Located in the southern part of Anhui Province, the Mount Huangshan(Yellow Mountain) extend across - Shexian, Yixian, Taiping and Xiuning. They rose above the earth surface as a result of movement of the earth's crust over a hundred million years ago. Later they underwent the erosion of Quaternary glaciation and have gradually become what they are today. Magnificent and imposing, it is a famous scenic spot full of wonderful sights.The Mount Huangshan known as Yishan in the Qin Dynasty (221 -207 B.C.) got their present name in 747 A.D. (the 6th year of the Tianbao reign of the Tang Dynasty), when Li Bai (701 -762), the great Tang poet, wrote about them in these lines:
Thousands of feet high towers the Mount Huangshan
With its thirty-two magnificent peaks,
Blooming like golden lotus flowers.
Amidst red crags and rock columns.

The Mount Huangshan are a marvel within an area of 154 square kilometres there is a crowd of peaks, 72 of which have names indicating the shapes they resemble. Lotus Brightness Apex and Celestial Capital are the three major ones, all rising above 1,800 metres. The mountains are a body of granite, often with vertical joints. Erosion and fracture contributed to shape the rocks into huge columns giving rise to lofty peaks and deep ravines. When it is cloudy the pinnacles loom in mists as if they were visionary, while in sunshine they unfold in all their majesty and splendour. The Mount Huangshan change their colour and appearance with the alternation of seasons. In spring blooming flowers decorate the slopes in a riot of colour and fill the valleys with fragrance, in summer you see verdured peaks rising one upon another and near springs gurgling merrily. Autumn dresses the mountains in red and purple, as maples are all blazing - red; winter turns them into a world of frost and ice with silver boughs and rocks everywhere. So from ancient times it has been frequented by tourists seeking their mystery and admiring their scenery. They come to the conclusion that the fantastic pines, the grotesque rocks, the sea of clouds and the hot springs are the four major attractions of the Mount Huangshan. As a matter of fact there are marvels almost everywhere especially in the following scenic areas: Wenguan (Hot Spring), Yupinglou (Jade Screen Tower), Xihai (West Sea), Beihai (North Sea), Yungusi (Cloud Valley Temple) and Songguan (Pine Valley Nunnery).

Owing to the peculiar terrain, the Mount Huangshan' climate is marked by a vertical change, and the vertical distribution of vegetation is also distinctive: plants on the summit, on the middle levels and at the foot belong to the frigid, temperate and subtropical zones respectively. There are more than 1500 species of plants, of which trees comprise one third. So the Mount Huangshan occupy an important place in China's botanical research. Here you will find century-old pines, firs ginkgoes, Chinese torreyas, Chinese sweet gums, nanmus, camphorwoods and the precious Magua trees, remnants of the glacial era. The Mount Huangshan abound in flowering plants; many of them are rare ones, such as Goddess Flower, the Mount Huangshan Azalea as well as camellia, plum, lily crape myrtle, orchid, Spring Herald Ina Flower and so on. It has a rich store of medicinal herbs; more than 300 kinds are found here, the notable ones being glossy ganoderma, ginseng, Chinese goldthread rhizome and Chinese cinnamon. Maofeng tea of the Mount Huangshan is well known at home and abroad.

The Mount Huangshan also provide the natural habitat for a wide variety of fauna. Among the animals there are monkeys, goats, deer and David's deer. There are rare birds such as the red - billed leiothrix, the silver pheasant, the octave-tone bird and the oriole, all good singers. The red-billed leiothrix (called ''love birds'' in Chinese) are so lovely that they have become favorites of foreign tourists and are exported by pairs. Besides, chukkas from the streams is good to make delicious dishes with.

The temperature in Mount Huangshan is agreeable all the year round. It is cool in summer, averaging 20C　at the North Sea Guest-house (1,630 metres above sea) and 25C at Hot Spring (630 metres above sea) in July (the hottest month) . As clouds often shut out the sun, hot weather never stays long, and this makes Mount Huangshan an ideal summer resort.

Though looking fresh and young, Mount Huangshan have a long history to which ancient books, poems and paintings as well as carved inscriptions all bear witness. Li Bai was not the only poet who sang in its praise, Tang poets Jia Dao (779-843) and Du Xunhe (846-907) also came here and wrote poems. In the succeeding dynasties people kept coming and giving expression to their admiration in poetry. Xu Xiake (1586-1641), the great geographer and traveler of the Ming Dynasty, devoted two of his travel notes to Mount Huangshan. Jian Jiang and Shi Tao (1642-1718), master painters of the Xin'an School in the Qing Dynasty, left behind them many paintings. Li Siguang (J.S.Lee 1889-1971), the late celebrated geologist, summed up his personal inspections in his book the Quaternary Glacial Phenomena in Mount Huangshan, Anhui Province. Inscriptions of the past generations meet one's eye here and there: "Clouds in a myriad of forms'', "Peaks piercing sky", ''A cool world'', ''Fantastic and beautiful'', "Scenery of exceptional charm'', to mention just a few of them. Such poetic phrases in handsome calligraphy are not only decorative, they are themselves part of the fascinating scene.