TRAILING CHINA'S MOUNT HUANGSHAN, A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE

By Siti Radziah Hamzah

BEIJING, June 23 (Bernama) -- Anhui, a quaint town located in the eastern part of China, boasts of three UNESCO World Heritage sites and one of them is Mount Huangshan, which literally translates into Yellow Mountains. 

Often described as the “loveliest mountain of China”, Mount Huangshan received four million hikers annually, of which 90 per cent were from China alone and the remaining consisting mostly of European tourists. 

During a recent trip to Anhui, this writer and nine other journalists from Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa and Solomon Islands were able to experience hiking on this famed misty mountain. 

Although the hike was bogged down by rain and the occasional strong winds, we were able to spend about three hours on the peak of the mountain. 

We started at the South entrance, took the Yungu cable car up, walked for hours in the rain, with limited visibility, and came down with the Yuping cable car located at the North entrance. It was, nevertheless, a good hike accompanied by officials from China's Foreign Ministry. 

Located in south Anhui, Mount Huangshan is renowned for its magnificent natural scenery, including massive granitic boulders and ancient pine trees, which are often further enhanced by cloud and mist effects. 

The mountain has played an important role in China's history of arts and literature since the Tang Dynasty around the eighth century, when a legend dated from the year 747 described it as a place of discovery for the long-sought elixir of immortality. 

The Yellow Mountains, which have a geologic history of 800 million years, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List in 1990. Later, it was included in the list of World Geoparks in 2004. 

It features a number of imposing peaks, many of which exceed an altitude of 1,000 metre, with the highest –  the famous Lianhua Peak (Lotus Peak) –  reaching 1,864 metres. 

This writer and the other nine journalists were in Anhui for a four-day familiarisation visit and also attended the 2024 RCEP Local Governments and Friendship Cities Cooperation (Huangshan) Forum, which was held between June 20 and 23. 

The forum aimed to enhance mutual understanding between local governments of RCEP-member countries and explore potential business opportunities, as well as promote mutually beneficial cooperation between them. 

-- BERNAMA