【Anshan:Beauty,Hidden,in,the,Steel】in the end

　　 Anshan is the third largest city in Liaoning Province. It lies in the central part of the Peninsula of East Liaoning and gets this name because of the saddle-shaped mountain on its south. It is the largest city of steel output in Northeast China and enjoys the name as the “Capital of Steel in China”.
　　Anshan is 89 kilometers away from Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province, and 308 kilometers away from the coastal city Dalian. With a wonderful location, it is an important place for the economic zone in Liaoning along with Dalian and Shenyang.
　　Anshan is also a place with abundant mining resources. The iron, copper, granite and so on are very common in this city. Apart from the mining, the development of hi-tech industry in Anshan is also very inspiring. That explains the supreme economic power of this city.
　　In spite of the fact that Anshan is famous for its industry and economy, it never pales as a famous city of tourism. The mountains and rivers, as well as the geological and climate-related advantages bestow this city with unparalleled beautiful scenes.
　　 Qianshan Mountain.
　　The Qianshan Mountain literally means Thousand Peaks because it con- sists of about one thousand lotus-shaped peaks. It has beautiful and elegant natural scenes though it has neither the grandeur of Five Sacred Mountains nor the wondrous sights of Yellow Mountain.
　　Qianshan Mountain lies 17 kilometers south of Anshan City. With the name as the “Pearl of Northeast China”, it is an important scenic area in China. Close to the Bohai Sea and the Changbai Range, it is famous for its weird peaks, rock-based pines, ancient temples and pear flowers, which are the best four sights of this place. It is divided into four scenic areas based on the natural terrains.
　　 1.The Main Peak
　　
　　The highest peak of Qianshan Mountain is called the Immortal Stand, whose name came from the legend that Ding Lingwei returned with the crane after becoming an immortal. The head of the peak looks like the back of a snack which is 20 meters long and 10 meters wide. A giant stone pillar stands the western end of the peak. It stands 7 meters high and its diameter reaches 20 meters. The pillar inclines slightly towards the east and takes the shape of a goose head. Thus the peak is also called the“Peak of Goose Head”. The western, southern and northern sides of the peak are cliffs connecting to pits and people can only ascend to and descend from the peak from the east.
　　At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor hired a lot of people for the construction projects at the peak. The hemispherical peak head was shaved into a flat on which the Immortal Stand was built. A chessboard was carved on the footstone, around which there are stone statues of eight immortals and the Old Man of South Pole. A niche could be seen under the goose-headshaped pillar, in which the upper body of Avalokitesvara was carved.
　　 2.The Grand Buddha
　　The most miraculous peak among all peaks in this Mountain is the Grand Buddha of Qianshan Mountain. This stands in the northern part of the Qianshan Scenic Area and is one of the gigantic Buddha statues made by the natural force. The peak looks similar to the Maitreya that stands 70 meters high and 46 meters wide. The image of the Buddha is so lifelike that people can see the features of its face. At dawn the peak is usually surrounded by clouds, which makes it more mysterious.
　　The Buddha-shaped peak is the second highest peak in Qianshan Mountain. The head of the Buddha is as tall as three floors. Under its moss-made green brows are his eyes that wind and water made on the rock. Its nose, mouth and ears are visible and harmoniously placed on the “face” of the Buddha, who placed his left hand on his knees while his right hand clenches into a fist with the arm placed on the right leg. A small figure similar to another immortal sits on its upper right arm. The entire figure has a large bead made by natural force on his chest. Its size and location are very amazing and the round bead halo can be seen against the sun. A big ring whose diameter is 3 meters was manually carved on the back of the Buddha’s right hand. When it is in the sun, its sunken part looks like a halo with a sharp contrast between darkness and brightness. Someone says that the halo implies the “Eight Diagrams”while others calls it a Dharma. In the central part of the Buddha’s belly there is an oval hole that is 2 meters high and 1.2 meters wide, around which small pines are growing. From the distance it looks like the Buddha’s navel that is covered by bushes. Two big feet can be seen in the lowest part of the Buddha and archeologists find porcelain plates for sacrifice and incense ashes. The porcelain plates could date back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties or even earlier.
　　
　　 3.Heaven-above-heaven Scenic Area
　　This area is located in the northern part of Qianshan Mountain. It starts from the front gate of Qianshan Mountain and ends at the Five-Buddha Peak in the west. The whole area covers 5 square kilometers. The area is filled with odd peaks, bony rocks, abrupt cliffs and grand pines. In the ancient times, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty and several emperors in the Qing Dynasty went to the scenic area for fun.
　　The natural scenes explain the popularity of this area. The odd peaks, weird stones, ancient temples and rock-based pines are the most famous things in this area. The famous Taoist monastery Wuliang Temple (Unlimited Temple) and the Zuyue Temple (Ancestral Leap Temple), one of the five Zen monasteries in China, are just located there. The rocks there have different names which are basically generated from their appearances.
　　 The Tanggangzi Hot Spring
　　The hot spring is located 7.5 kilometers south away from Anshan. It is one of the four best hot spring rehabilitation centers in China.
　　The hot spring was found early in the Tang Dynasty and even Emperor Taizong of Tang enjoyed bathing there when he launched an expedition towards the east. In the 1920s, Zhang Zuoling, a warlord seizing Northeast China built a“Dragon Spring Villa” there with a lot of plunge baths. Japanese also built a hotel featured with hot springs. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the hot springs there went through recovery and reconstruction, based on which a hot spring rehabilitation center was built. Presently the center is a building complex with gardens. 18 hot springs could be found, owning great healing power for sickness and injury.
　　The scientific investigation reveals that the hot spring in Tanggangzi assembles underground water with abundant minerals. Under the influence of ground heat and ground pressure, hot water gushes out from the place with the minimal resistance and flood into pools, becoming the hot springs. The temperature of the water can reach 72 degrees and it contains over 30 microelements.
　　The “Mud Therapy” is one of the grand features of Tanggangzi. The warm mud with all kinds of microelements is applied to human’s body and could function with the assistance of electricity. People can also bathe in slurry. The “Mud Therapy” is good for anti-inflammation, suppressing pain and improving blood circulation and can help to release the pain of people suffering rheumatism, rheumatoid, inflammation of wounds and so on.
　　 The Yufo Temple
　　
　　
　　The Yufo Temple (Jade Buddha Temple) is located in the Yufo Mountain. It covers 46 thousand square meters. It is embraced by the mountains and one of its sides face the water. The whole temple is elegant, gracious, grand and imposing. It consists of Yufo Pavilion, the main building of the Temple, tower gates, Deveraja Hall, bell tower, drum tower, jade belt bridge, long corridors and so on. However, these things pale in front of the jade Buddha statue located in the Yufo Pavilion. It is the largest jade Buddha statue in the world, integrating the Buddhist culture and jade culture together. The statue is 33 meters tall, implying the 33 layers of the heaven in the Buddhism. To accommodate such a big statue, the Yufo Pavilion is also one of the tallest classic buildings in China.
　　Apart from the Yufo Pavilion and the jade Buddha statue inside it, there are still some other places worth going. The Hall of Buddhist Relics is one of them. It is also an important part of the whole temple with the major building of a single-eave doublet pavilion. The front of the building has the white marble inlaid carvings of 54 dragons and 24 lions. Around the building there is a platform for sightseeing. The railings of the platform have 329 stone lions sharing vivid and different forms, which can match the world-known stone lions in Lugou Bridge, Beijing. A 3.3-meter-tall white marble lion crouches in front of its gate, adding more charm and inspiration to the hall.
　　The Jade-belt Bridge lies in the northern side of the Temple. It is a three-arch bridge imitating the old style. It is 33 meters long, 9 meters wide and 10 meters high. With a fluent, mild, rhythmical shape, it looks like a beautiful jade belt from the distance. A lotus lake and a pool of freeing captivated animals flank this bridge. The latter is the place for the Buddhist followers to release the captivated animals, matching the theme of mercy of the Temple.
　　The Bell and Drum Tower was established in April 2001. It is divided into two parts. The lower part is a square sightseeing platform. The upper part is the eight-corner double-eave pavilion decorated with golden-dragon lines. This bell and drum tower is genuinely designed and elegantly built and thus could be said to be a classic building among all similar buildings in Northeast China. A bronze bell was cast in 1999 to celebrate the coming millennium. The bell is just placed inside the upper part of the building. With the famous Buddhist sutra carved on it, the bell is decorated with nine dragons, nine bats, 21 lotuses and 63 pearls. On top of that, a drum could be seen inside the tower. With a 2.8-meter diameter, the drum is the largest one in Northeast China. The rack of the drum is carved with rosewood. Four dragon-shaped gilt plates are applied to the rack, implying the meaning of “dragons pursuing the moon”.
　　 The Yao Mountain
　　The Yao Mountain (Herb Mountain) is located in the Yanyou County of Anshan. It got its name because of the great output of herbs in ancient China. The mountain is grand and imposing. It extends for over 10 kilometers and consists of more than 40 peaks. The Shihua Peak is its main peak with the height of 848.4 meters. It is a peak with four peaks standing back to back, which look like blooming flowers from the distance. That’s why it is called the “Shihua Peak”(Stone Flower Peak).
　　The peak standing close to the Shihua Peak is called Gucheng Peak, which is named because of the remains of old cities at the foot of this peak. Presently there are still manmade stone chairs, stone flagpoles and other things in this place. In the Ming Dynasty, a temple was built in the valley between the Shihua Peak and Gucheng Peak.
　　One of the most important features of the Yao Mountain is the herbs that can be picked up everywhere in China. An incomplete survey reveals that there are over 600 kinds of herbs in this mountain, such as ginseng, polygonum multiflorum, Selaginella tamariscina, Cyrtomium fortunei, Codonopsis pilosula and so on.
　　The second feature is that the aerial tram rail for sightseeing. The 1100-meter-long tram rail directly connects the peak top with the ground without any support in the middle part. The maximal natural fall reaches 300 kilometers, unparalleled in scenic areas of China.
　　The third feature is the Miaofeng Temple built by a Taiwanese monk. Its Taiwanese style is very rare in mainland China.
　　The fourth feature is with giant salamanders swimming in the streams of the mountain. The giant salamander is the second most important protected animal of the Chinese government and it is very rare to see a large group of them in a place.
　　The fifth feature is a 30-meter Buddha statue made by natural force. It resembles the Bodhisattva of Universal Benevolence. Even the hat and mantle worn by the Bodhisattva could be visible. What’s more amazing is that the elephant that the Bodhisattva is riding is leaning against the mountain behind the statue. The eyes, nose and body of the elephant is visible, seemingly to be crafted with natural forces.

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