大象传媒

The Meanings of Mountains is a series of essays that, following the sun's path from east to west travels from Japan to Peru, reveal the relationships that different peoples have with their mountains. In the second essay Howard Zhang of the 大象传媒's Chinese Service, considers the way that mountains in China have been sacred to Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism - sometimes the same mountain revered by devotees of all three. Certain mountains are places of pilgrimage, the Chinese word for which literally means 'paying respect to the mountain', and many monasteries and shrines are hidden away in the hills.

Howard explains the attraction of mountains, throughout Chinese history, to poets and artists - an attraction so deep that landscape paintings are known simply as mountain and river pictures - and intellectuals, who have been drawn from the complex life of the city to a simple, quiet life in the mountains.

But many Chinese are newly rich, able at last and eager, to travel. The holy mountains are becoming places of mass tourism. Howard Zhang contemplates this dilemma and considers the meanings of mountains to the Chinese today.

Producer: Julian May.