Amid Thousands of Peaks and Myriad Ridges
Amid Thousands of Peaks and Myriad Ridges [Hong Kong] Chen Yinian Last year after touring Huangshan and returning, I thought I truly could "not look at other mountains." Later I heard a friend who had just returned from Wulingyuan in Xiangxi say that the strange mountains and extraordinary peaks there could fully rival the Five Great Mountains and surpass Huangshan and Guilin……. He even felt somewhat indignant on behalf of Xu Xiake: "If Xu Xiake had been to Wulingyuan back then, his 'After returning from the Five Great Mountains, one does not look at other mountains; after returning from Huangshan, one does not look at the Five Great Mountains' would surely have to be rewritten." I simply had to…
Amid Thousands of Peaks and Ridges
[Hong Kong] Chen Yinian
After returning from a trip to Huangshan last year, I thought I could truly say I had "no need to see other mountains." Later, a friend who had just come back from Wulingyuan in Xiangxi told me that the wondrous mountains and extraordinary peaks there could fully rival the Five Great Mountains, surpass Huangshan and Guilin……. He even felt rather indignant on behalf of Xu Xiake: "If Xu Xiake had been to Wulingyuan back then, his saying 'After returning from the Five Great Mountains, no need to see other mountains; after returning from Huangshan, no need to see the Five Great Mountains' would surely have been rewritten."
I simply had to go and see Wulingyuan, especially the rarely visited Tianzi Mountain.
Braving a Heavy Snowstorm to Reach Tianzi Mountain
Wulingyuan refers to the most spectacular triangular area in the Wuling Mountain Range of Xiangxi: Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Tianzi Mountain, and Suoxiyu Nature Reserve. They are adjacent to one another, with tens of thousands of peak forests densely packed, forming a unique geomorphological belt dozens of kilometers across. Zhangjiajie and Suoxiyu have gradually become known in recent years and are increasingly popular tourist areas, but Tianzi Mountain, with its even more spectacular mountain scenery, has not yet seen many visitors due to inconvenient transportation. So I decided to "strike straight" at Tianzi Mountain, then loop back to tour the Wulingyuan scenic area.
On an afternoon in the depths of winter, with white snow drifting over the mountains of Xiangxi, my friend Xiaoyou from the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture and I set off together for Tianzi Mountain. Departing from Sangzhi County town, we drove for about two hours to the foot of the mountain, and the car began to struggle up the ice- and snow-covered winding mountain road. The whole mountain was white, with only the sky a dark gray. It was my first time seeing such a spectacular snow scene in the south, and I was inexplicably excited. Xiaoyou felt the same excitement, mixed with some conflict: we hoped the snow would fall even harder and absolutely not melt, so we could enjoy it to the fullest on the mountain; but the driver warned us: "If the snow gets heavier and blocks the road, we won't be able to go up or come down, and we'll freeze here into three icicles of Tianzi Mountain." As he spoke, he pointed to the General Rock we happened to be passing——it looked like a warrior in armor and helmet, and the flying snow had already added a thick white "cloak" to it.
The higher we went, the thicker the snow, and combined with the mud from melting snow over the past few days, the wheels kept slipping, and danger could appear at any moment. By the time the car reached Tianzi Mountain No. 1 Guesthouse, it could no longer move. We had to carry our luggage on our backs and abandon the car to walk. The driver, afraid of being stranded on the mountain, quickly said "bye-bye" to us and turned back down the mountain.
Slipping with every few steps, we walked two or three li and arrived at Tianzi Mountain Villa.
Tianzi Mountain Villa is a hotel built with investment from Guangzhou people, and its standard is the best on Tianzi Mountain, though because it had just been completed, there was no water or electricity supply yet. By candlelight we enjoyed a hearty meal of Tianzi Mountain game, and felt it had more atmosphere than dining under the bright lights of a fine restaurant. There was no heating in the room, so the Tujia girl from the villa brought us a hot charcoal brazier. We dried our boots, soaked through with snow water, and then went straight to sleep.
Waking from a Deep Sleep to Find the Peaks Beneath My Feet
The next day we got up early, hoping the sun would do us the favor of coming out "on time." Yesterday the snow and fog had been thick, and we worried that even with wondrous mountains and snow scenery, we wouldn't be able to photograph it if the weather didn't cooperate. We checked the sky, and surprisingly there was a bit of blue at the top. Ignoring the biting cold, we headed straight for the Sunrise Viewing Platform more than a hundred meters away.
Suddenly stopping at the cliff edge of the Sunrise Viewing Platform, I was stunned by the sight before me: the Tianzi Mountain Villa where we had spent the night was right on the summit platform of Tianzi Mountain, and thousands of peaks and ridges were actually beneath our feet!
The east brightened, and the peaks below gradually became distinct in layers. Rather than a cluster of peaks, it was more like a forest of millions of stone pillars rising from the ground, stretching deep into the great canyon all the way to the distant horizon. Standing at the top of the canyon, we felt as if we were on a cliff by the sea. Looking down at the dense forest of peaks in the deep sea below, I had never seen such a wonder, and for a moment I was at a loss; in my excitement and haste, I failed several times to attach the camera to its tripod.
By the time the sun appeared it was already high, like an egg with its yolk broken, but the millions of peak pillars, outlined by its high-angle light, appeared especially clear, because the peak forest was all vertical and could not hold snow, with only the summits and rugged rock protrusions glittering with specks of silver. We fired away with both long and short lenses, "killing" quite a lot of film. Soon those dazzling spots of light also shrank……. It is said that Tianzi Mountain often has heavy snow in winter, but it rarely stays for more than three to five days. Photographers may want sunlight or they may want snow, but "you cannot have both the fish and the bear's paw."
A Unique Peak Forest Landscape Rare in the World
After breakfast, we planned to tour the Chapanta scenic area using the guide map, but because Tianzi Mountain was developed relatively late, the roads and signs were still at a primitive stage. Others advised us that we absolutely had to find a guide, so we invited a young woman named Xiao Xiang to lead us.
It was Xiao Xiang's first time "directing," but she was very articulate, and as soon as we set off she began telling us the legends and origins of Tianzi Mountain.
Tianzi Mountain was originally called Qingyan Mountain together with Zhangjiajie on the other side of the grand canyon. In the 18th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1385 AD), the Tujia leader Xiang Dakun raised an uprising against the Ming dynasty and called himself "Xiang Wang Tianzi" (Prince Tianzi Xiang). Later, after being defeated, he retreated to Qingyan Mountain and eventually died in bloody battle. Legend says he led his soldiers and officers to leap from the cliff at Shentang Bay, turning into the countless peak forests of this area. To commemorate him, the Tujia people called the mountains north of Shentang Bay "Tianzi Mountain," and some places where he was active were also named after "Tianzi," such as Tianzi Peak beside Tianzi Mountain Villa, as well as Tianzi Cave, Tianzi Temple, Tianzi Zhou, and Tianzi Yan. From then on, Tianzi Mountain was cloaked in even more legendary color.
"Then you must be a descendant of Prince Tianzi Xiang?" I asked Xiao Xiang half-jokingly. She pursed her lips and smiled: "Probably everyone surnamed Xiang on Tianzi Mountain is."
Believe the folk legends or not as you like, but how exactly was the unique landform formed, with high mountain platforms like Tianzi Mountain and Zhangjiajie surrounded by countless peak forests? It turns out that the present-day Wulingyuan scenic area, at an elevation of 1,200 meters, was once sedimentary rock layers beneath the ocean in ancient times. Later, the earth's crust continued to rise, and during violent mountain-building movements (called the "Yanshan Movement" and "Himalayan Movement" in geology), it was squeezed into countless vertical fissures. After millions of years of natural weathering, these fissures grew larger and larger, becoming tens of thousands of peak forests. Forming such a unique landform required very special natural conditions. First, there had to be hard and thick quartz sandstone layers, otherwise they would have been weathered down into gentle hills and flat land; second, there had to be vertical rather than inclined fissures created by mountain-building movements; third, the rock layers above had to be exposed. Nature granted these extremely rare conditions only to Wulingyuan, which is why we can see this rare sandstone peak forest landform in the world.
"Immortal Bridge" and "Tongue Rock" Make Your Legs Go Weak
Chatting as we walked, we had already descended to the Chapanta terrace. Passing the No. 3 Guesthouse and following the muddy mountain path to the right, after about half an hour we reached Immortal Bridge. This is a wonder: a naturally formed stone bridge spans between two stone peaks, its "bridge surface" as flat as if it had been carved, with a smooth layer of snow on top. The bridge is only one meter wide and more than ten meters long, with a hundred-zhang abyss below, and the faint-hearted would not dare step onto it. Don't be fooled by Xiao Xiang being a girl——she was quite bold. She strode across the bridge carelessly and even scooped up a handful of snow on the bridge to "have a snowball fight" with the deep valley. The snowball knocked snow off the Huangshan pines at the cliff edge, setting off a string of crashing sounds that echoed through the empty valley. When she mischievously turned the snowball toward me, I quickly waved my hand and begged for mercy, but she stuffed the snowball into her mouth and giggled, her laughter rippling through the empty valley again……
At noon, we ate at the No. 3 Guesthouse. The No. 3 Guesthouse had dozens of thatched huts like granaries, round-bodied with pointed roofs; these turned out to be "lovebird rooms." During peak tourist season, the lovebird rooms are put to great use. Although each can only hold one bed, for a young couple spending a night on a "summit honeymoon," it has a unique charm. When I asked the price, it was only two RMB.
From the No. 3 Guesthouse down to the lowest terrace of the Tianzi Mountain platform, we drew even closer to the peak forest. On the terrace at the top of the canyon here, there are many natural viewing platforms. These viewing platforms hang in the air above cliffs hundreds of meters high, and some rock platforms even jut out entirely from the cliff. Seen from afar, they look like protruding tongues, and the locals vividly call them "Tongue Rock." Before I even stepped onto the "tongue," my legs already felt weak, but if I didn't go to the "tip of the tongue," thatch and trees would block my lens, so I had to grit my teeth and walk over. Standing on the "tip of the tongue," the entire canyon could be seen clearly. Unexpectedly, at the bottom of the V-shaped canyon hemmed in by peak forests, there grew dense primeval forest, with a thin thread-like path passing through it. It seemed that even this deep and unfathomable valley had traces of human presence.
Canyon Peak Forest Far Taller Than Central Plaza
In this deep winter season, there were very few tourists on Tianzi Mountain. Apart from Xiaoyou and me, we saw only a few visitors each day, almost all speaking with Guangdong accents. It is said that even in peak season, only one-fifth of the tourists coming to Wulingyuan set foot on Tianzi Mountain; and most of those who do go to Tianzi Mountain do not know enough to visit the "Laowuchang" scenic area. From the guide I learned that Laowuchang was completely different from other scenic areas, which immediately stirred me to go and explore.
"There's no food or lodging there, and right now there won't be any tourists at all."
"Aren't we tourists?"
That day the guide was switched to a young man——Xiao Li. Because Xiao Xiang had become familiar with us and had never been to Laowuchang either, she came along with us too.
By the time we reached Laowuchang, it was nearly noon. From afar we saw cooking smoke rising by the cliff edge. In the several days since going up Tianzi Mountain, this was the first time I had seen a real farming household. They lived nestled against the mountain, facing a cliff and canyon. Simple stone houses with thatched roofs were surrounded by terraced fields, and those terraced fields had been cultivated all the way to the very edge of the cliff. Here the peaks, farmhouses, and fields formed one ink-wash painting after another, utterly beautiful. I couldn't help saying to my companions: "If I, Chen Yinian, didn't have to support a family, I'd truly be willing to 'Chen' a 'year' in this fairyland!"
The most wondrous sight at Laowuchang is called locally "Heavenly Soldiers Gathering." The peak forest here is long and slender, and the peaks are very close to one another, truly like a group of upright, orderly warriors. Standing on the viewing rock platform and looking down, I suddenly felt it was a bit like looking down at the forest of skyscrapers in Hong Kong's Central, except these peak forests are much taller than the buildings and full of primitive wildness. Xiao Li lay flat on the rock platform and stuck his head out to look for a while, then told us: "It's about four hundred meters deep." I threw a stone down but could not hear any echo at all; instead, I heard a few sharp "ape cries" from time to time.
At the "Hanging Garden in the Sky" of Laowuchang, when the weather is good you can see the summit of Huangshizhai in Zhangjiajie in the distance. At the bottom of the canyon below the garden, there is a small path leading to Zhangjiajie. Many people take this path from Zhangjiajie and walk upward for more than five hours, climbing seven or eight hundred meters to Tianzi Mountain. We, by contrast, drove first straight to the highest Tianzi Mountain platform and toured from top to bottom, which counts as a smart route.
Walking at Night on the Cliff, Finding the Way by a Line of Snow in Pitch Darkness
Faced with the ever-changing peak forest, I took photos so absorbed that I forgot everything, until my stomach was growling. I checked my watch: it was already past 3. At this point I felt very sorry for my companions, making them go hungry with me, so I gritted my teeth and "painfully" turned back. The guide and I both did not want to take the original route. In order to see more scenic spots, we took a roundabout way back along the eastern cliff edge.
Even the guide had never walked this path, and the guide map was too rough to show accurate directions and distances at all. We could only rely on intuition. It grew dark and there was still no sign of our destination, and we couldn't help but panic. By then we were riding a tiger and could only go forward, not back, and there was only one path along the cliff edge, rugged and muddy and slippery. To our right was a pitch-black abyss. Rushing along in a darkness where you could not see your hand in front of your face was truly like "a blind man on a blind horse, at midnight nearing a deep pool"—more dangerous than a close shave!
Suddenly, the path disappeared. A landslide had cut off the road surface, turning it into a 20-meter-wide slope of loose stones and soft earth. Was there still a path ahead? Xiao Li quickly ran across the slope, and the loose earth slid down with a rushing sound. "There's a path!" Our spirits immediately lifted, and we copied him and ran across——if we had walked slowly, we might have disappeared into the deep valley beneath the loose earth.
In the midst of danger, the problem of hunger had long since "retreated to second place." Fortunately, this path was on the shady side of the mountain, where the snow had not melted, revealing a white strip in the pitch darkness. As long as we kept a few inches of white to the right of our feet and were careful not to fall, there was hope of getting home alive.
It was only after 10 o'clock that we reached No. 3 Guesthouse. By then everyone walked as if suffering from polio, swaying and staggering, with no strength left to go up to Tianzi Mountain Villa. No. 3 Guesthouse had a privately run restaurant, which took the opportunity to fleece my wallet badly, presenting a menu of several dozen yuan, including a monkey meat hotpot I had never eaten before. But I was fleeced to my complete satisfaction. Like starving ghosts reincarnated, we took fierce "revenge" for more than ten hours without a drop of water.
Shentang Bay Surrounded by Cliff Barriers and Shrouded in Mist, Making Even Police Dogs Stop
After staying at Tianzi Mountain Villa for three days, we moved camp to No. 2 Guesthouse, 20 li away. Because it was a level road along the cliff edge, like strolling by the seaside, we arrived in two hours.
No. 2 Guesthouse is in the Shijiayan scenic area. Beneath the fault cliff of Shijiayan lies the mysterious "Shentang Bay." Probably because the deep and unfathomable barrier valley here led the people of Tianzi Mountain to call it a "bay." At the bottom of the "bay" there is no water, but dense wild forest and grotesque peak forests.
Shentang Bay is surrounded on all sides by screen-like cliffs and precipices. No one can go down, and no one dares to. I heard that a military exploration team once tried to go down to explore, but before they had gone far, even the police dog leading the way stopped and refused to go forward. There are terrifying mists there, as well as fierce beasts and pythons. Legend says that in cloudy and rainy weather, waves of clashing gongs and drums and the clamor of men and horses in battle can be heard.
Although these rumors are frightening, the scenery here is especially spectacular.
From the viewing point at Shijiayan, looking down at the forest of peaks, the field of view is very wide. Some peak forests connect into screens, while others have been weathered into sharp swords thrusting toward the sky. The scenic spots are so densely packed that only half a day is needed to feast your eyes. On the summit platform opposite No. 2 Guesthouse stands a bronze statue of the famous general He Long, with He Long's beloved horse sculpted at his knees. Marshal He was a native of Sangzhi County, so he was naturally regarded as a man of Tianzi Mountain.
Flying Down to Suoxiyu, Thirty Li in Two Hours
Our enthusiasm for touring Tianzi Mountain grew beyond control, but Suoxiyu and Zhangjiajie were still waiting for us.
From Shijiayan down to Suoxiyu is more than 30 li, but the advantage is that it is all downhill, and most people take more than three hours. The two of us hired a porter, and the burden on our shoulders was instantly reduced by sixty or seventy pounds. Walking on the stone steps, we felt as light as swallows, and before long we reached Yueliang Ya. At Yueliang Ya there was a checkpoint demanding "toll to pass," because this had already entered the "territory" of the Suoxiyu scenic area.
The porter, worthy of being a mountain man, walked as if flying, and we panted after him. By the time we reached South Heaven Gate, he had already overtaken tourists who had gone down the mountain an hour before us.
Wulingyuan not only has many "natural bridges," but also quite a few "natural gates." The opening of South Heaven Gate is more than 20 meters high. It is the necessary route down the mountain and also a scenic spot, so some tea stalls gathered there for people to rest and quench their thirst. In order to reach Jundiping in Suoxiyu before dark, we did not even drink tea and hurried on without stopping, completing 36 li in just over two hours, probably setting my personal record for long-distance walking speed.
By the time we settled in at the Expert Village in Suoxiyu, it was already past 8 in the evening. The lodging conditions at Expert Village can be called second to none in Wulingyuan, and the service was also very thoughtful. The greatest enjoyment that day was nothing other than a thoroughly enjoyable hot bath——since going up the mountain, I had been "pickled like a salted fish."
Although the mountain scenery of Suoxiyu is not as good as Tianzi Mountain's, its landforms are richer and more varied. There is the ever-changing Yellow Dragon Cave, the Baizhang Gorge with high mountains and deep valleys, the mountain lake Baofeng Lake, and scenic areas shared with Tianzi Mountain such as West Sea and the "Ten-Mile Gallery." The Ten-Mile Gallery is actually a ten-li-long V-shaped canyon passing through the peak forest of Tianzi Mountain. In the "gallery," looking up at the towering peaks from below is completely different from looking down at the "undersea peak forest" from high on Tianzi Mountain; instead, there is a certain confusion, like "I cannot tell the true face of Mount Lu, only because I am within this mountain."
Canes Made from Old Vines in the Deep Mountains Are Strange and Curious
Next, we traveled upstream along the Suoxi and Golden Whip Streams to Zhangjiajie. From Suoxiyu to Shuiraosimen, the boundary with Zhangjiajie, is 24 li. Normally there are many tourist buses each day, but since it was winter, most buses had stopped running, so we had to hire a hand tractor to set off. After bumping along the rugged mountain road for two kilometers, we suddenly saw an off-road jeep speeding up from behind and stopping us. It turned out that the person in charge of the Suoxiyu management office had heard that a reporter from Hong Kong's China Tourism pictorial had actually "condescended" to ride on a hand tractor, and hurriedly drove over to pick us up. At the host's urging to stay, we spent one more night in Suoxiyu.
The next day, the host sent us to Shuiraosimen, where the road ended. Another porter carried our luggage and led us to tour the remaining 12 li. The path always followed the clear Golden Whip Stream, with wondrous peaks flanking both sides. The farther we went, the narrower the canyon became,
and the more secluded and beautiful the scenery became. We "galloped through the flowers," and before we knew it we had arrived at Zhangjiajie. Among the three scenic areas of Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie was developed earliest. Since becoming a national forest park, its fame has grown greater and greater. When people mention Qingyan Mountain, they inevitably think of Zhangjiajie. I heard that last year's visitors exceeded 600,000. Although it is now the off-season, there were still many tourists. Naturally there were many vendors doing business with tourists, and among the goods there were some rare items, such as raw fossils of ancient organisms from Tianzi Mountain and stone carvings, as well as brocade woven by the local Tujia people, and so on. I found the most interesting to be some canes made by Tujia people, using the original forms of tree roots and old vines from the wild mountain forests, cleverly crafted into all kinds of strange and curious cane heads: a laughing big-bellied Buddha looking up at the sky, a two-headed dragon, and an elephant and a tiger head growing together, and so on, vivid and amusing. I thought that even if I bought a cane, I would be reluctant to use it for climbing mountains.
Treasures Hidden in Yuanjiajie's "Back Garden"
During our first two days in Zhangjiajie, we followed the conventional route, first climbing Huangshizhai, then Yaozi Village. These two "villages" are not actual villages, but two high mountain platforms. Nature's craftsmanship "cut away" the rock layers around them into peak forests, making Huangshizhai and Yaozi Village two "isolated islands" facing each other from afar. On the "isolated islands," we could walk along the cliffs in a circle and greedily admire the peak forests surrounding us from all directions, east, south, west, and north, feeling even more that we were amid thousands of peaks and ridges. The peak forests in this area are thicker and larger than those of Tianzi Mountain, and people have given them especially many names based on their shapes. What I appreciated most was the "Abandoned Bridge Piers" on the north side of Huangshizhai, where six flat-topped pillar-shaped rock peaks stand side by side, similar in size and spacing. When clouds and mist float around their bases, they truly look like a row of bridge piers standing in the sea.
My new guide Xiao Zhou said to me with a mysterious expression: "Most tourists who come to Zhangjiajie just go up Huangshizhai and Yaozi Village and then stop. Do you know? The real treasures are hidden in Yuanjiajie's Back Garden……"
Only then did I realize that the two "villages" were not yet the most beautiful places in the Zhangjiajie scenic area.
The road to Yuanjiajie is very long. Having learned my lesson from walking at night last time, I even brought a flashlight. We turned from Golden Whip Stream into Shedao Gou. This is the wildest stream gully in Qingyan Mountain, with only a not very obvious small path. The whole way was uphill, and it took us more than two hours of very strenuous walking to reach the top platform of Yuanjiajie.
Surprisingly, there was even a restaurant at the summit, serving only game. The owner said that Qingyan Mountain has a lot of game, but after the reserve was established, hunting was banned, so they could only buy it at markets down the mountain, and therefore asked customers to forgive the prices, and so on.
Not far east of the restaurant are the "Number One Bridge Under Heaven" and the Bridge Viewing Platform. I have always disliked the tedious literati who inscribe "number one" everywhere—number one spring under heaven, number one tower, number one mountain—they are everywhere, making people wonder what "number one" is really worth. But this "Number One Bridge" truly amazed me. It is higher and more perilous than the "bridge" on Tianzi Mountain, spanning a pillar peak 300 meters high. Because vegetation blocks the view at the "bridge edge," those walking across the natural bridge do not realize the danger, while those watching from the Bridge Viewing Platform break out in a cold sweat.
The "Back Garden" east of the natural bridge truly lives up to its reputation. We passed through a natural stone archway to the cliff edge, where the place we stood was only a horizontal groove in the cliff. The groove was so low that we could not stand upright, and we truly did not dare stand upright either, for fear that a gust of mountain wind would "invite" us down into the "garden." The peaks of the "Back Garden" are elegant and refined, not as wild as Tianzi Mountain's. Beautiful flowers, grasses, and trees also grow on the cliffs, and a clear stream flows among the peak forest. It is so serene and beautiful that no wonder it is called a garden.
After leaving the "Back Garden," we descended to the "Soul-Confusing Platform." It was already near dusk. The strange peaks and bizarre rocks of the "Soul-Confusing Platform" had eerie shapes and shadows. As we descended step by step, they rose layer by layer; soon they all became towering monsters, pressing toward us in dark blackness. Although I knew perfectly well that they were only lifeless stone peaks, I still could not help feeling a chill down my spine. By the time we reached the bottom of the valley, it was completely dark, but at last we heard again the gurgling flow of Golden Whip Stream. We caught up with two couples also hurrying along the road. Someone deliberately talked about the news that South China tigers had been spotted in Qingyan Mountain, frightening everyone into walking as if flying. In the blink of an eye, the lights of Zhangjiajie were already welcoming us ahead.