Huangshan: The Mountain That Chinese Painters Made Famous
Granite peaks, pines growing from bare rock and a sea of cloud below: Huangshan in southern Anhui is the model for a thousand years of Chinese landscape painting. How the mountain is laid out and when to go.
Huangshan, the Yellow Mountain, rises in the south of Anhui province. It is a compact range of granite peaks, many of them above 1,000 metres, with pine trees rooted in the cracks of the rock and cloud filling the valleys between. To a Chinese eye this is what a mountain should look like, because it is the landscape that the painters took as their subject. It has been a World Heritage site since 1990, listed for both its natural and its cultural value.
The mountain
The three highest summits stand close together. Lotus Peak is the highest, at 1,864 metres. Bright Summit reaches 1,860 metres and Celestial Capital Peak 1,829. Around them are dozens of lesser peaks and pinnacles, each with a name.
The mountain was known as Yishan until 747, when an imperial decree renamed it in honour of the legendary Yellow Emperor, who was said to have sought the elixir of immortality here. From the Tang dynasty to the Qing, poets wrote of it in great numbers, and a school of painting took its name.
The four wonders
Tradition lists four things that make Huangshan what it is.
The pines. The Huangshan pine grows straight out of the granite, flat-topped and bent by the wind. The most famous, the Welcoming-Guest Pine, is said to be about 1,500 years old.
The rocks. Granite pillars and balanced boulders, to which centuries of visitors have given the names of animals and immortals.
The sea of cloud. On many days the cloud lies below the summits, and the peaks stand out of it like islands.
The hot springs. Springs at the foot of the mountain flow warm all year.
Sunrise is the chief event of a visit, and the cloud is a matter of weather, not of certainty. On some clear mornings walkers may also see the Buddha’s Light, a ring of colour around one’s own shadow cast on the cloud.
Paths and cable cars
The mountain is climbed on stone steps, tens of thousands of them, cut over the centuries into the rock and along the faces of the cliffs. Cable cars now rise from the foot to the summit area, and most visitors ride up and walk on top. There are several hotels on the summit, which allow a night at altitude.
Vegetation changes with height: forest below, then pines, then open ground near the summits.
For travellers
A night on the summit is the point of the journey: it is the only way to be at a viewpoint for sunset and sunrise. Summit rooms are limited and should be booked well ahead. Take warm and waterproof clothing in any season, and carry as little as possible, since the paths are all steps.
Autumn has the clearest air, and winter brings snow and frost on the pines with far fewer visitors. Weekends and public holidays are crowded. Some paths and peaks are closed at times to let the ground recover, so check what is open.
Below the mountain are the merchant villages of Hongcun and Xidi, which make a natural second day. The high-speed railway brings the area within a few hours of Hangzhou and Shanghai.