“Parkitecture” 68(2):3-5 by Charles Palmer - Yosemite Online

Huangshan National Park
tourist party to Yosemite Valley, has held a similar attraction
to famous and amateur painters, writers, poets, and
photographers, who are drawn to the same beauty that
attracted Ansel Adams, Albert Bierstadt, William Keith,
Thomas Moran, Helen Hunt Jackson, Thomas Wolf,
Gertrude Stein, Frederick Law Olmsted, and John Muir.
Although not twins, the two parks share enough to
be biological “sisters.” Both are known for their granite
peaks, precipitous cliffs and towering pines. While
Yosemite’s El Capitan, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls
have become icons of grandeur in the natural world, Mt.
Huangshan—the Emperor’s Mountain—has tremendous
cultural significance to the people of China. Its landmarks,
including Shixin Peak, Bright Peak, Sea of Clouds,
Celestial Basking Shoe and Celestial Basking Boot (subjects
of Taoist folk lore), Lotus Peak and Nine-Dragon
Waterfall, have drawn pilgrims for millennia.
Both parks are botanically rich. The strange Huangshan
pines and the massive giant sequoia of the Sierra Nevada
do not draw comparisons to each other, but individual
specimens of each have stirred imaginations, inspiring
names and characterizations. For example, on Mt.
Huangshan there are the Guest-Greeting Pine, Guest-
Goodbye Pine, Phoenix Pine, Black Tiger Pine and Sea
Exploring Pine; and, in Yosemite we gave the Grizzly
Giant, the Fallen Monarch, the Bachelor and Three Graces,
the Faithful Couple and the Four Guardsmen trees.
Edifices constructed in each have acquired their own
cultural significance. Much of the architectural style now
known as “park rustic” or “parkitecture” was experimented
on in Yosemite, a favorite park to Steven Mather,
the National Park Service’s first director. At the end of the
13th century, there were 64 temples scattered on slopes
of Mt. Huangshan. The influx of hundreds of men of letters
further enhanced the position of the mountain as the
center of arts and spiritual life.
Because of their locations in and near the major
urban centers of Shanghai and San Francisco (which are
sister cities), the natural and cultural resources of both
face common pressures. The parks wish to increase their
already substantial efforts toward the education of school
children and the general public so that their country’s
people can become committed partners in the conservation
of the parks.
The employees of both parks share the common ideals
of stewardship and preservation of the resources in
their care. Their highest priorities are to preserve natural
biodiversity and maintain ecosystems and habitats; and
to implement the research, inventory, and monitoring
programs necessary to achieve success in these preservation
and restoration efforts. To this end, Yosemite has a
research and education partnership with the University
of California at Merced and its Sierra Nevada Research
Institute. The University of California and Sichuan
University are establishing a reciprocal research program.
This partnership will strengthen the sister park relation-
PHOTO COURTESY OF WEI QIANG
10 YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION, SPRING 2006