Su Shi, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, once wrote such a poem: "Looking horizontally, it looks like mountains and peaks, and the distance and height are different." I don't know the true face of Lushan Mountain, just because I am in this mountain. The poem is written about Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi Province, but in Xingyi City, Guizhou Province, there is also a mountain called "Yuhuangding", whose beauty in winter is not worse than Lushan Mountain at all.
Xingyi is the capital of the prefecture-level administrative region of Qianxinan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province. It is located at the junction of Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi provinces. Nanpan River, the source of the Pearl River, runs across the city. Xingyi City has the most complete karst landform in China. There are many "cone-shaped" mountains in its territory, and the mountains form peak forests. Therefore, Xingyi's "Wanfeng Forest" is very famous in China.
The Wanfeng Forest in Xingyi has eight characteristics of majesty, strangeness, danger, beauty, beauty, seclusion, grandeur, and broadness. Especially its Dongfeng Forest area is the main component of Xingyi National Geopark. Xu Xiake, a geographer in the Ming Dynasty, called Dongfeng Forest "the peaks standing in a cluster", "majestic for thousands of miles, and counting the strange victories in the southwest". Yuhuangding is located in the area of Dongfeng Forest.
From Xingyi City to the east, it takes about an hour's journey to reach Banbianjie Village, Zerong Township, where Yuhuangding is located. Zerong Township is a typical karst rocky area, which was once called "Guizhou Shashiyu". More than two-thirds of the entire Zerong Township is rocky or semi-rocky, with an average elevation of 1,120 meters and the highest peak of 1,634.3 meters.
Although Yuhuangding is not the highest peak in Rong Township, it is the most dangerous and spectacular place. From the foot of the mountain along the Panshan Highway up the mountain, one side is a deep canyon, and the other side is a family living close to the mountain. Banbian Street Village, which means the natural village here, is basically only half of the block, because the other side is the valley.
Yuhuangding is located at the highest point of Banbianjie Village. There is a newly built parking lot on the top of the mountain. Along the climbing path beside the parking lot, you can go to the viewing platform at the highest point of Yuhuangding. When you climb up to the viewing platform, your eyes will suddenly open up. The bottom of the viewing platform is like a cliff cut by a knife and an axe. The viewing platform stands on the top of the cliff. On a clear day, from the viewing platform, you can overlook the forest-like "Zuizi Mountain" at the bottom of the mountain, and the scene of the Nanpan River winding around the mountain.
And behind the viewing platform, there are continuous stone mountains. They push the Jade Emperor Ding to the forefront, which seems to be the barrier behind the Jade Emperor Ding. Therefore, when people come to visit Yuhuangding, they can't go up to the top of the mountain. They can only come from these overlapping rocky mountains. This is the unique charm of Yuhuangding in Xingyi's Wanfeng Forest.
The origin of the name of Yuhuangding is said to be that this mountain, like the Jade Emperor, stands here to see the peak forest. Although it doesn't look like the Jade Emperor from a distance, it's okay for people to call it that. On the contrary, there is a huge rock on the top of the mountain, like an eagle spreading its wings, its momentum is extraordinary.
The viewing platform built on the top of the Jade Emperor is also on a huge rock, which is a bit dangerous. Fortunately, protective railings were built here, and the railings were connected with iron chains or steel pipes, which greatly increased the safety factor. Along the viewing platform, a new mountain road has been built. You can walk along the mountain road to a relatively flat section on the top of the mountain. There are still several houses built by mountain people, and several families live there.
In winter, due to the large temperature difference between day and night, there will be a sea of clouds on the top of the Jade Emperor. When I arrived at the top of the Jade Emperor, it happened to be the moment of heavy fog. The white clouds and mist, like ten thousand horses galloping, roared and rolled over the hill below the top of the Jade Emperor; Gently stroking the trees on the top of the mountain, making everything in front of me appear and disappear, like a fairyland.
On the top of the Jade Emperor, the gentler places are all exposed large and small limestones. This kind of mountain rocks that can be dissolved by rainwater have turned into pillars for thousands of years, which is a bit like a stone forest. The area is not big, so it doesn't look grand. On the contrary, moss has grown in the gaps in the stone forest, showing the stubborn vitality of the karst landform.
In this small stone forest, some villagers living on the mountain set up a small stall to sell some drinks and snacks for tourists who came up the mountain. Most people will try Xingyi's cold fried noodles and pickled radish. The villagers told me that the sunrise at Yuhuangding is the most spectacular, and some people live on the mountain at night in order to take pictures of the stars at the top of the mountain, because it is far away from the city and there is almost no light pollution. They also suggested that I stay at a farmhouse on the mountain for one night.
Yuhuangding has now become a scenic spot in Xingyi City, but it is free and open without tickets. It is estimated that the bus cannot drive up the mountain, only a small car or a minibus can go up to the parking lot on the top of the mountain. If you happen to travel to Xingyi, and you have a car, it is recommended to go to Yuhuangding to see the sea of clouds there. On days without clouds, you can also look at the continuous peak forest at the foot of the mountain. The scenery is also comparable to that of Lushan Mountain, which is "viewed as a ridge from the side and peaks from the side". About the author: Lu Jianhua Photography (photographer, traveler, self-media person)