Mount Huangshan: Everything You Didn't Know | China Revealed | TRACKS

in China the sculpted granite of mount Wang shun is known as the number one mountain under heaven 60,000 steps lead up into 72 mist shrouded peaks where once only Emperor's were privileged to climb the ethereal beauty of the landscape and 1,500 years of history combined to make bangs shut the best-loved mountain in the land of the Dragon [Music] [Music] in all of China nothing matches the mystique of the mountain called Wang shunned no other mountain has played a bigger role in the cultural literary and artistic history of China there are actually 72 Peaks on wang shun covering an area of about sixty square miles roughly twice the size of Manhattan [Music] here the tallest skyscrapers towers 6,000 feet above sea level and form one of the most popular scenic reserves in the country tucked into the eastern corner of China weighing shun is part of a small mountain range that in ancient times was remote and inaccessible the region was originally known as the Black Mountain because the cliffs looked so dark and winter but then a distinguished visitor arrived at the mountain and everything changed it said that almost 5000 years ago the legendary founder of the Chinese civilization once climbed these Peaks [Music] his name was Wang Dee the mythological ancestor of the Chinese [Music] according to legend he lived like a hermit on the mountain searching for enlightenment and immortality Wang Dee was an alchemist so when he discovered a purple fungus growing on the mountainside he used it to create an elixir of immortality Weinke is said to have swallowed the potion and then ascended to heaven on the back of a dragon [Music] in honor of the memory of Wang Dee twelve hundred years ago the mountain was renamed Wang Xiong [Music] the mountain is held in such high esteem that generations of people have come to eulogize Wang shun it gained worldwide recognition in 1990 when Wang shun became a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized both for its breathtaking scenery and as a habitat for rare and threatened species [Music] for more than 2,000 years everyone from Emperor's to artists sought spiritual revelation on wang shun every peak has been sculpted from solid granite carved by water into improbable shapes giving each unique characteristics the mountain is considered to be a prime example of classic Chinese scenery resulting in a rich legacy of art and literature generations of writers have been inspired by the stark mountain walls with twisted trees clinging precariously to the contorted rock [Music] it's said that between the 7th the 19th centuries more than 20,000 poems were written about Wang Xiong many have become part of the national psyche and even now are familiar to Chinese all over the world [Music] the first steps are thought to have been carved into the granite cliffs 1,500 years ago today there are more than 30 miles of walkway and some 60,000 steps leading up into the shrouded Peaks [Music] just building the stairs meant manhandling granite slabs into position all the way up the mountain [Music] there are no roads everything is carried on and off the mountain by an army of Porter's [Music] from concrete blocks to dirty laundry water bottles to exhausted visitors it all has to be carried up the mountain on foot [Music] [Music] climbing the peaks of Wang Shan is a daunting task so it's no wonder some visitors decide to begin their pilgrimage with the less challenging World Heritage Site [Music] nestled at the foot of Wang shun are two ancient villages built by enormous Li wealthy merchant families [Music] it's amazing what happens when granite and water is sculpted by a function aster you each year more than half a million people come to see the quaint Stonebridge idyllic lake and historic houses of huang zhilie the village became a world heritage site in 2000 and is the favorite haunt of artists who often stay with local families to paint here once this village was one of the most prosperous in the country and now thanks to visitors drawn to the architectural splendor its fortunes are on the rise again [Music] not everybody in Wonsan is here to paint or carve bamboo the village is home to 1400 people who continue to live and work in a town that has changed little in 900 years a Chinese writer once said if you want to learn about the life of the Emperor's go to Beijing if you want to find out how civilians lived in ages past go to one son [Music] [Laughter] [Music] officially listed as one of the country's 10 most charming towns Hong Kong represents a snapshot of the ancient past that has largely disappeared from China [Music] in the last century there's been such intensive social and economic change in China that most historic villages have undergone drastic reconstruction but hidden behind their high walls the 137 houses in Guangdong have survived more or less intact [Music] Hong Kong was created by a wealthy merchant who commissioned a remarkable urban planner to design the village the very high walls and very few windows were a key architectural feature [Music] not only were the walls good firebreaks they discourage thieves and calmed the merchants fears about their wives fidelity in fact wealthy women were not required to work and were sometimes confined to their house and hidden courtyard from birth until death [Music] honks own architecture also features distinctive gables on top of the walls originally designed to prevent fire from traveling along a line of houses later craftsman wanting to add a flourish fashion the ends of the gables into horse heads if you are rich you flaunted it by commissioning more extravagant carvings the better the craftsmanship and the more elaborate the carvings the wealthier the owner the buildings are a marvel of China's ancient architectural arts and the wealthy merchants built these places to last some of these rooms have housed the same family for 40 generations there's a story about a Japanese tourist who once offered $100,000 to buy a single stone carved window from a Hong Kong house the owner refused to sell but the most remarkable thing about one son is hard to see from street level the high walls obscure the fact that this village was originally designed in the shape of an ox that's because 900 years ago the wealthy merchant commissioned a fool shui master to design the village after thinking about it for 10 years this early urban planner came up with the unique design [Music] it then took the villagers 130 years to create Wong's own in the shape of an ox to old trees at the entrance to the village represent the horns the four stone bridges crossing the river are the animals legs the houses form the body and the lake below represents the belly of the ox of all the villages in China long sung is unique for its incredibly sophisticated water features also design using the principles of Feng Shui an ingenious canal representing the intestines of the Ox weaves its way between all the houses in the village the source of water is a spring shaped like a crescent moon representing the stomach of the Ox nearly 200 years before houses in America had access to running water the system of canals provided every home in watson with clean water for drinking washing and in case of emergency extinguishing fires today tap water is available to all the households so the stream is used mainly for washing [Music] [Music] take away the plastic buckets and this is a scene that could have come straight from the sixteenth century back then a timetable was set up to ensure considerate water usage early morning was for drinking and cooking before people started washing and bathing throughout the village people go about their daily lives with little concession to the presence of visitors or even the 21st century [Music] [Music] but the modern world has made it to one soon new buildings make up 30% of the villages total area but they're either cunningly concealed or far from the ancient center [Music] one son is unlike any other town in China [Music] except perhaps for another world heritage site only six miles away in the shadow of mount function [Music] in China nestled at the foot of mystical mount when shun ancient urban planners had vivid imaginations it said the village of Sidi was designed in the shape of a boat the houses formed the hull and an ancient tree was the mast the sail was formed from a huge memorial archway that 400 years later is regarded as a masterpiece of Ming Dynasty architecture the elaborate five-story arch was built by a wealthy merchant the ultimate status symbol for a man who had everything and the merchants of Sidi were very rich they poured extravagant amounts of money into their home village building much more than just memorial arches merchants sponsored the construction of over 40 schools and temples [Music] ornate interiors were hidden behind high walls in a maze of 90 narrow lanes that zigzag through the town [Music] today the village is home to about a thousand people but in its heyday it was a bustling city with a population of well over 10,000 most men in Sidi were merchants traveling far and only returning home when they had become fabulously rich trading and salt or tea and one of the top 10 green teas in China grows on the slopes of the mystical mountain Wang's shunned [Music] according to ancient legend there was once a young scholar who fell madly in love with a beautiful woman who worked on a tea plantation unfortunately she was seized by another landowner and forced to become his concubine the woman escaped only to find the landowner had killed the young scholar she went to his grave high on the mountain where she wept so uncontrollably she became the rain and the young scholar became a tea tree that's why today wang shanti only grows in the clouds and requires special processing [Music] [Music] the freshly withered leaves are pan-fried in large walks over an open fire frying the leaves prevents them from oxidizing and the constant stirring causes the leaves to twist and curl the aim is to preserve the natural flavor of the fresh leaves and so produce a tea with a long-lasting light flowery aroma but there are more than just tea trees growing around wang shun at least 1,500 species of plants shrubs and trees have been identified including over 300 medicinal herbs but by far the most useful plant is bamboo one village on the flanks of the mountain is completely surrounded by a sea of bamboo featured in the climactic battle scene in the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon this bamboo forest provides the villagers with everything they need they eat with bamboo chopsticks sweep with bamboo brooms they wear bamboo hats when it rains and sit in bamboo chairs when it's sunny bamboo shoots are eaten the juice as a traditional medicine for coughs and sore throats bamboo leaves are turned into a famous wine while a parasitic fungus growing at the base of the bamboo is considered so delicious it was a tribute prepared for Emperor's and there's certainly no shortage of bamboo parts of the forests or 60 feet high and it develops fast a young stem can grow three feet in a single day you can see and hear it growing the villagers fall asleep listening to the rattling of bamboo trunks as they develop more nodes bamboo is so important around here that if you want to flatter a man compare him to bamboo that's because it represents both modesty with its drooping leaves and strength because bamboo stands mightily erect but bamboo isn't the most famous plant growing on wang shun [Music] you [Music] of all the plants on wang shun the pine tree is the most revered [Music] [Music] there are said to be 10,000 pine trees on wang shun [Music] [Music] [Music] according to an ancient Chinese say there's no rock without a tree and no tree without a strange shape [Music] perched precariously on granite pillars and exposed to the bitter winds of winter pine trees come in a variety of shapes and sizes [Music] in this part of the world the most twisted trees are considered the most attractive almost 100 pine trees on the mountain are so distinctive they even have their own names the most famous tree are Wang shun perhaps even in all of China is the welcoming pine it's said to look like a hospitable host flinging its arms open to welcome and embrace guests the pines are also a famous symbol of endurance and perseverance [Music] that's because these tough trees take root not in soil but on sheer rock [Music] [Music] [Music] the secret of their success lies in their roots which secrete tiny amounts of an organic acid gradually dissolving the granite this creates a foothold where no other tree can survive in the shallow soil the roots of some trees extend ten times the length of the trunk in the hope of finding meager nutrients [Music] and the small waxy pine needles reduce the area of the leaf to minimize the loss of precious water [Music] it's slow growing though some venerable pine trees are said to be over 1,000 years old [Music] but the rocks of white Sun are 140 million years old born when hot magma surged to the surface and cooled into a massive block of granite [Music] since then the granite has been thrust high into the air and ruptured by earthquakes a myriad of fault lines ribbing the land apart and into each and every crevice poured water lots of water for more than a million years subtropical downpours have you roaded the rock into the fantastic pillars according to legend there was once a man who just didn't believe that when shun could possibly live up to all the hype about its staggering scenery he slowly worked his way up the side of the mountain until he reached a remarkable lookout the point where the skeptical visitor first realized that when shun is every bit as mind-blowing as advertised became known as beginning to believe it peak shrouded in mist it's easy to see that with a little imagination the gnarled rocks could be mistaken for humans or animals wang shun mountain is a museum of natural sculptures including magpie and a plum tree pick headed monk eating watermelon and rhinoceros watching the moon some spires are connected to Chinese legend once upon a time a young Taoist monk fell in love with a nun from a temple on the other side of the valley [Music] unfortunately when their masters found out the young disciples were severely punished so they came up with a cunning plan the monk would place a boot in front of the mountain gate if his master was not at home the nun would do the same thing with a shoe it all worked perfectly until one day both masters returned early knowing they were in deep trouble the star-crossed lovers decided that since they could never live together they would die together and lept from the peak into the clouds far below [Music] only the shoe and the boot remain on either side of the valley immortalized in stone forever [Music] on a fine day it's hard to imagine that Wang shun is also known as the home of mist and cloud the peaks are obscured for a total of nine months every year in clouds that once inspired a whole new way of painting you for something sculpted from solid granite wang shan mountain is constantly changing clouds drift around the peaks mist Em's and flows creating a mystical atmosphere revered by poets and artists the ethereal beauty of the landscape inspired a whole new style of painting [Music] 400 years ago a group of renegade artists found sanctuary on wang shun hidden in the mist shrouded forest high on the rugged cliffs the painters saw world free from corruption [Music] [Music] known as the Wang shun school the artists became a major influence on the development of China's traditional landscape painting [Music] inspired by natural simplicity they created austere monochrome compositions often with swirling mists and empty spaces with only a few sharply edged forms dramatically silhouetted against the whiteness [Music] and in winter everything on wang shun is covered in white [Music] hi on the mountainside it can get so cold that the fog freezes coating the trees with a shroud of white crystals [Music] [Music] each year cloud sweeping in from the Pacific Ocean dumped nearly 8 feet of rain sleet and snow onto white Sun at times the clouds sit below the tops of the highest peaks which float like islands in a rolling white sea [Music] it's been said that to enjoy the magnificence of most mouths you have to look up but to appreciate Wang shun you have to look down that's because it wasn't just spectacular scenery that drew people to the top of wang shun [Music] you in ancient China height meant power people looking to establish their superiority wanted to climb Wang shun [Music] Mountains were the home of immortal beings and a link between heaven and earth [Music] for centuries it was a fundamental responsibility of Chinese emperors to visit sacred mountains to repeat spirits gods and ancestors [Music] the vertical flights of steps ascending Wang shun were like a stairway to heaven that historically only Emperor's would have been privileged to climb [Music] over hundreds of years each and every step up the mountain has been eulogized by poems and essays [Music] today many visitors follow routes established by powerful figures from the past enchanted by views that have changed little in 1,500 years [Music] [Music] with more than two million people on wang shun every year visitors run the risk of loving the park to death an estimated 6000 tons of trash accumulate on the 30 miles of paths [Music] fortunately more than 500 attendants are employed to keep the park in pristine condition it's why this mystical place still remains true to its reputation as the number one mountain under heaven the combination of raw power and staggering scenery has indelibly printed Wang shun into the hearts of all China which is why an ancient proverb says there's no reason to visit any other Mountain once you've seen Wang shun [Music] you [Music]

Channel: TRACKS

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Keywords: Mount Huangshan, Huangshan, china, travel vlog, culture, chinese culture, chinese food, travel guide, sightseeing, TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel, landmarks

Id: kMGRMtQN_jY

Length: 46min 21sec (2781 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2019