The Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve contains some high mountains that are snow-capped in winter and thus the area is generally less accessible than the lower terrain areas elsewhere in Wulingyuan. However, a snow-clad peak is a beautiful backdrop, even if one may not be inclined to literally set foot on it.
An old Chinese saying captures the mood and beauty of this must see venue “a visit to Wulingyuan Scenic Area without a visit to Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve is like not having visited Wulingyuan Scenic Area at all!”
The time-and-weather-worn mountain-peak scenic sites of Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve are: Xi Hai ("West Sea"); Shentang Wan ("Bay of Myths"); Tianzi Ge ("Son of Heaven Pavilion"); and Yubi Feng ("Imperial Writing Brush Peaks"). West Sea, Shentang Wan and Yubi Feng are profiled below. Note also that the Yubi Feng site is claimed to be the most impressive assemblage of free-standing sandstone towers/obelisks in all of Wulingyuan, though each of the aforementioned sites are a wonder to behold, since each of them is unique, and is heightened by the presence of thick, ever-shifting mists.
The effect of the partial concealment by the "sea of clouds" of these craggy, tree-clad old mountain-peak remnants is that the visitor can never quite appreciate their true expanse in a single view, and because of this, they are never tiring to behold but quite the opposite. The same principle of partial concealment as a medium of enticement is mimicked by ancient Chinese garden architects in the famous scholar gardens of Suzhou, where the deliberate construction of winding paths with partially blocked views make it impossible to take it in its entirety from any given vantage point. Thus even a small garden will appear much larger that it really is, and the joy of wandering about in such a garden is deeper and more long-lasting.
West Sea
Xi Hai ("West Sea"), alternately known as "Gazing Upon West Sea From Heavenly Terrace" and "West Sea of Stone Forests", is also sometimes referred to as a sea of clouds, a sea of peaks and a sea of trees. Like much of Wulingyuan Scenic Area, West Sea consists of strangely eroded mountain-peak remnants, some in the form of stratified sandstone towers, or obelisks, and others in the form of more massive stratified sandstone blocks.
This division accurately describes the two individual scenic-site features of West Sea: One, a large flattened block whose top is terraced and which is alternately known as "Heavenly (Tianzi) Terrace", "Sky Terrace" and "Terraced Fields in the Sky" (Kongzhong Tianyuan). Two, a collection of freestanding towers obelisks alternately called "Stone Forests" and "Gate to Heaven.” The latter because the towers obelisks are arranged in a staggered height-wise fashion, with the nearest to the viewing platform, i.e., Heavenly Terrace being shorter and the farthest being taller, as if they were arranged on an incline, in amphitheatre style. Add to this an intermittent "sea of clouds" wafting through the "sea of stone forests" and you have a good picture of what West Sea looks like. Since Tianzi Mountain itself stands at high altitude, these eroded mountain ridges essentially describes all of these block-and-obelisk formations at Wulingyuan Scenic Area. – The view from Heavenly Terrace is spectacular, and the "waves" or "rows" of obelisks, each row reaching higher than the preceeding one, really do look like a "Gate to Heaven.” Moreover, at this height, banks of real clouds can settle here, and with only the terrace and the tips of the ascending rows of obelisks piercing through, the view is indeed one of a "staircase to heaven."
Why "West Sea" and not, for example, "East Sea"? It is said that the combination of the three "seas" – a sea of clouds, a sea of peaks and a sea of trees – aptly characterizes the real West Sea, aka the Yellow Sea, or the body of water that separates China from the Korean peninsula (the "sea of peaks" of the Yellow Sea is the mountain peaks that ring the Yellow Sea on three sides).
Bay of Myths
Shentang Wan, alternately known as Shentang Valley and Shentang Fort, is a deep, gorge-like basin surrounded by craggy, tree-clad old mountain-peak remnants and a few freestanding towers. The whole, except for the tops of the peaks and towers, is often bathed in thick but ever-shifting mists. In the center of the basin lies a deep, greenish pond. The sight itself is a bit eerie, but is made more so by certain strange sounds that echo up from the valley. Like the strange sounds to the beating of gongs and drums, the neighing of steeds, and the accompanying piercing shouts of warriors, as if an ancient, medieval battle were still in progress in the valley below!
It is said that this valley was a forbidden place in ancient times because the authorities, suspecting that it might somehow be under a spell, feared that it might pose a mortal threat to anyone who entered its bounds. An alternative explanation is that the spot, a bend in the "wall", or ridge, of old mountain peaks is the place where a Tujia king fleeing from a Song Dynasty army and only minutes from being captured, jumped from a cliff face at the spot in question in a desperate act of suicide.
Since the Tujia king was to his people what the Chinese emperor titularly was to the Chinese people, i.e., God's representative on earth, he was considered divine by his people. Therefore the place was given the name "Divine Altar Bend" (Shen Tang Wan) by the local Tujia tribes, for it marked the spot where their divine leader had sacrificed his life for his people. However, in the years, decades and centuries that followed many other ghoulish things are said to have occurred at Shentang Wan, according to local accounts. Thus the explanation for the eerie sounds that continued to emanate from the gorge below, the locals insisted, were but the plaintive voices of the victims who unwillingly joined the Tujia king in the afterlife. Since these accounts cannot be verified, they belong to the realm of myth. The gorge is also almost constantly bathed in thick mists, resembling a bay of clouds likened to a "sea of clouds." The alternative translation of Shen Tang Wan as Bay of Myths is not entirely unjustified.
Imperial Writing Brush Peaks
Yubi Feng is an assemblage of freestanding sandstone pillars surrounded in places by massive, tree-clad mountain peaks. The tops of some of these more massive peaks often end in a "quill" of shorter, more slender, free-standing shafts if not mini-towers. The name yubi feng derives from the brush used by the Imperial calligrapher that had a slender, carrot-shaped handle from whose thickest end protruded the brush. The uniqueness of these strangely eroded rocks, coupled with their beauty, is a most impressive showing and is liken to nature's own terra cotta army. This was part of the UNESCO World Heritage Commission's decision to recognize Wulingyuan Scenic Area as a world natural heritage site. Wulingyuan Scenic Area may well not have made that distinguished list had it not been for the area's strangely eroded mountain peaks. “A visit to Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve without a visit to Imperial Writing Brush Peaks is like not having visited Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve at all!'
Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve is also carpeted here and there with thick forests and with the wildlife that characterizes Wulingyuan Scenic Area. The Tianzi Mountain Nature Reserve in particular, is said to combine the beauty of Guilin, the strangeness if not grotesqueness of Huangshan ("Yellow Mountain"), the awesomeness of Mount Hua and the magnificence of Mount Tai.
Heaven's gate
This unimaginable natural phenomenon was called “Heaven’s Gate”. The name justifies the fact that it is constantly shrouded in clouds..
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