A Long Strange Trip

When one thinks of Chinese scroll paintings, one thinks of mountains in the background, breaking through cloud cover again and again. It forms a mystical illusion and gives a sense of the mountains having no beginning and no end. You might think that such paintings are just the offspring of an artists fertile imaginations and no such place can exist on earth.

That is until you see the mountains of Anhui province and most particularly, the mountains around Huang Shan (Huángshān, 黄山). The area around Huang Shan is an artist's dream and a poet's muse all rolled into one mist covered vista.