Changbai Mountain’s Brief Bloom

by Ernie Diaz

We can’t help but be delighted by a big smile on an old grouch. Similarly, nature has few tricks as gratifying as the brief summers of normally freezing climes. Tree and sky, plant and flower, even the earth itself, all seem to know how brief their time in the sun, and do their best to dazzle.

As the shank of summer approaches, it’s time to think of heading for parts of China that usually demand the protection of skis and double-lined parkas. Changbai Mountain, lord of Jilin and sentinel over North Korea, is just the sort of frosty giant to offer an edenic playground for a few brief months a year. Changbai, unlike China’s many sedate natural charms, is for those as rough and ready as the Manchus native to it, and who consider it their sacred homeland.

Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve

Far too extreme for harmonious Chinese agricultural society, Changbai nonetheless has much to be exploited by the ever-practical sons of Han. A blessing, then, that from the mid-seventeenth century on, the Qing forbade logging to those who would have quickly turned Changbai’s cover into so many ornate credenzas and high-backed chairs. Today, the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve spreads thick with spruce, mangrove, elm, oak, yew, and other prized timber over some 200,000 hectares. That’s eighty by fifty kilometers, if you like, of mountain forest that for China is as innocent as a girl scout with no internet.

Easy to believe, then, what a treasure trove of diversity thrives under the protection of such canopy. Among the hardier, more prevalent shrubs and plants spring wildflowers by the million, edible hawthorn and hazelnut, and hundreds of roots and herbs prized by traditional medicine. Chief among them is ginseng, unparalleled preserver of life and that which gives life.

Roaming about the forest are over twelve hundred animal species, many that we’ll only otherwise ever see on the Discovery Channel. Black bears and golden eagles, lynx and sable, even the legendary Siberian tiger, still call this remote part of China home, hard as that is to believe sitting in your concrete and steel box. Of course your chances on Changbai of spotting even a big cat’s spoor are far less than the odds of getting a subway seat, a good DVD, and a spitless stretch of sidewalk in a single day, so save the fear of being eaten alive for the psychiatrist’s couch.

Even the land-bound Chinese have nomadic beginnings, and few save the mystic can simply find a likely spot and sit there enjoying it all day. At Changbai you’ll find yourself inevitably goaded to hike, onward and upward, to Huagai, Dragon Gate, and White Cloud peaks, to see what you can see. Less tree and plant cover, for sure, more lichen and bare-faced rock, and one of China’s most inspiring sights.

Lake Tianchi – the Heavenly Lake

Changbai, the ever-white mountain should actually be called Changbai Volcano. And near dead-center , its largest crater holds Lake Tianchi, thirteen kilometers around, a thousand feet deep, and 2100 meters above sea level. The altitude gives Lake Tianchi’s water a purity unrivaled, drastically sullied as they flow into the lower reaches of the Songhua, Yalu, and Tumen rivers. Sixteen craggy peaks ring the lake, blocking much of the stiffer mountain wind and leaving the surface mirror smooth. A high sun and White Cloud Peak reflected in the lake makes a picture Ansel Adams couldn’t improve on.

Peaceful as Tianchi Lake is, it sprang from violent eruption, and in turn gave birth to the Manchu people. However long ago, three sky goddesses deemed Tianchi’s waters pure enough for a dip. An enchanted magpie flew by the party and dropped a magic berry, which one of the heavenly maidens ate. Somehow impregnated, she later bore the man child who founded the Manchu race.

You’ll go hungry searching for berries, magic or otherwise, at such high elevations, but the Lake Tianchi’s fish defy description, cooked to perfection at the hotels on shore. Boats of various fashion are available for charter, but fair warning to the lubber easily disconcerted by skies that can shine mountain bright one moment and unleash torrential grey misery the next. Oh yeah, and there’s always the Tianchi Lake Monster to contend with .

Springs and Falls

A ways below the north bank of Tianchi Lake, a sixty-eight meter waterfall cascades from a notched cliff. The metaphor-hungry Chinese compare it to a dancing silver dragon or a rippling length of celestial silk, but the brown mountain scrub surrounding it does little to strengthen such wordplay. You must rely on other senses to be truly impressed, the roar that increases on approach, the chill of being so near the gelid mountain water. This is no refreshing rainforest waterfall, much less a Jamaican honeymoon waterfall. In all honesty, it’s a “Well, we hiked three hours to see it; might as well rest and enjoy it,” waterfall. The thirteen geysers nearby do their best to compensate with a little Yosemite flavor.

For water you can enjoy, even bathe in, the fabled Changbai Hot Springs lie not two kilometers away from the falls. Several dozen springs scattered over a square kilometer send up a vapor that wreathes the place in humid warmth, and lends all therein a different color. You will not be alone in the bathing pools, but next to those who seek relief for their rheumatism and like ailments. The challenge lies in immersing yourself without any unmanly squeals in water that averages over sixty degrees Celsius, while avoiding the quizzical grin of an uncomplaining Chinese tai tai with lumbago. Better perhaps to simply enjoy some of the eggs for sale boiled in the hotter pools, or to purchase some of the water bottled for home use.

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