Shixin Peak 始信峰

Shixin Peak stands about a kilometre east of Beihai in the Huangshan scenic area, above Sanhua Valley, and is counted among the mountain's thirty-six minor peaks. Its name comes from the Ming traveller Huang Xiyuan, who walked up from Yungu Temple, found the view almost too strange to be real, and had the words "Shixin", meaning "beginning to believe", carved on the rock in 1613. A Qing-dynasty magistrate later added an inscription to much the same effect: only here does one understand.

The top is a small platform with cliffs falling away on three sides. Scholars once climbed here to drink and play the qin, and the peak is still called the Qin Terrace after Jiang Tianyi, a Ming loyalist who lived in seclusion and played music here, and his descendant Jiang Litian, a poet and player who also withdrew to this spot. Beside the Duxian Bridge stands the Jieyin Pine, which travellers once gripped as they crossed a plank laid over the gap.

Shixin is known for its pines, among them Black Tiger, Joint, Dragon Claw, Crouching Dragon and Sea Exploring, and for the rocks of Shisun Ridge close by, where the formation called Eighteen Arhats Facing the South Sea is said to be strikingly lifelike. A local saying holds that without Shixin Peak you do not see Huangshan's pines.

Don't miss

• Jieyin Pine standing beside the Duxian Bridge
• The summit platform, remembered as the Qin Terrace
• Shisun Ridge and the Eighteen Arhats Facing the South Sea
• Famous pines: Black Tiger, Joint, Dragon Claw, Sea Exploring
• Views over Sanhua Valley and the West Sea peaks

Visiting tips

The peak lies near the Yungu cableway route and features in easy family itineraries; the pages suggest two to three hours here. Paths are cut into rock with railings above steep drops, and the summit platform is small, so take your time and watch your footing after snow.