Welcoming the Guests and Sending Blessings

The Journey to the West begins with: “This book deals only with the Eastern Continent of Superior Body. Beyond the seas there is a country called Aolai. This country is next to an ocean, and in the middle of the ocean is a famous island called the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. This mountain is the ancestral artery of the Ten Continents, the origin of the Three Islands; It is a really splendid mountain.”

In China’s earliest physical geographical classic Yugong, Huaguo Mountain is called the mountain of feathers where the pheasants with colorful and full-fledged feather inhabit. The author of Shan Hai Jing is amazed to find that there are plants of the south since the people of Cangwu move here. The names therafter like Yuzhou Mountain, Cangwu Mountain, Yuntai Mountain and Huaguo Mountain all get their name for the verdant and lush forests and a wide range of flora.Huaguo

Huaguo Mountain enjoys the reputation as “the number one fairyland in the East China Sea” and one of the four celestial mountains within the four seas. It inherits the Chinese ancient civilization represented by Nuwa and Shaohao, producing the greatest romantic classic The Journey to the West. With the divine workmanship and its cultural accumulation, Huaguo Mountain has attracted countless tourists from all over the world.

Su Dongpo who comes from the south where sunrise reddens flower by the river lets out poems that lush sycamore trees stand on the hills above the sea. Dimly discernible are the Penglai and the abbot mountain, flickering like the wonderland in dreams. The romantic poet even wants to leave his wife and children to live in the mountain for the plants are all heavenly medicines.
Facing the sea of mountains, Yang Benjun who comes from the capital of flower Yunnan feels that he has been out of the earthly world.

Wu Shangxing coming here from the solitary examination hall looks out onto the mountain, takes in the majestic scenery and lefts his feelings in the following two lines: Believe it as the heavenly wonderland in the earthly world. There is no need to pay a visit to the fairyland of Penglai.

Finally, Wu Cheng’en recreates the longing fairyland with his ingenious craftsmanship and utmost effort. With splendid literary works of the literates and its serene water and grotesque hills, Huaguo Mountain is regarded as the “blessed spot, famous mountain of flowers and fruits”. Besides the reproduction of monkey kingdom, the brothers of Monk Tang cultivate here. The owner of the ginseng fruit is the abbot here. It’s the place where the goddess of mercy watches a battle；It’s the place where Zhu Bajie eggs Wukong on；It’s the place where Yang Erlang searches the mountain here to fulfill achievements. Originating from The Journey to the West and conveying the deep connotation of the famous classic, Huaguo Mountain in Lianyungang not only serves as the realistic counterpart to the romantic literary classic, but also provide you, our distinguished guests, with the most sumptuous feast of Chinese culture.

“Refreshing The Journey to the West” Project Group, National Planning Office of Social Science

Oct，2012