesvara) Cave conceals inside the Palm Peak (see the picture 4). With 113 meters high, 76 meters deep and 14 meters wide, it is the Firsi Cave in the Yandang Mountain. A pavilion temple of nine stories was built inside with a stair-case leading to the top. The temple meets the sunshine only a few minutes in a day, but candles and insence burned inside, are flickering and curling upwards all year round.

Among the Three Best Wonders of the Yandang Mountain, namely, the Spiritual Peaks, the Spiritual Rocks and the Big Dragon Waterfall, the Spiritual Rocks sits at the middle which is regarded as "a front house" of the whole mountain area (a comparision to the system of the Chinese housing structure).
The landscape of the Spiritual Peak

The Heavenly-Column Peak

Li Xiaoguang , a man of letters in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) described the Spiritual Rocks in this way: As of being precipicious and enchanting, there is no better than that of the Spiritual Peaks, while in terms of grandeur and solid, the Spiritual Rocks look better.
Composed of the Sceen Hill (Pingxia Zhang) at the back, the Heavenly Column Peak (Tianzhu Feng) and the Flag Peak (Zhanqi Feng), two huge rocks sitting on both sides, and an old temple located in the middle, the Spiritual Rocks area make people feel awesome. lt's a place that dominates people on the spot. This, perhaps, enlights people to do some creations for themselves. "Flying man over the Spiritual Rocks" is the program dedicated to show to visitors at the site.

Though there still some other spots worthy of visiting, such as the Heavenly Window Cave, the Small Dragon Waterfall as well as the Jade Lady Peak, but most often, they are missed or neglected.

The Spiritual Rocks scenic spot can be regarded as a "three-layer pavilion": the first layer includes the Man-flying Adventure, the Lingyan Temple and the Small Dragon Waterfall, teh second layer is composed of the Dragon-Nose Cave, teh Sky-Window Cave; and the upper layer, the Lying Dragon Valley, and the Double-Pearl Valley. Each boasts its own features and styles.

Being up there in a two-hundred height, a man hung to a rope (with wheels), is sliding across a two-hundred-wide distance from the top of one peak to the other. On his way sliding, he performs somersault, "flying" imitation and some other postures. A performance of which is hailed symbolic of bravery of the Yandang people.

Inscriptions before the Dragon-Nose Cave

Called the "Tablet Grotto in the Yandang Mountain", the Dragon-Nose Cave counts a collection of about 80 carved inscriptions of the past generations, a spot of which, attracts mostly the literati and man of letters.

A Waterfall In Style Of The Dragon

It was called the Western-Inner Valley in the old days, a valley goes between the Ma'an Hill and the Donglin Hill. And a water, the Brocade Stream (Jinxi), rised from the upper Big Dragon Pool (Daiongqiu), burbles down through the valley. By passing through two gorges, the stream joins the Qingjiang River and finally enters into the East China Sea. It is said that this is the way along which, the poet-governor Xie Lingyun had traced up into the Yandang Mountain some 1500 years ago.
The Big Dragon Waterfull

For some reasons unknown that Xie didn't mention the Big Dragon Waterfall in his poems. He was blocked in somewhere or somehow?
The Big Dragon Waierfall by the side of the pool that falls from the top of a nearly two-hundred-meter high rock, differs a simply waterfall in some way. "It's not just a waterfall," as someone put it, "it's a dragon." On its way downward, the waterfall spreads into drizzle and disperses gentlely in tune with the wind.Just have a look! It's an amazement that only the dragon could display.

Nuojuna, the Indian monk was the first discoverer of this dragon waier. He made a hut by the side of the pool and kept staying with the waterfall till the end of his life. As to the waterfall, he said nothing. Probably it's unnecessary or impossibly to say anything about it.

A dragon in the air. A dragon inside the pond. And the two dragons are of an illusion of the waterfall that words upon your imagination. Dalong qiu is a waterfall in style of the dragon. It's swirling, alternating and capricious all the time.

With a drop of 197 meters, Dalong qiu, the Big Dragon Waterfall is said to be the highest waterfall in China. Honorded as the "First Waterfall on earth", this waterfall is a must that visitors would not miss.

The Saddle Hill "Cloud-fall"

So high the Dragon Waterfall is, /Falling down from the Heaven it seems. /A long strip of fine silk as it's told, /With my robe, I'm trying to hold. /Up there, about five Zhang is still the water drop, /And down there ten Zhang below, all turns into fog. /How about it's hundred and thousand Zhang in length? /Is it water, or mist, or cloud that I can not distinguish. This is what a Qing Dynasty poet Yuan Mei described in his poem about the waterfall.

It changes scenes while one moves steps. The scenary at the Scissors Peak is tasteful. Going inward, one will find successively the scenic spots of "Zhaojun goes to the North", "Woodpecker", "the Bear Rock", "the Jade Column Peak", and "the Mast Peak". A Qing Dynasty poet Qian Binwang praised it in this way: About one hundred and twenty peaks there, /Each has its own style; /But this one, the Scissors Peak here, /Changes her look all the while.

In talking about the Yandang Mountain tour, people would summarize in such a way: "It's a real wonder in the world, and a remarkable beauty by the sea". This, is no exageration at all. As one of among the first group of the National Scenic Zones declared by the State Council, Mt. Yandang is the very one that features a characteristic of both mountainious and maritime beauty.

Seafood of Yandang

Born of the sea, carved, eroded, kissed by the sea, Mt. Yandang also intends to show her maritime tenderness at the Yueqing Bay.

And by the sea, you enjoy a lot of seafood. A rare "fragrant fish" produced at the river's mouth, plus the Dragon-pool Green Tea, the Guanyin Bamboo, Jinxing Grass and Shanlegong (a small bird that sings soundly), are the "Five Treasures" of the Yandang Mountain. Besides, the wood-carving of Huangyang, the straw waving, the red-flesh apricot and the bottle-gourd pear, are all the famous local products.

The sun-dried fish

Due to its location of far-away and uneasy access, Mt. Yandang "has been survived to keep her nature of remote antiquity" (a remark by Fang Bao, a prose writer in the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911). But it was the case past. The airlines have reached Wenzhou for years; the Jinhua-Wenzhou Railway project has been recently fulfilled. Bridges span the rivers and huge ships paddle up and down the sea, and a high-way connecting Wenzhou and Taizhou will be soon accompIished. These modern transportations and communications will surely shorten the distance from Yandang to the outside world. Now, to reach Yandang becomes easy. Everyone of every nationality in the world, the old man and kids alike, would be welcomed at any time, to be a traveler or tourist to Mt. Yandang if he (she) would like to.

Beyond the lake and sky

The accommodations are ready. There are an available number of hotels and motels there in the mountain's reception center, a small town called Xianglintou. Either luxury, or standard, or the economic class rooms are suitable to meet the very need. The romantic scenes of the "single-beamed bridge" and "the humble hut", has gone ever with the wind.

Maybe, one feels no longer lonely while here. It's a pity? However, to be a great mountain, Yandang has enough enticements and her beauty will remain and last for long.