卷一 · Volume I
Mountains
Mountains are not scenery. Mountains are time.
Lin’an’s mountains belong to the Tianmu range, entering from southern Anhui and easing eastward until they rest at the edge of Hangzhou. Within them stand some of East China’s oldest forests and highest summits, and the first trickles of Lake Tai’s water. Four essays on the mountains themselves.
Mount Tianmu
Tianmu: the time of great trees
Tianmu is famous for its trees. In the old-growth forest of West Tianmu stands a Chinese cedar over a thousand years old, its trunk so wide that five or six people cannot link arms around it. The Song people called it the Thousand-Autumn Tree; today it is simply the King of Trees — older than any temple on the mountain, and more silent.
It is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Ginkgo, golden larch, the Tianmu ironwood — many plants carry the name “Tianmu” because this is where science first recorded them. When the bell of Chanyuan Temple sounds at the mountain’s foot, the whole forest seems to settle.
Mount Daming
Daming: a terrace above the clouds
High on Daming lies an unexpected plateau — climb past a thousand metres and meadows and flower fields suddenly unfold, as if the mountain had hidden a plain on its summit. A plank walkway clings to the granite cliff, a deep valley below, and seas of cloud often rise out of it.
Legend says the future Hongwu Emperor once garrisoned troops here, giving the mountain its name. Legends need not be believed — but standing on the walkway watching the clouds turn over, one does briefly feel like a sovereign reading the Art of War.
Qingliang Peak
Qingliang: the roof of western Zhejiang
At 1,787.4 metres, Qingliang Peak is the highest summit in western Zhejiang and a national nature reserve. There are no cable cars or shops here — only dirt paths, dwarf pines, and azaleas shifting with altitude. Hikers set out before dawn to stand above the sea of clouds at sunrise.
Wild sika deer still live in these mountains; Qingliang is one of their last large habitats in southeast China. The mountain’s height protects them — and protects a way of life that asks not to be disturbed.
Headwaters
Water: the mountain’s sequel
However high the mountain, that long is its water. Streams of the Tianmu range run east, joining within Lin’an to form the Tiaoxi, which finally empties into Lake Tai. A ravine near Baisha village is called the Source of Taihu — one of the great lake’s first beginnings.
Each stretch of water has its own temper: the pools of the Zhexi Grand Canyon run a dark jade, while the Changnan stream outside Heqiao town flows slow enough to mirror the old houses. Once water leaves the mountain, it becomes the human world.
Old trees in the mountains, sources in the water. Lin’an’s mountains reward slow reading.