峨眉山风景

Mount Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha

The Mount Emei Scenic Area covers 154 sq km and is surrounded by a nature reserve measuring 469 sq km. The main peak is Golden Summit while the highest Wanfo(Ten Thousand Ruddhas)Summit, 3,099 m in elevation. The Leshan Giant Ruddha is located to the east of Mt. Emei,at the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers,and celebrated as one of the most important sights in the Scenic Area.
Mt.Emei rises abruptly from a plain to a height of nearly 2,600 m.Occupying a peculiar geographical position, being typical in geoIogy and geomorphology and posseing distinct vertical sequences of soil, climatic and biologic zones,the Mount produces numerous types of animals and plants as well as rich and varied natural views.The wonderful combination of its“magnincent, beautiful, mysterious and maryelous¨natural scenery and intact ecoIogical environment with its long-standing history and culture has brought about distinctive natural landscapes and unique man-created sights, which are of immense value in historical, aesthetic, scientific, science-popularizing and tourist aspects.

The Peculiar Geological Structure and Magnincent,Maryelous Mountain Scenery of Mt.Emei

The Yanshan movement of the late Mesozoic era in the geological history of China gave contour to the geological formation of Mt.Emei;the Himalayan movement and the strong accompanying life of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau shaped the modern geomopThology of Emei. The complex geological structure,especially the crisscrossing faults, produced a number of precipitous cliffs,bizarre peaks and deep valleys,and soil erosion cut numerous gorges. Massive cabonate deposits and abundant rainfall gave birth to the unique karrt topography, which is represented mainly by the"Peak Forest in Stalagmitic Ravine"and"Nine Sages Grotto."Intermittent lifts of the earth crust and surface denudation formed level structural terraces as seen on Golden Summit and at the Wannian(Everlasting)Temple. In addition, glacial geomoThology remmains in the Footbath Flatland and other places.Such geomorphologic and topographic variety and the fairly integrally preserved depositional strata formed from the Precambrian onward are of great value to geoscience studies in many fields and have furnished Chinese and foreign scholars with a base of geoscience research.And the aesthetic forms and scientific contents they produced can be rated as peerless among mountainous scenic areas of the world.

Plentinful Vegetation Types and Complex Floras Resulting from the Combination of Various Nature Elemenb

Mt.Emei possesses the most typical and the most complete subtropic vegetation types in the world,as well as an integral vertical sequence of subtropic forest zones formed of,from lower toupper,the evergreen broadleaf forest,evergreen and deciduous broadleaf mixed forest,coniferrous and broadleaf mixed forest,and subalpine coniferous forest, which constitute the best-preserved primitive vegetation scenery in the subtropic mountainous areas throughout the present-day world. Mt.Emei abounds in plant resources of high value.In the area covering only l54 sq km,there are 242 families of higher plants embracing more than 3,200 species,which account for 10% of the total of Chinese plant species.Among them
are 29 azaleas;6 species of the Dysosma versipellis genus; over 600 species of plants edible or useful in light and chemical industries; and numerous species of the lily magnolia,
camellia, rose and saxifrage families,of which 31 species are listed in the first group of plants under state protection, accounting for l0% of the state-protected plants in the country. These include relics of the Teniary Palaeotropical flora, such as the dovetree, tetracentraceae and katsuratree.Therefore,Mt.Emei is amjor treasury of the world's vegetable kingdom. The Emei flora includes components of both the Sino-Japanese and the Sino-Himalayan floras,and amalgamates those of the tropical,subtropical and temperate-zone floras,which
combine to form a peculiar natural landscape in this area.

AGreatVarietyofRareWildAnin1als

Mt.Emei is the habitat of over 2,300 species of wild animals, among which 157 are rare local species or the reprcsentatives of their types,and 29 are in the list of stateprotected animals.The beasts include the lesser panda(also called red panda),which has been listed in the International trade convention of endangered wild animal and plant species:Appendix II, Species,issued in l974.Among the
birds,nine species,including the honey buzzard and silver
pheasant,are listed in the Sichuan fauna as new records obtained in the 1960s.

Splendid Buddhist Culture
In the mid-1st century AD,when Buddhism found its way from India to Mt.Emei,there was built the Puguang(All-Iiiumining) Hall on Golden Summit.In the 3rd century,when worship of Samantabhadra was spread in the area of Emei,the monk HuiChi constructed the Samantabhadra Temple(present-day Wannian Temple)at the foot of Guanxin Hill.In the mid-9th century,the Song Dynasty monk Ji Ye came here and built a Buddhist temple,where he translated sutras,preached the Law and cast a bras statue of Samantabhadra 62 tons in weight and 7.85 m in height,a masterpiece of high cultural and artistic value among the Buddhist images on Emei.Within the scenic area by now remain 30 temples with distinctive characteristics. The"Buddhist Scrpture on Pattra,"
a gift presented by the siam king in the Ming period ,is preserved on Emei along with other rare treasurest.the Leshan Giant Buddha is cut into a cliffside and took 90 years of work;measuring 7l m in height,it is the tallest stone image of Maitreya in the world.Numerous Buddhist sights and natural scenes merge into a harmonious whole, adding radiance and beauty to each other.