Tiantangzhai Mountain

Tiantangzhai is the highest point of the Dabie Mountains accessible from Huanggang prefecture, a forested watershed at 1,729 metres in Luotian County that offers the kind of scenery — mossy broadleaf forest, waterfalls, glacial ponds, and ridge trails with views over the Anhui border — that in other parts of China would attract enormous crowds but here remains comparatively quiet. The journey from Huanggang city takes about three hours; the mountain is one of those places that the prefecture's comparatively low tourism profile has accidentally protected from over-development.

The main trails cover a circuit of about 15 kilometres taking four to five hours, passing through several distinct forest types and past the Tiantang Pond, a glacial lake at around 1,600 metres that reflects the surrounding ridges in calm conditions. The reserve hosts breeding populations of globally rare species including the Elliot's pheasant and Chinese monal, which makes early morning birding on the ridge trails rewarding. Accommodation is available at the park entrance for those who want to arrive before dawn for the birds or the cloud inversions.

things to do sight
A story
Tiantangzhai — "Heaven's Fortress" — sits at 1,729 metres on the main watershed of the Dabie range, the boundary between Hubei and Anhui provinces. The mountain's summit area is classified as a nature reserve protecting a section of what was, before the twentieth century's deforestation, the continuous broadleaf forest that covered the Dabie uplands. What remains is enough to sustain breeding populations of clouded leopard (extremely rare), giant salamander, and over two hundred bird species — a biodiversity that makes the reserve significant beyond its scenic attractions.