A travel promotion article from over a thousand years ago

Over sixteen hundred years ago, a county magistrate named Xu Chuo toured Mount Tiantai, which was not far to the northwest of his jurisdiction (Zhang'an, present-day Taizhou). It was a newly established county seat a few decades before his tenure. He must have been very pleased to tour this 'new land', otherwise he would not have spared such lavish praise, calling it 'the most beautiful of mountains and peaks'. Then he wrote, 'Its extreme steepness, auspicious beauty, the richness of mountains and seas, and the magnificence of human emotions, there is no place more beautiful in the world.' This is followed by a long record of his tour, which goes on to say: 'Ascending and descending for nights on end, reaching the land of immortals. Twin gates of clouds rise to flank the road, a jade platform hangs in the middle of the sky as a dwelling. A vermilion pavilion exquisite among the woods, a jade hall casts its shadow in the lofty corner. Rainbow clouds and jade wings frame the windows, the bright sun shines brilliantly through the decorative lattice. Eight laurels stand tall against the frost, five lingzhi mushrooms contain beauty and bloom in the morning. The benevolent wind lingers fragrant in the sunny woods, the sweet spring gushes in the shady channel. Giant trees blot out the scenery a thousand feet high, the kiwi trees sparkle and hang like pearls. Wang Qiao controls his crane to soar to the heavens, Ying Zhen flies his tin to tread the void. Riding the divine bridle with abandon, suddenly appearing from existence and entering non-existence.' This made Xie Lingyun, a self-help travel enthusiast thirty years later, unable to hold back, and he had to bring a large entourage to cut down trees and pave the way for a tour of Mount Tiantai. Xu Chuo's 'Rhapsody on Mount Tiantai' can be said to be an early travel promotion article. Influenced by this article, Xie Lingyun came, Ge Hong came, and later Tao Hongjing, Sima Chengzhen also came, and many famous hermits who wanted to retreat to the mountains and springs came. This mountainous area, this stream nourished the Wei and Jin literary spirit wandering among the clouds and mountains, until the arrival of the Buddhist monk Master Zhiyi during the Sui Dynasty. Mount Tiantai, against the backdrop of landscape poetry, outlines the mysteries of Buddhism. In fact, Xu Chuo became famous for something else besides writing 'Rhapsody on Mount Tiantai', but that thing was a bit of a clout-chasing. After his term in Zhang'an ended, he was promoted to the Chief Historian of the Right Army. He attended a gathering of a Wang-surnamed Right Army general in Kuaiji, which later generations called the Orchid Pavilion Gathering.