Landscape Attraction Places in China
There are lots of beautiful places in China worth visiting, most of which, even nature sceneries, have special cultural and historical values.
Mountain Landscape
In the Chinese creation myth, Pan Gu’s head and limbs incarnated into the Five Great Mountains after he departed.
They are divine, magnificent, and spectacular, where they were believed as the path to heaven or the residence of Deities.
Therefore, in those great mountains, emperors held grand ceremonies to worship heaven or pray for blessing, and Taoists and Buddhists built temples to practice.
In addition, mountains seem eternal, compare to human history; hence, they also have accumulated lots of folktales and legends that passed on from generation to generation in thousands of years.
Therefore, besides amazing natural scenes, every mountain’s origin, historical, and cultural values are interesting as well.
Five Great Mountains in China
East Mount Tai in Shandong Province:
It connects the worlds of the deity, human and ghost, and also was the most sacred place where remarkable emperors used to hold grand ceremonies to worship heaven.
West Mount Hua in Shaanxi Province:
It is respected as the origin place of Chinese culture, also, the steepest place in China, and the holy land of the Taoism Religion.
South Mount Heng in Hunan Province:
It is the representative of longevity in Chinese culture, also the place where King Shun worshiped heaven and Yu the Great defeated the huge flood.
North Mount Heng in Shanxi Province:
It had been an important military site in history; the only syncretism temple buildings of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are built on the cliff of the mountain.
Middle Mount Song in Henan Province:
Besides had been visited by many exceptional Chinese emperors in history, it also has the oldest observatory and the famous Shaolin Kung Fu.
Lake Landscape
In the Tao Te Ching, the water was described as the finest. It is soft and shapeless, stays low and indisputable, and nurtures everything in the universe; it is also the strongest and capable of destroying everything.
Confucius respected the running water as insistent, targeted, and pure, which contains many good ventures that a decent person should have.
Therefore, lakes in China carry specific cultural meanings, as well as ancient myths and historical legends.
Special Town
While many modern cities look somehow resemble, there are some special tourist attractions in China, which are unique, beautiful, and historical.
Because of history, geography, and climate differences, northern and southern cities in China have their own specialties.
Northern cities in China usually are quadrate, regular and symmetrical, while houses usually face the south, with back to the north.
Ancient city Pingyao is a perfect example. The whole city wall and every building inside is over 600 years old, showing exactly how a northern city in Chinese history looks like.
Old towns in the south are more like Chinese ink paintings with exquisite white-and-black houses standing along rivers, such as the city Huizhou.
Also, there are many beautiful ancient towns that Chinese minorities live, which have their unique features, such as the Old Town of Phoenix.
Garden
Taoism and Confucianism both value the idea of “Integration of Universe and Humanity”.
Under this ideology, ancient Chinese gardens pay attention to stay natural, to make buildings fit in the surrounding mountain and lake. Hence, most of them look like miniatures natural landscapes, with exquisite buildings dotted inside.
Historical Chinese gardens are usually divided into two types, the Royal Garden in the north and the Private Garden in the south.
The Summer Palace is a perfect representative of the Chinese Northern Royal Garden, which is built on a mountain next to a lake, looks grand and spectacular.
Traditional Private Gardens in the south are smaller, therefore, the “Borrowed Scenery” is widely used, in which many beautiful nearby landscapes are included in views of the parks.
The highest standard of designing is “one step, one scene”, which allows people inside the garden can see various beautiful views in limited spaces.
Natural rivers, lakes, and stone paths inside, combined with borrowed nearby landscapes, together made those private gardens exquisite and appealing.
