2025/06/13
Record of Huangshan
"Record of Huangshan"
Huangshan Mountain, formerly known as Yishan, was renamed to its current name during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. Everyone says, "After visiting the Five Great Mountains, no other mountains are worth seeing; after visiting Mount Huang, no other mountains are worth seeing." Although this statement was made by Xu Xiake, it is no more than a common saying among scholars and literati. Today when I climbed Mount Huangshan, I saw a throng of tourists, shoulder to shoulder, no different from a bustling market.
At the foot of the mountain, the porters crouched by the path, their faces dark and their veins bulging from their necks. Their eyes are like hooks, specifically targeting those plump tourists. "Three hundred for going up the mountain, two hundred and fifty for going down." The price was squeezed out from the gaps between their sallow teeth. There was a fat merchant, accompanied by his beautiful wife, who hired two sedan chairs. The porters carried this heavy burden, their calf muscles tensed up like bowstrings, and their sweat dripping onto the stone steps was immediately evaporated by the scorching sun. The merchant in the sedan chair, however, was only focused on holding up his mobile phone, taking pictures of the "strange pines and rocks" that had long been worn out by the pictures.
The pine trees on the mountain are indeed peculiar. They are rooted in the crevices of the rocks, and their branches are twisted like dragons and snakes. Tourists surrounded the "Welcoming Pine" to take pictures, pushing and shoving each other, and even started to quarrel. A young man wearing glasses stood for half an hour in an attempt to secure the best shooting position, and the people queuing behind him had already glared angrily. Finally, he finished taking the photo, but it was just another one no different from others.
Those stones have been given various names: "Monkey Watching the Sea", "Immortal Guiding the Way", "Dream Pen Blooming"... In fact, they are just ordinary stones. Through people's forced interpretation, they have become "famous scenic spots". The tour guides were salivary as they explained those absurd legends, while the tourists nodded frequently, pretending to be completely absorbed. I think if these stones were casually thrown by the roadside, probably no one would give them a second look.
The mountains are shrouded in mist, sometimes enveloping the peaks and sometimes scattering a thin line. This is rather ethereal, but unfortunately it is always disrupted by the noise of tourists. Look! Sea of clouds! Someone exclaimed. So everyone rushed in, raising their cameras and mobile phones, clicking non-stop. Are they really looking at the sea of clouds? No, they are just looking through the camera, just taking photos to show off on social networks. A fashionable girl, with her back to the sea of clouds, took a selfie for over twenty minutes, but was still not satisfied. Her boyfriend was already impatient, but could only force a smile.
The hotel on the top of the mountain is astonishingly expensive. An ordinary room costs over a thousand yuan. The tourists complained while obediently paying. At night, I heard the couple in the next room quarrelling, seemingly about the itinerary for tomorrow. Their child was crying non-stop, and the sound pierced through the thin wall.
The next morning, everyone got up in the dark to watch the "sunrise over Mount Huangshan". People crowded on the viewing platform, shivering with cold. The sky was gradually brightening, but the sun was reluctant to show itself. Finally, a red sun emerged from the sea of clouds, and a burst of cheers erupted among the crowd. However, within just five minutes, people scattered and went back to the hotel to have the expensive and unappetizing breakfast.
On the way down the mountain, I saw a cliff with the four big characters "Great Rivers and Mountains" engraved on it, painted in a dazzling red. Beside it, however, there were piles of mineral water bottles and snack packaging bags. The cleaner hung on the rope and struggled to clear the garbage. His figure was swaying above the bottomless abyss, which was terrifying. However, the tourists turned a blind eye to this and just kept hurrying along.
Back at the foot of the mountain, I saw those sedan chair bearers again. Their business doesn't seem to be doing well today. They are squatting and smoking in groups of three or five. A porter tried to sell me a "specialty of Huangshan", saying it was a Ganoderma lucidum picked by his own family. On closer inspection, I found that they were just some common mushrooms coated with a layer of bright oil.
The beauty of Mount Huangshan has been renowned since ancient times. Nowadays, tourists are like ants and business is like a tide. Even the mountain spirit, knowing this, should be tired of it. People travel thousands of miles just to prove their "visit" in photos. As for the beauty of the mountains themselves, no one has truly appreciated it.
The mountain remains the same mountain; what has changed are only the people who view it.
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