BIG DRAGON WATERFALL SCENIC AREA

(The sign reads) THE BIG DRAGON WATERFALL AT THE UPPER REACH OF THE JINXI CREEK IS ONE OF THE MARKER SCENERIES IN THE YANDANGSHAN. THE SCENIC AREA, CENTERED ON JINXI CREEK AS ITS AXIS, IS CONSIDERED AS THE BEST SITE TO OBSERVE THE CRETACEOUS EFFUSIVE RHYOLITE AND GLOBULAR RHYOLITE FORMED 121 MA AGO. PASSING THROUGH SADDLE RIDGE, HIKING ALONG JINXI CREEK ONE WILL REACH SCISSORS PEAK, BIG DRAGON WATERFALL AND LIANYUN SCREEN-LIKE PEAK. CLOUDY PEAK AND THOUSAND BUDDHAS SCREEN-LIKE PEAK ARE LOCATED TO THE EAST OF THE PEAK. PASSING BY THE THOUSAND BUDDHAS PEAK ONE CAN GET TO BIG DRAGON WATERFALL, WHERE TO TRACE FOOTPRINTS OF XU XIAKE. BIG DRAGON WATERFALL IS FAMOUS FOR ITS DROPPING WATERFALLS, GIANT SCREEN-LIKE PEAKS AND CLEAR POOLS.

	ONE CAN RIDE BENEATH A BALLOON, OVER THE CLIFFS.
	(The sign reads) ON ENTERING THE AREA ALONG JINXI CREEK, ONE CAN SEE A SHEER ROCKY PEAK, RISING UP FROM GROUND. THE PEAK SPLIT ON TOP, LOOKS LIKE SCISSORS POINTING TO THE BLUE SKY, AND SO CALLED SCISSORS PEAK. QIAN BINWANG OF THE QING DYNASTY SAID ¿THERE ARE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY PEAKS DIFFERENT IN FORM AND NAME, OF THEM THIS MARVELLOUS PEAK ITSELF CHANGES SHAPE ENDLESSLY.î THE PEAK SEEMS TO BE AN EXAMPLE, WHERE ONE CAN EXPERIENCE THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE WITH HIKING FORWARD. AS STEPPING TOWARDS THE BIG DRAGON WATERFALL, THE ¿SCISSORSî CHANGE INTO ¿WOODPECKERî, ¿BEARî, ¿MASTî ´SAILî IN SEQUENCE. THE SAME PEAK IS NAMED IN DIFFERENT WAYS. SCISSORS PEAK IS CONSTRUCTED BY VOLCANIC EFFUSIVE RHYOLITE, WHICH HAD BEEN CUT BY FAULTS, PARTLY COLLAPSED, THE SOLITUDE PEAK FORMED. SPLIT BY FRACTURES, THE PEAK SHOWING DIFFERENT SHAPES TO DIFFERENT ANGLES OF VIEW, HAS HIGH VALUE FOR VIEWING.
	SCISSORS PEAK

	WOODPECKER PEAK
	MAST PEAK

(The sign reads) AT THE POINT OF VIEWING ON JINXI CREEK, A TOUR CONDUCTOR WOULD LET YOU SEE THE FIGURE OF "THE FOX THAT BORROWS THE TIGER'S TERROR" AND "GOD'S LETTER". THE LATER CAN BE SEEN FAINTLY, AS A CHINESE CHARACTER. IN FACT THERE'S SOME GEOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE. IN RHYOLITE OF OTHER PLACES, THE FLOW STRUCTURE USED TO BE SUBHORIZONTAL, HOWEVER, HERE THE FINE FLOW VEINS ARE VERTICAL OR ARC-LIKE. THE PHENOMENON APPLIES THAT HERE THE LAVA WAS SQUEEZED OUT FROM EARTH; WHEN IT HAD SOLIDIFIED, A LAVA DOME FORMED. THE DOME WAS SUBJECT TO EROSION, AND THE RIGHT HALF LEFT. TO CERTAIN EXTENT, THE RHYOLITE, COMPOSING THE WATERFALL'S WALL, SPILLED FROM THE CONDUIT IMPLIED BY THE DOME HERE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY SEVEN MILLION YEARS AGO.

RHYOLITE DOME.

BEAR PEAK.

BIG DRAGON WATERFALL

(The sign reads) XU XIAKE (1587 - 1641) IS A FAMOUS TRAVELER OF THE MING DYNASTY. HE TRAVELED YANDANGSHAN THREE TIMES MAKING INVESTIGATION AND WROTE TWO TRAVEL NOTES, WHICH THOUGHT TO BE REMARKABLE ESSAYS ON YANDNGSHAN'S LAND FORM. "SPIRES AND OVERLAPPED PEAKS, GROTESQUE AND FANTASTIC IN SHAPE, THE REAL WONDER IN THE WORLD" HE DESCRIBED THE YANDANGSHAN'S LANDFORM WITH HIS OWN ??? OF WRITING. AFTER HE MADE AN INVESTIGATION OF THE SOURCE OF BIG DRAGON FALL, XU XIAKE CAME TO A CONCLUSION, THAT WATER OF BIG DRAGON FALL IS NOT RELATED WILD GOOSE LAKE, IN CONSEQUENCE, THE ERROR ON WATER SOURCE IN HIS HISTORIC RECORDS WAS CORRECTED.

ONE MUST USE ONE'S IMAGINATION TO ENJOY THE SPLENDOUR OF THE FALLS DURING THE DRY SEASON.	ALTHOUGH THE WATER LEVEL WAS VERY LOW SOME PEOPLE DID VENTURE FOURTH ON THE BAMBOO RAFTS.

3 SISTERS.	(L to R) HUANG JIA, HUANG JIN MEI, SUN JING, HUANG YI MING, HUANG BIN, & HUANG JIN XIAN
MY EX-WIFE AND MY WIFE	SON AND MOTHER

HUANG JIN MEI AND BEAR IN FRONT OF A GAZEBO ON A CLIFF ABOVE THE LAKE.

MY WIFE AND I	SON AND MOTHER