Winter in Zhangjiajie
Winter in Zhangjiajie by Liu Xiaoping. Zhangjiajie's three thousand strange peaks and eight hundred beautiful waters are summed up in five words: "majestic, strange, perilous, beautiful, and secluded," which has long been widely recognized. Zhangjiajie's mountains and waters can be called classics of scenic landscape; traveling to Zhangjiajie has become a lifelong wish and a fortunate event. Enjoying Zhangjiajie fully is suitable in all four seasons: in spring, the earth is a season full of spiritual energy, and Zhangjiajie's mountains and waters at this time are full of vitality and longing; its every...
Winter in Zhangjiajie
Liu Xiaoping
Zhangjiajie's three thousand wondrous peaks and eight hundred beautiful waters are summed up in five words—"majestic, wondrous, precipitous, beautiful, and secluded"—a description long recognized by all. The landscapes of Zhangjiajie can be called the classic of scenic landscapes; touring Zhangjiajie becomes a lifelong wish and a blessing. To fully enjoy Zhangjiajie, any of the four seasons will do: spring is the season when the earth is full of spirit, and Zhangjiajie's landscapes at this time are full of vitality and longing—every peak and every stream holds swaying, colorful flowers, welcoming visitors and expressing the essence of life; summer is the season when the air swells with desire, and Zhangjiajie's landscapes at this time are full of reverie and temptation—every plant and tree, every branch and leaf drips with the emerald green of life, adorning every peak and embodying life's fantasies and pursuits; autumn is the season when stars and moon celebrate the harvest, and Zhangjiajie's landscapes at this time likewise grow profound and are written all over with steadiness—its mountains and ridges, its valleys and ravines, against the emerald background reveal fire-like red leaves, expressing passion and singing of maturity and boldness; winter is the season of poetic wind, flowers, snow, and moon, and Zhangjiajie's landscapes at this time reveal tenderness within sternness and contain boldness within vastness—every stone peak and every rock pine is a world of icy purity and jade-like cleanliness, burning like jade trees in the wind, stirring visitors' passion, while those snow-covered streams sing movingly as they flow, like the songs in lovers' hearts, most easily stirring the feelings of loved ones. I love Zhangjiajie's scenery in all four seasons, but I love Zhangjiajie's winter even more. I love conversing with Zhangjiajie's landscapes in winter, and I love roaming freely among Zhangjiajie's landscapes in winter, letting my thoughts take flight!
Winter in Zhangjiajie is not cold, mainly because it is surrounded by many high mountains; the winter here is mostly clear weather, so the regional microclimate is relatively warm. Touring Zhangjiajie requires no suffering from severe cold and can also avoid the hardships of extreme summer heat. Even in rain or snow, because the scenic area is an elevated overall platform and the micro-terrain is a basin, all the scenery is like an enlarged bonsai, so during the tour there is no feeling of piercing cold or chilling severity. Once encountering overcast and rainy weather, because the scenic area has a relatively high altitude and the mountain climate is especially pronounced, looking out, every branch and leaf becomes a crystal world, with delicate and ingenious rime in a thousand postures and clumsy, honest shrubs of pure naturalness. If snow falls, no matter how heavy, the mountain immediately becomes a world of white snow, just like white jade piled on an emerald plate; those withered branches and ancient trees on the rock walls then regain their youth, making one cannot help but recall two old lines: "In spring, moss becomes leaves; at winter solstice, snow becomes flowers." I once accompanied a friend from Yangcheng Evening News on a winter tour of Zhangjiajie. She ran all over the mountain with great enthusiasm and said, "This mountain and this scenery are a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, something to hope for but not to demand. It's a pity I haven't seen Zhangjiajie in a snowy realm." Truly, the heavens favored us. The next day, as we walked on the mountain, snowflakes began to drift from the sky, and in an instant it became a world of dancing snowflakes. The snowflakes on the ground, on the stone peaks, on the trees, and on our bodies ignited my friend's passion like flames, and she could not help but chant to the mountain wilds—
Kind and fresh snowflakes, falling down,
In the depths of dreams, in the depths of the soul,
Like falling snow-white flames,
Warming the realm of my life
Igniting the passion of my life......
Snowflakes fall, covering the earth, stone peaks, and tree crowns
Enriching the peaks, ravines, and imagination
Adding thickness to poetry and journey, snow
Fresh, warm, pure, cold
It is nature's language, in its fiery tone
With passion, and also invisible hardness and sharpness......
As a friend from the south, seeing such a wonderful world of snow, her excitement and surprise were entirely within my expectations; but what amazed me was that she, who never wrote poetry, could chant such a poem with both excellent wording and meaning, following her inspiration.
Touring Zhangjiajie in the snow, you need not worry about safety; the scenic area's staff, no matter when or where, are the visitors' guardian angels. In my memory, I deeply remember the day of the first day of the first lunar month in 2000, when I toured Zhangjiajie with friends from the photography world. Everywhere we went, all kinds of reception work were orderly, and road-clearing workers actually cleared paths to every scenic spot on snow more than a foot thick, and every place prone to accidents had staff on guard. At the top of Tianzi Mountain, we met a group of Taiwanese tourists. They happily pointed at the icy and snowy scenic spots and said, "Zhangjiajie's mountains are beautiful, its waters are beautiful, and its people are even more beautiful. Zhangjiajie's snow scenery is beauty added to beauty. Every stone peak is icy and pure, every tree is elegant like jade in the wind—truly a wonderful world of snow!"
Zhangjiajie's forest coverage rate is over 99.7%, and its plant species are more numerous than in all of Europe. Therefore, touring Zhangjiajie in winter, your eyes still see a green world—this is the difference from northern landscapes. Even in ice and snow, those jade trees in the wind and those upright stone peaks, through the ice and snow, still reveal green, like a world of emerald. Placed in such scenery, your feelings are neither cold nor restless, like early spring in the second month, with a heart like spring buds. At this time, your heart moves with the scenery, your mood rises with the scenery, and you will sincerely exclaim: "How wonderful this world is—truly a resort for enjoying snow scenery."
Going to Zhangjiajie in winter to enjoy snow scenery, visitors need not worry much about transportation, food, and lodging. Nowadays, going to Zhangjiajie, highways, railways, and air routes form a trinity and are very convenient. High-grade highways have also been built from the city to the scenic area, and travel back and forth is unobstructed. Tourism access is in the scenic area, lodging in the city, and hotels of various grades are available for choice. Although the scenic area has high mountains and deep ravines, steep roads and long journeys, visitors need not worry about fatigue. Two uphill cableways and one uphill elevator have been built in the scenic area, so going up to core scenic areas such as Huangshizhai, Tianzi Mountain, and Yuanjiajie is just a matter of an instant. Even if you are tired from walking on the mountain, you can call a sedan chair anywhere; the chair bearers are all trained, strong young men. They can carry you slowly while you browse the snowy scenery, and they will also tell you some folk customs or stories from the mountains. They will ask after your warmth and comfort, and would rather endure more hardship and fatigue themselves, but they will still make visitors comfortable and satisfied. At this time, are you not entirely carefree and happy? A warm feeling will surge through your whole body.
Friends, when it snows, go to Zhangjiajie to see the snow. It is a snow-white flame that will ignite the passion and fantasies of your life. Those stones with character and stubborn trees, the folk customs and the sentiments of the country people there, will become references for the cultivation of human nature in your life.