Middle Yandang Mountains
Middle Yandang Mountains or Zhong Yandang Shan refers, in the broad sense, to a coastal mountain range in southeastern Zhejiang Province in eastern China, which is close to Yandang Mountains, and both of them are parts of Yandang Ridge. It is said that people found that there was a lake in the top of the mountain, which was covered with reeds. And many wild geese lived there. Therefore, it is called "Yandang". It is historically called "the Best Mountain in Southeastern China". Comparing to Yandang Mountains, it seems like a religious interest rather than a geographic interest, which does not mean that Yandang Mountains are much better than Middle Yandang Mountains when it comes to natural landscape, but the latter is unique because of the religion. With cool climate and convenient traffic, as well as palatable sea food, it has been affirmed as one of the best ten summer resort in Zhejiang Province. It is said a Taoist priest, who believed in Taoism, came here and built a temple.
History
The history of Yandang Mountains is quite long. The time when human first went here and built their house could be traced back to Southern and Northern Dynasties. However, when it comes to Middle Yandang Mountain, it was Song dynasty when the chin-shih Li Shao-he first came here and built a Taoism Temple. Then more and more people came here because of the fame of Li Shao-he and religious ethos.In modern China, to facilitate the growth of local economy, both local government and indigenous people want to build a scenic spot base on Middle Yandang Mountains. However, the condition of government finance was not good, which means if people want to construct the scenic spot, they need pay the fare of project. Finally, villagers raised money by themselves and built the scenic spot.
The entrance tickets of scenery spot are free for local people. Many local schools organize an annual spring excursion here.
Poetry
In ancient China, many poets habitually wrote or sang poetry upon encountering a beautiful landscape. They depicts the landscape and express their aspirations and feelings by it. In Middle Yandang Mountains, many poets left their opus, like Xie Lingyun and Wang Shi-peng.Xie Ling-yun (Chinese: 谢灵运)
In 422 A.C, Xie was sent to Yongjia County as prefecture chief. One day, he came to the root of Middle Yandang Mountains and inspected the farms. At that time, he was attracted by the landscape and wrote, "The far embankment lies thousands of miles, the long spit of land like river flows millions of miles." Because of the fame of Xie, Middle Yandang Mountains became more and more well-known.Wang Shi-peng (Chinese: 王十朋)
Wang was one of the Zhuangyuan in Southern Song dynasty, whose homeland was Yueqing, a city now lies at the root of Middle Yandang Mountains. He wrote, "The lakes and mountains like green lies here, and the two streams flows like the sound of Chinese Zither."Others
Except Xie and Wang, there were still some poets writing poems for specific mountains or lakes. Poet lived in Tang dynasty called Zhang You-xin sang a poetry for Yu-zhen Peak that "The Lake in front of the Yu-zhen Peak with spring is here, there is clean dust on the road aside." Another poet in Qing dynasty called Lin Qi-heng wrote, "The peak rises steeply from the ground just like a post, the length of it seems to break through the sky", which depicted the appearance of Bai-zhang Peak. At the East Waterside, there is a rock similar to a woman who is waiting for her husband called Mrs. Rock. A poet in Ming dynasty named Gao You-ji wrote, "Standing alone and gazing into the border of sky, there are only rocks near myself."Speciality crop
Indigo, a plant used to dye clothing, which could make the cloth blue. It has been regarded as an ingredient of dye for a long time. In Encourage Learning, an article of Xunzi, indigo was mentioned as a metaphor that students will be better than teachers. In 1940–1956, the output of indigo continued to increase. However, after that time, with the importation of foreign dye, the production of indigo has been decreased. Nowadays, there are only a few people planting indigo.Indigo also can be used as an ingredient of medicine, especially its root. In 2003, when SARS was spreading widely in China, the root of indigo has been made as a medicine called Isatis
Tourism
There are seven scenery spots in Middle Yandang Mountains, including Yu-zhen Peak, Three Lakes, West Waterside, East Waterside, Phoenix Mountain, Yang-ba Hole and Liu-Gong Valley.Yu-zhen Peak
Yu-zhen Peak is the main peak of the scenery spots and regarded as the totem of Middle Yandang Mountains. It seems that Yu-zhen Peak is quite high although the absolute elevation is just approximately 568 m. At the top of the mountain, there is a Taoism Temple there, which is built by chin-shih Li Shao-he. The main part of the mountain is rock and the Taoism Temple lies here, local people also call it Taoist Priest Rock. Thanks to wide rock walls, artists and litterateurs created their work here so that there are many lithographs.Except the main temple, there is also a cave called Yu-hong Cave, which lies the middle of the peak, including a group of Taoism constructions. According to the book Treasure Trove of Heaven in Song dynasty, it was regarded as the Twenty-first cave of the country. In Ming dynasty, a Buddhist monk came here and modified the Taoism Temple to a Buddhist Temple, which called Yu Ping Zen Temple. Therefore, both Taoism and Buddhism had been here. However, in March, 2014, the temples caught fire and constructions built in Qing dynasty was lost.