Hua Mountain

Brief Introduction

The first king of Shang made a sacrifice on this mountain in 1766 B.C., and Han Wudi (reigned 141-87 B.C.) declared it the Sacred Mountain of the West. As one of the birthplace of Chinese culture, emperors of more than 10 Dynasties once held large-scale ritual activities in Huashan Mountain. And it had also been a merryland of hermits for several dynasties. And many legends about Huashan Mountain have been widely told.

Huashan Mountain is located in the confluence of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan Province, connecting Qinling Mountains in the south and Huang and Wei River in the north. It lies in the access from great Northwest to the central plain of China and is renowned as the “most steep and extraordinary mountain in the world”. It is made of a huge and complete granite rock mass.

There are 5 peaks in Huashan Mountan: East Peak, West Peak, South Peak, North Peak and Middle Peak, among which there are three main peaks: the utmost of the mountain-the South Peak named “Luoyan” with a height of 2160.5 miles, the East Peak named “Zhaoyang” and the West Peak named “Lianhua”. These three peaks are called “Three peaks beyond the heaven”. Seen from afar, the five peaks looks like five petals of a flower.

Steep peaks, various shaped rocks, cloud seas, waterfalls and cultural relics are everywhere on the mountain. With the changeable climate on the mountain, the formed scenery “Cloud-wrapped Huashan Mountain”, “Rain-wrapped Huashan Mountain”, “Mist-wrapped Huashan Mountain” and “Snow-wrapped Huashan Mountain” will make you feel in the wonderland.

It is one of the 9 places for sunrise-watching in China and the climb there is a more pleasant experience here than at many other holy mountains in China. The best position to watch sunrise is on the East Peak (also called “Zhaoyang peak”). Watching the mountains in the east on the early morning, you can see sunlight occurring and the rosy hue lightening the mountain, then the golden color is everywhere gradually. In such shinning day, you can have a special feeling about the beautiful scenery of Huanshan Mountain.
The scenery is spectacular, the Daoist monks are friendly, and the air is clear enough to make the sunrise worth seeing. The best times to visit are mid-autumn, when the trees are a magical, colorful jumble, or spring, when the wildflowers bloom. And it is picturesque in winter. To watch the sunshine on time, many tourists began their climbing late at night of the former day.