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Mount Song
Mount Song (Chinese: 嵩山; pinyin: Sōngshān, "lofty mountain") is an isolated mountain range in north central China's Henan Province, along the southern bank of the Yellow River. It is known in literary and folk tradition as the central mountain of the Five Great Mountains of China. Since at least as early as the early 1st millennium BC, Chinese astronomical mythology had acquired the idea that Mount Song is "the centre of Heaven and Earth." It was respected as such by the successive dynasties of the Chinese Empire.
The name Songshan also applies to a peak of the range located at 34°30′38″N 112°56′05″E / 34.510627°N 112.934647°E, elevation 1,492 m (4,895 ft). It is the 4th highest peak, but second in prominence at 869 m (2,851 ft). Songshan National Scenic Spot is named after it. The highest peak in the range is Lian Tian Feng at 1,512 metres (4,961 ft), also most prominent at 1,221 m (4,006 ft). It is located at the coordinates shown for the article. On its upper slopes is the Sanhuangzhai Scenic Spot, further west seen from Route G1516 (Yanluo Expressway), which skirts the range on the south. The location is across the Shaoyang valley on the west side of which is Shaolin Monastery. The valley is well populated, in contrast to the forested and precipitous mountains.
The literature associated with this monastery, or "temple" (si) relates two folk-names of the range still in popular use due to their legendary status: Shaoshi Mountain, meaning all peaks west of the valley, and Taishi Mountain, all peaks east of the valley. Mount Song thus appears to be a two-peak range when actually there are as many as the counter cares to count. The possible number depends on the counter's minimum allowed prominence. PeakVisor, which records reported peaks in a given area, has recorded 44 for Denfeng, the lowest elevation being 959 m (3,146 ft).
The Internet reports widely that Mount Song comprises 72 peaks, sometimes rounded off to 70. This is a mystical figure taken from the cosmology of the Chan Buddhists. In their ancient myth, Shaoshi and Taishi each have 36 peaks, one set of Yin and one set of Yang, which cancel each other out at the monastery, achieving a zero sum (of what remains speculative). The numbers are not based on counting.
The Yellow River (Huang He) is the second-largest of China, the first being the Yangtze, which reaches into east Tibet (as does the Yellow). Its numerous tributaries on the way to the East China Sea just above Shanghai water a broad E-W swathe called the Yangtze Delta. Its low-altitude matrix of streams supports the great mass of Chinese people, the most numerous on Earth.
The Yellow River creates a second swathe just north of the Yangtze Delta. It is sometimes said to be in the Delta, but the Yangtze Valley and the Yellow River Valley, both running roughly E-W, are separated from each other by a divide. If it should be breached at any point then one river would capture the other upstream from the breach. Instead they are totally distinct. The Yellow River exits into the Bohai Sea some 744 km (462 mi) north of Shanghai.
The Yellow River descends from Gyaring Lake in the high plains of Tibet at an altitude of 4,293 m (14,085 ft). The distance from the river mouth is 1,965 km (1,221 mi). Lowland visitors run the risk of altitude sickness. The shallow lake collects muddy waters from the surrounding grassy plateau made of thick deposits of loess, a fine dust deposited by glacial winds in the remote past. Suspended loess stays in the water, imparting to the river the yellow color after which it is named. Deposition of this dust fills up the riverbed, resulting in course changes and extensive flooding. Frequent dams and reservoirs help control this formerly disastrous problem.
The upper divide is the Qinling Range, a series of ridges trending roughly W-E, more exactly ESE, to the vicinity of Mount Song, which is considered to be in the range. Some consider Mount Song to be in the Funiu Mountains, another subrange of the Qinling, strictly speaking to the south of Mount Song. The distance of a N-S line drawn from the Yellow River at 34°49′54″N 112°58′14″E / 34.83161°N 112.97044°E through Shaolin Monastery to the Yangtze River at its exit from Dongdongting Lake is about 608 km (378 mi). The line enters the Yangtze River Valley at Nanyang, 33°15′25″N 113°00′32″E / 33.25682°N 113.00890°E. The distance across the divide on that line is therefore 164 km (102 mi). Songshan is on the northern slope of the divide, its south edge being higher than the north. The monastic communities are on its south slopes.
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Mount Song
Mount Song (Chinese: 嵩山; pinyin: Sōngshān, "lofty mountain") is an isolated mountain range in north central China's Henan Province, along the southern bank of the Yellow River. It is known in literary and folk tradition as the central mountain of the Five Great Mountains of China. Since at least as early as the early 1st millennium BC, Chinese astronomical mythology had acquired the idea that Mount Song is "the centre of Heaven and Earth." It was respected as such by the successive dynasties of the Chinese Empire.
The name Songshan also applies to a peak of the range located at 34°30′38″N 112°56′05″E / 34.510627°N 112.934647°E, elevation 1,492 m (4,895 ft). It is the 4th highest peak, but second in prominence at 869 m (2,851 ft). Songshan National Scenic Spot is named after it. The highest peak in the range is Lian Tian Feng at 1,512 metres (4,961 ft), also most prominent at 1,221 m (4,006 ft). It is located at the coordinates shown for the article. On its upper slopes is the Sanhuangzhai Scenic Spot, further west seen from Route G1516 (Yanluo Expressway), which skirts the range on the south. The location is across the Shaoyang valley on the west side of which is Shaolin Monastery. The valley is well populated, in contrast to the forested and precipitous mountains.
The literature associated with this monastery, or "temple" (si) relates two folk-names of the range still in popular use due to their legendary status: Shaoshi Mountain, meaning all peaks west of the valley, and Taishi Mountain, all peaks east of the valley. Mount Song thus appears to be a two-peak range when actually there are as many as the counter cares to count. The possible number depends on the counter's minimum allowed prominence. PeakVisor, which records reported peaks in a given area, has recorded 44 for Denfeng, the lowest elevation being 959 m (3,146 ft).
The Internet reports widely that Mount Song comprises 72 peaks, sometimes rounded off to 70. This is a mystical figure taken from the cosmology of the Chan Buddhists. In their ancient myth, Shaoshi and Taishi each have 36 peaks, one set of Yin and one set of Yang, which cancel each other out at the monastery, achieving a zero sum (of what remains speculative). The numbers are not based on counting.
The Yellow River (Huang He) is the second-largest of China, the first being the Yangtze, which reaches into east Tibet (as does the Yellow). Its numerous tributaries on the way to the East China Sea just above Shanghai water a broad E-W swathe called the Yangtze Delta. Its low-altitude matrix of streams supports the great mass of Chinese people, the most numerous on Earth.
The Yellow River creates a second swathe just north of the Yangtze Delta. It is sometimes said to be in the Delta, but the Yangtze Valley and the Yellow River Valley, both running roughly E-W, are separated from each other by a divide. If it should be breached at any point then one river would capture the other upstream from the breach. Instead they are totally distinct. The Yellow River exits into the Bohai Sea some 744 km (462 mi) north of Shanghai.
The Yellow River descends from Gyaring Lake in the high plains of Tibet at an altitude of 4,293 m (14,085 ft). The distance from the river mouth is 1,965 km (1,221 mi). Lowland visitors run the risk of altitude sickness. The shallow lake collects muddy waters from the surrounding grassy plateau made of thick deposits of loess, a fine dust deposited by glacial winds in the remote past. Suspended loess stays in the water, imparting to the river the yellow color after which it is named. Deposition of this dust fills up the riverbed, resulting in course changes and extensive flooding. Frequent dams and reservoirs help control this formerly disastrous problem.
The upper divide is the Qinling Range, a series of ridges trending roughly W-E, more exactly ESE, to the vicinity of Mount Song, which is considered to be in the range. Some consider Mount Song to be in the Funiu Mountains, another subrange of the Qinling, strictly speaking to the south of Mount Song. The distance of a N-S line drawn from the Yellow River at 34°49′54″N 112°58′14″E / 34.83161°N 112.97044°E through Shaolin Monastery to the Yangtze River at its exit from Dongdongting Lake is about 608 km (378 mi). The line enters the Yangtze River Valley at Nanyang, 33°15′25″N 113°00′32″E / 33.25682°N 113.00890°E. The distance across the divide on that line is therefore 164 km (102 mi). Songshan is on the northern slope of the divide, its south edge being higher than the north. The monastic communities are on its south slopes.