Sunday, October 12, 2008

Baiyun Mountain

Baiyun Mountain is a mountain in Guangdong, China.

History of Baiyun Mountain


Baiyun Mountain belongs to the first provincial scenic spots approved by Guangdong Provincial Government. ‘Cloud appears everywhere on famous mountains, but here White Cloud monopolizes the beauty of spring’ best portrays the Baiyun Mountain scenic spot.
Baiyun Mountain was already a famous scenic spot in Guangzhou in history. One can view the whole city proper from the height of the mountain. Renowned poets and scholars of past dynasties, such as Sushi, Yang Wanli, Wang Shizhen and others once came here and left poems and words after the visit.
Baiyun Mountain is a bit rectangular, measuring 7 km from south to north, and 4 km from east to west, aged around 400 million years, one of the oldest mountains in Guangdong. It has gorgeous scenery and abundant historical relics. Among the past and present Eight Sights of Guangzhou, besides ‘Wind Soughing in the Pines on Baiyun Mountain’, there are ‘Pujian Spring’, ‘Looking afar in the evening from Baiyun Mountain’, ‘The Returned Monk at Jingtai’, ‘the Splendid Mountain of Cloud’, etc., which depict all the beautiful scenery of Baiyun Mountain.

Geology


Baiyun Mountain refers to the mountain range located 7.5 km north of Guangzhou and made up of 30-odd peaks, with an area of 28 sq. meters. The highest peak, Moxing Ridge stands in the center of Baiyun Mountain, measuring 382 meters in height, also called ‘the First Peak under the Southern Sky’.
In fact, Baiyun Mountain is the ending range of Dayu Mountains in the south. It stands up over the flat area of the Pearl River Delta, called ‘the First Mountain of Southern Yue’ in history. The mountain was named Baiyun Mountain because of ‘ White cloud flying over Baiyuan Mountain, and gathering around its base’. ‘Wind Soughing in the Pines on Baiyun Mountain’ is one of the former ‘Eight Sights of Guangzhou’, the name coming from the sounds when wind blowing the pines on the mountain.


Scenery


Baiyun Mountain is a park with natural hills and waters, and an ideal sightseeing place and summer resort, with a development history of over 1,000 years. So far six sightseeing zones have been developed: Mingzhu Tower, Moxing Ridge, Santai Ridge, Mingchun Valley, Fei’e Ridge and Luhu Lake. Apart from the existing scenes Moxing Ridge, Looking afar in the morning from Baiyun Mountain, Looking afar in the evening from Baiyun Mountain, the First Peak under the Southern Sky, Wind Soughing in the Pines on Baiyun Mountain, Village Hostel, Songtao Villa, Mingzhu Tower, Luming Restaurant and Baiyun Immortal’s House, there have been added for the past ten-odd years such scenic spots as Baiyun Cableway, Mingchun Valley - the largest birdcage in Asia, the Forest of Steles in Guangzhou, Nengren Temple, a golf course, Xinghai Garden, Yuntai Garden, the Sculpture Park and Baiyun Chute, etc.

The Tourism Cable Cars


It can be reached by the 24th and 36th Route Buses and bus service direct to the peak is available at Guangwei Road. Baiyun Cableway is the first cable cars for sightseeing in the country to adopt the homemade movable cable-holding device with dual clamping, single-cable cycle with large carrying capacity.
There are 80 cars, each can sit 6 people. The lower station is set up east of Yuntai Garden and the upper station at the Peak Park, a difference of 198 meters in altitude and a horizontal distance of 1,672 meters from each other. The cable cars of Baiyun Cableway pass by such scenic spots as ‘Initial Probe into the Cloudy Valley’, ‘Pu Valley’, barbecue zone, ‘Nengren Temple’ and so on, and the limitless scenery of the Goat City is right before your eyes when gazing into the distance.

Traffic


There are many ways to Baiyun Mountain . You can take buses on special line from Yuhua Road; or take No. 11 bus to Shuquan Road, Shahe, and then climb the mountain on foot; or get to Yuntai Garden by No.24 bus, then by cable car .

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