Mt Huashan, also called “The great west Moun-tain” in the past, is one of China’s five sacr-ed mountains. It is located to the south of Huayin County, 120 kilometres east of Xi’an City, Shaan-xi Province, With an ele-vation of 2,200 metres, the mountain overlooks the Huanghe River and the Weishui River the north and links with the Qinling Mountains to the south. Mt Huashan is the tallest among the five great mountains. It is one of the famous mountains as well as a very beautiful scenic spot of China.
Mt Huashan boasts numerous imposing peaks with sheer pre-cipices and overhanging rocks. It has five peaks, the south one is called the Peak of the Wild Geese, the east one, the Peak of the Rising Sun, the west one, the peak of Lotus, the Central one, the Peak of the Charming Maiden and the north one, the Peak of the Cloud Terrace, Teh latter two are not so tall as the former three, yet each presents a kind of scenic beauty of its own. The three main peaks, acclaimed as “the three magnificent peaks under heaven”, stand like the three legs of a tripod in the blue sky.
Places of historical interest and scenic spots, temples and pavilions can be found every where. Owing to its peculiar lie the mountain has its own style of architecture. Many towers, caves and stone steps are built according to local conditions. The cloud-enshrouded cliff path, the sculptured rocky cliff, the floating-in the air Somersault Cliff, the cliff-excavated Thoursand-Foot Precipice, the Hundred-Foot Valley, Laojun’s Furrow, Ear Touching Cliff, Up the Heaven’s Ladder, the Heaven Dragon Peak and so on are all mar-vellous views of precipitous and perilous cliff paths.