Natural Wonders and Human Spectacles (Part 1)
Section 1: Natural Wonders and Timeless Spectacles. A Unique Winter Spectacle at Nanyue — the Rime Ice Wonder. On December 22, 2008, snow fell on Nanyue, undoubtedly nature's most magnificent and passionate gift to people celebrating Christmas. Ascending Mount Heng, known as "the best place to enjoy snow in southern China," one saw that the former "finest of the Five Great Mountains" had completely transformed...
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section One
Natural Astonishing Scenery, Wonders Through the Ages
A Peerless Wonder of Snow-Clad Nanyue — the Rime Ice Wonder
On December 22, 2008, it snowed in Nanyue. This was undoubtedly the most magnificent and passionate gift that nature gave to people welcoming "Christmas." Ascending Mount Heng in Nanyue, long known as the "best place to enjoy snow in the southernmost part of China," one saw that Nanyue, formerly the "most beautiful of the Five Great Mountains," had completely turned into a world wrapped in silver, a veritable wonder of "three thousand realms of silver, ten thousand layers of jade forests." "Enjoying snow in winter" has always been a major event in Nanyue tourism. The famous Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai once wrote the celebrated line, "The whirlwind blows apart the snow of the five peaks, and often flying flakes fall to Dongting." The "rime ice" wonder in particular can be called peerless. Whenever there are low temperatures and foggy days, fog droplets freeze upon encountering cold and form the "rime ice" wonder rarely seen south of the Yangtze River. One sees jade trees and jeweled branches all over the mountain in a thousand postures and ten thousand forms: some like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers, some like wintersweet in full bloom, some like white lotuses blossoming. Standing within it, one seems to be in a fairyland; it may truly be said that "this realm should exist only in heaven."
A Strange Sight in Shaoyang — Stones Spitting Tongues of Fire
In mid-August 2002, ten-year-old Sanmao of Xiaojiacun Village, Yankoupu Town, Shaoyang County, was stunned by a scene before his eyes while tending cattle on Longhu Ridge: firelight flickered in the ditch halfway up the mountain, and flames shot straight out from the stones beside the ditch. When village officials heard about it, they hurriedly called villagers to put out the fire, but not long after it was extinguished, the stones again spat out tongues of fire. At night, green flames nearly 1 meter high flickered in the darkness, like an upright fluorescent lamp, and could be seen even from farm courtyards 1 kilometer away. According to villagers, two heavy snowfalls in the winter of last year and the spring of this year had failed to extinguish the fire. After news spread that strange fire had appeared on Longhu Ridge, Lin Feilun, director of the Shaoyang City Earthquake Bureau, led several experts to investigate. The experts conducted a gas concentration assessment at the ignition point and initially reached the conclusion that the gas concentration was not within the combustible range. At present, experts are still unable to give a scientific explanation for this phenomenon.
A Moonlight Wonder in Wulingyuan — the Red Moon at Moon Pass
The sun is red and the moon is white — even a three-year-old child understands this common knowledge. But at Moon Pass in Wulingyuan, one can see a red moon, which truly astonishes people endlessly. The red moon at Moon Pass generally occurs in the middle of the month in spring and summer, at eight or nine o'clock in the evening after a long rain has just cleared. The round moon, like the newly risen sun in the morning, is blood-red and emits a halo like that at dusk, illuminating the areas of Helong Park, Shijiayan, and Shentang Bay as if it were the first light of dawn, dyeing that silent forest of great peaks piercing the clouds with a layer of gold. This phenomenon can last about more than an hour.
The Three Great Wonders of Tianzi Mountain in Zhangjiajie — Rime Ice, Ice Hanging, and Sea of Clouds
On February 27, 2009, the Tianzi Mountain Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie, a World Natural Heritage site, simultaneously presented three great wonders: rime ice, ice hanging, and sea of clouds. Hundreds of tourists from home and abroad fully enjoyed this ice-and-snow scenery, the first to appear in Zhangjiajie since the beginning of spring, and repeatedly exclaimed, "It's really too beautiful!" On the morning of the 27th, Tianzi Mountain Scenic Area was covered with crystal-clear ice flowers. Cluster after cluster of ice flowers formed a rare rime ice landscape, some like agate, some like emerald, some like colored glaze. And on the guardrails of the tour paths and the stone walls of the peak forest appeared countless exquisite ice-hanging sights. Even more astonishing, the summit of Tianzi Mountain was sometimes shrouded in thick fog, sometimes stirred by rising winds and surging clouds, from time to time presenting illusory and ethereal sea-of-clouds vistas. Under the mutual setting off of the three great wonders of rime ice, ice hanging, and sea of clouds, the quartz sandstone peak forest on the mountain appeared indistinct, more like a fairyland.
A Wonder of Zhangjiajie's West Sea — Glowing Stone Peaks
In the scenic section between Shentang Bay and Helong Park in Zhangjiajie, there is a stone pillar about 200 meters high, with layered green on its summit and two small stone peaks with a small stone clamped between them. This magical stone, this wondrous stone peak, produces a miracle once every year — it glows once. Its light is like that of welding: firelight shooting in all directions, illuminating the Shentang Bay area and making the entire West Sea as bright as day. The light goes from small to large, spreading from one place to another; the greatest brightness lasts about three or four minutes, and finally it changes from strong to weak and then slowly disappears. Local people believe that this is the firelight sent up by King Xiang to pray for the people and burn incense to Heaven. To this day no one has offered a reasonable explanation, and it remains an unsolved mystery of humanity.
A Rare Solar Wonder in Changsha — the Square Sun
At past five o'clock in the afternoon on October 18, 2003, a square sun appeared in the sky over Changsha. Deng Ke, a third-year junior high school student at Changsha No. 1 Middle School, unintentionally saw this peculiar celestial phenomenon: the sun in the sky was actually "square." So he tracked it for about three minutes, seized the right moment, and photographed a sun closest to square in shape. He immediately went back to look up relevant materials and learned that this rare wonder had been seen only three times in the world. In 1993 it was photographed by Chabel of the United States at the seaside; in 1978 the Japanese Horie Ken also photographed it; later people in China also saw a square sun, but did not photograph it. The cause of this wonder is still undetermined: some experts believe it is caused by air refraction and generally occurs at sunset in summer and autumn; others believe it is an illusory scene of a mirage.
A Shadow Landscape in Wulingyuan's Golden Whip Stream — One Person Becoming Three Shadows
The illusion in Wulingyuan's Golden Whip Stream in which one person becomes three shadows is a much-told tale of happiness and good fortune among local people. On a fine autumn day with clear, crisp air and a cloudless sky, you will be surprised to find that your shadow changes from one to two, and from two to three; the person moves and the shadows follow, and the shadows follow wherever the person goes. In the autumn of 1987, a university lecturer from Hebei, carrying luggage on his back and holding a bamboo staff, was strolling alone along Golden Whip Stream. It was around five o'clock in the afternoon when he suddenly discovered that his "image" had abruptly become tall and had suddenly changed from one to three. At first he thought his eyes had been dazzled by the slanting afternoon sun, so he looked left and right, moved forward and back, but in the end there were still three shadows. He shouted to other tourists to pay attention to their own shadows, greatly astonishing them.
A Wonder at Liuxi in Lengshuijiang — Natural "Living Bodhisattvas"
On July 3, 2004, beside an eighteen-year-old cypress tree in front of Zhang Genghua's home in Liuxi Village, Maoyi Town, Lengshuijiang City, Hunan Province, twenty-eight natural "living bodhisattvas" grew, a veritable natural wonder. According to analysis by relevant experts, these "living bodhisattvas" are tender buds grown from the cypress tree. But they are peculiar in three ways: they grow in great number and do not grow branches or leaves. The "bodhisattvas" have grown for as long as seven years, and it is quite rare that for such a long time they have not grown a single branch or leaf and that their growth speed is so slow. Second, the "bodhisattvas" rise straight from the ground like bamboo shoots, neither leaning nor slanting. Third, they are all concentrated in that one small area. According to analysis by relevant tourism experts, their tourism development value far exceeds that of Nanyue, because the bodhisattvas of Nanyue are artificially carved, while these bodhisattvas have grown naturally and grow larger year by year.
A Wonder of a Giant Buddha Under Heaven — the Giant Reclining Buddha of Chenzhou
The Giant Buddha Facing the Sky sits on the western foothills of the Yangtian Lake Grassland Scenic Tourist Area in Chenzhou. The head of the Buddha alone reaches over 300 meters in height. The facial proportions and expression of the "Giant Buddha" are remarkably true to life, capturing both form and spirit. The "Giant Buddha Facing the Sky" rests its head on the mountain ridges, with lightly raised brows, gently closed Buddha eyes, and softly shut lips, reclining across the mountain range, facing the place where the sun rises. The "Giant Buddha Facing the Sky" stands at 1,277 meters above sea level. At each change of season or during the sea of clouds at sunrise, there are often ever-changing mirage-like Buddha light phenomena. Below the ears of the "Giant Buddha," which are dozens of meters tall, sharp gravel stones are piled up like small hills, while the entire foothills beyond one hundred meters from the "Giant Buddha" are uniformly covered with grassland and rounded granite bodies.
The Wonder of Wanfeng Mountain in Xinning — The Shout-Activated Flowing Water Cave
At the foot of Wanfeng Mountain in Xinning County, Hunan Province, there is a cave that produces water when shouted at and stops flowing when no one shouts. The cave is 8 meters high and 4 meters wide, with the entrance slightly elevated and sloping inward. Ten meters into the cave, there is a 1.5-meter-high stone platform connected to the cave wall, with a crack 1 meter long and 10 centimeters wide. If visitors shout several times in front of it, after 2 minutes clear water as thick as a bowl's mouth flows out from the crack, lasting up to 5 minutes. If you shout again, the water flows again; if you do not shout, the water stops.
The Largest Bird Flock Wonder of Dongting Lake — Overwintering Migratory Birds Lingering
On March 6, 2002, the East Dongting Nature Reserve discovered that a large flock of birds was still rising and landing, some foraging in the grass, others playing in the water of the lake, at ease and content. According to bird experts at the reserve, the vast majority of birds in the reserve are overwintering migratory birds. It should have been the season for overwintering migratory birds to return north, yet this year a strange phenomenon was observed at the East Dongting Lake Nature Reserve: a large number of migratory birds lingered in place. At that time, more than 300,000 birds were observed lingering in the reserve, including almost all species that come here to overwinter, nearly 200 species, among which were national first-class protected birds such as the white crane, Chinese merganser, and white spoonbill.
The Largest Danxia Cliff Mountain Wonder in Hunan — The Danxia Landform of Huanxi, Chaling
In 2001, Professor Huang Jin of the former Sun Yat-sen University, after careful investigation, discovered a typical Danxia landform in Chaling County — the Danxia Cliff Mountain Wonder. The Danxia Cliff Mountain Wonder is located near Huanxi Town at the border of Chaling County and Yanling County in Zhuzhou. The landscape composed of typical Danxia landform is very beautiful, with more than 60 peaks rising from the ground, resembling people or beasts in various forms. The mountain bodies are reddish-brown, gorgeously alluring, and the clear Zhushui River flows past the scenic area, adding a touch of spirituality. This is currently the largest Danxia landform scenic area discovered in Hunan Province, comparable to Wuyi Mountain in Fujian. Moreover, Danxia Cliff Mountain is close to the Mausoleum of Emperor Yan, and can be combined to form a landscape and cultural tourism route, with high development value.
The Wonder of the Twin Towering Cliffs with Inscriptions in Yongxing County, Hunan — One-Line Sky
In 2002, Huang Jin, president of the China Danxia Landform Research Society, discovered a "One-Line Sky" wonder 365 meters long in Yongxing County, Hunan Province. The "One-Line Sky" is located upstream of the Bianjiang Scenic Area in Yongxing County, shaped like a long black ribbon drifting down. It is 365 meters long, 50 meters high, with the widest point at 3.6 meters and the narrowest point at only 0.1 meters, with an average width of less than 0.4 meters. After slight adjustment, the "One-Line Sky" can just accommodate one person passing through sideways. The Yongxing "One-Line Sky" is 56 meters longer than the "One-Line Sky" of Jianglang Mountain in Zhejiang, known as the "Number One One-Line Sky Under Heaven," and 123 meters longer than the "Number One Lane Under Heaven" in Xinning County, Hunan, with an average width 0.1 meters narrower. The Yongxing "One-Line Sky" was formed 2.5 million years ago through geological changes, crustal uplift, and water erosion under pressure, forming the twin towering cliffs with inscriptions.