"Home to the Yellow Emperor, where Buddha's light shines forth from Longmen and Shaolin's kungfu is known to all under heaven welcome to Henan province."
This is the grand greeting you get on your cellphone as you step off the train in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou.
Henan, of course, is the birthplace of the Yellow Emperor or Huangdi, legendary progenitor of the Chinese people. Along the banks of its Yi River are the ancient Longmen Grottoes, one of the finest repositories of Buddhist cave art.
It is also here in Henan that monks of the famed Shaolin Temple are said to practice their formidable form of martial arts, in the shadow of Songshan Mountain.
Songshan itself is the center of the world.
Taoists in the Middle Kingdom consider the mountain a symbol of earth, the central point of the five elements that make up the universe.
With its highest peak of Shaoshi at 1,512m, the looming highland leaves no doubt as to the gravity of its stature and can seem intimidating to visitors at first.
But the adventurous trekker with a full day on his or her hands will be rewarded with a veritable feast of mind-boggling breccia rock formations, gravity-defying chevron faults and breathtaking views of China's central plains - along a seemingly treacherous path that often clings to red- and gray-colored cliff faces dotted with turfs of greenery.
Take a breather on the nearest boulder off the track as you head into the occasional valley and the colossal mountain offers temporary reprieves in the form of whispering brooks, singing cicadas and that welcome waft of cool breeze.
As you continue the climb, look up at the towering grandeur of Heaven's Gorge as it reaches into the clouds and walk weightlessly on the rope bridge along the Narrow Path of the Three Emperors - all else will seem to revolve underneath.
(China Daily September 12, 2008)
