good morning! ladies and gentlemen! today, with such great joy, on behalf of anhui travel agency. i’d like to extend our warm welcome to all of you, our distinguished guest from the other side of the pacific. please allow me to introduce myself. my name is li xin and i work for anhui travel agency .during your short stay in huangshan, i’ll be your local guide. it’s my honor to be of your service. if you have any request, go ahead! i’ll try my best to help you and make your stay comfortable!
ok, now, we’re heading for qiyun mount. it’s about 30 minutes’ bus ride. on the way you can enjoy the beautiful scenery and i’d like to give you a brief introduction about mt.qiyun. mt.qiyun is situated in xiuning county of southern anhui, formerly known as “white mountain”. it’s now called “qi yun”, which means “as much high as the clouds” with a peak poking into the sky.
mt.qiyun, together with the yellow mountain and jiuhua mountain, has always enjoyed the reputation of “three famous mountains in southern anhui”. over about 500 years ago, one emperor in chinese history praised it as the first mountain in south of yangtze river. and since 1,300 years ago, it has been chosen as one of the “four taoism holy lands” in china.
mt.qiyun covers a scenic area of 110 square kilometers. it is the rising part of the yellow mountain extending southwest to the edge of southern anhui basin. the mountain ranges from northeast to southwest, with highest peak of 585 meters above sea level. composed by purplish and erinaceous rock and grit, the mountain has been shaped into the unique “red cloud land form” by long-time weathering and erosion. at present, there has been 300 scenic spots in qiyun mount, among which are 50 wonderful peaks, 49 odd rocks, 16 deep caves, 46 nice stream and 25 places of ridges, stairs and terraces. all these go into the making of the natural beauty here. the three major scenic areas are: yuehua street, yunyan lake and longshang lou.
ok, i have said too much about mt.qiyun. i expect you have got a general idea about it. seeing is believing. let’s get off the bus and brings your camera, i will show you around the mountain!
look! the first sight that comes to us is dengfeng bridge, which leads to the mountain passage. come on! let’s close it! do you know why it called “dengfeng” bridge, and “dengfeng” which means “being promoted”. it is said that the bridge can bring people gook luck and longevity. today you came here and you can have good luck and longevity. long long ago, there is a local governor, who would build bridges for the good of the people, has won their respect and love. just as the bridge was going to be named, the imperial edict came announcing the promotion of the governor. thus, the crowed congratulated the governor and gave the bridge the name “dengfeng”. ok! let’s go on visiting! then we will pass six pavilions one by one on our way up the mountain. each has its names and different pictures painting on the ceilings. they are buyun pavilions, denggao pavilions, yingfeng pavilions, songyue pavilions, haitianyiwang pavilions and wangxian pavilions.
now, here is wangxian terrace which means expecting the fairy is the leading scenic spot of the fairy pass with feiyun pavilion on it. you see this bridge called mengzhen bridge means dream comes true. let’s pass it and maybe our dreams will come true! now, this is shouzi cliff, and that huge character “shou” means longevity is engraved. you can take a picture! it’s 230cm in diameter. are you ok? a few steps ahead are the first heaven gate. you see the peak is in the shape of an elephant, and the cave looks just like the huge trunk of it. thus, it is also called trunk hill. come on! eyes front! a tremendous stone inscription high up on the cliffs! stone carving is a distinctive feature of qiyun mountain. here, you see four chinese charactors “tian kai shen xiu” which means heaven created the beauty is the fairy’s caves, which is one of the best spots of the mountain. and you can see so many carved figures here! we can take a short rest here and then we’ll get up to the second heaven gate and the third heaven gate, then we’ll arrive at the hinterland of qiyun mount—yuehua street. the street used to be place for taoists to practice martial art and make immortality pills. there had been a number of magnificent taoist shines and buildings, but most of them were damaged as the time passes by only 8 temples have been well-preserved, and several others have been rebuilt. such as yuxu temple and zhenxu hall. also we’ll visit fangla zhai ahead of yuehua street, and the highest peak of qiyun mount, --guoyan, which is another wonderful spot with its stone inscription.