The wise man takes pleasure in water, and the benevolent man takes pleasure in mountain. Chinese painters of all ages like mountains and rivers, such as Jin Hao, Guan Tong, Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Liu Songnian, Li Tang, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui. Famous artists and great mountains, people and mountains are corresponded, and the mountains become well known because of people’s words, they complete each other to achieve mutual integrity and eventually become legends together.

YANDANG MOUNTAIN

    Yandang peaks of eastern Zhejiang make it such a famous mountain. Yandang Mountain is famous for its beautiful scenery. It is known as "the famous mountain on the sea and the best in the world". It is also historically known as "the first mountain in Southeast China". Yandang Mountain started in Jin Dynasty, and flourished in both Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty. There are so many literati and painters coming in succession to visit. Reading poetries, appreciating paintings and calligraphy, which make people can't help thinking about how many splendid types of scenery were written and painted into poetries, calligraphy and paintings.

    The beauty of Yandang Mountain is hard to describe with words, therefore, which attracts scholars of all ages to write about Yandang. Yandang Mountain is not only an excellent scenic spot, but also a stage of history; it shows a variety of stories of mountain watchers. Xie Lingyun, a poet in the southern and Northern Dynasties, Guan Xiu, a painting monk in the late Tang Dynasty, Shen Kuo, a politician and scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty, Ye Shi, a thinker and litterateur in the Southern Song Dynasty, and Xu Xiake, a geographer, traveler and litterateur in the Ming Dynasty, all left wonderful chapters and stories here; Huang Gongwang, a famous painter in the Yuan Dynasty, Ye Cheng and Wu Bin, painters in the Ming Dynasty and Qian Weicheng a painter in the Qing Dynasty all have Yandang paintings handed down; since modern times, Huang Binhong, Zhang Daqian, Lu Yanshao, Li Keran, Huang Junbi, Sha Menghai, Yu Dafu, Guo Moruo and other famous people have all left immortal poems and ink here. The history of the sages makes Yandang a successful spot. Since modern times, Yandang Mountain has become more well known. Mr. Huang Binghong visited Yandang three times and left hundreds of paintings, and the Yandang that he painted was leisurely and comfortable, which is full of the charm of Yandang. However, Mr. Pan Tianshou, who has made mutual achievements with Yandang Mountain, has successfully combined landscape with flowers and birds to create a new pattern of Chinese painting. The Yandang in Pan Tianshou's works includes not only the macroscopic "corner of Lingyanjian" but also the microscopic "picture of Yandang Mountain flowers". Beautiful scenery touched off the minds, while the nature accomplished the pen. The combination of landscape and flowers and birds have become the great creation of Pan Tianshou and created a new pattern of Chinese painting. With the help of rivers and mountains, it is both human and pine power. Pan Tianshou has successfully pictured Yandang, and Yandang has also accomplished Pan Tianshou.

    Yandang Mountain has gone through thousands of years of changes, retaining the historical sites and masterpieces through the ages of literati, scholars and sages. These literati and celebrities indulge in mountains and rivers, and at the same time, they write poems or paint. These precipice inscriptions, poems, songs, and rare treasures are like scattered pearls, which make Yandang mountains and waters is full of ancient customs and add infinite charm to it, and also become an important material for research of the history of Yandang Mountain.

    The 14 days of " When London Meets Wenzhou – The Sketching And Exhibition Of Chinese And British Artists " is the second international exchange activity after " When Paris Meets Wenzhou – The Sketching And Exhibition Of Chinese And French Artists ". As an important stop, Yandang Mountain has achieved fruitful results. In April 2019, " When Paris Meets Wenzhou " was held in Versailles city hall, France. The event received the full support and extensive attention of government departments and people of all levels in the two countries. French artists have created many works with Wenzhou as the theme. What is rare is that some French artists show strong Chinese landscape character and freehand spirit in their works.

    In the long process of development of Chinese landscape painting, it has formed a unique style, an aesthetic taste and a complete theoretical system. The same is true of landscape painting, which plays an important role in Western painting. These two kinds of artistic forms, which express the same object but adopt different ways of expression, and it plays an extremely important role in the world art treasure palace. They are located in two different civilizations. The aesthetic value of these two kinds of Arts is the precious heritage of human development, no matter in the ancient and splendid history and culture of the east or in the great artistic achievements of ancient Greece and Rome. The comparison of the similarities and differences between the two is helpful for the exchange and development of the two great arts. No matter which kind of art, only by the way mutual integration and absorption can we obtain stronger vitality. Therefore, we take a representative of Oriental Art - Chinese landscape painting and a tributary of western culture which also has a great influence on landscape painting to compare, in order to see the differences between Chinese and Western art and their great achievements.

    Huang Binhong said: "the art of the western people is realistic while the art of ours is symbolic. The realists picture the appearance; the people use symbols picture the spirit. This is the reason Oriental landscape art has the unique spirit. " In this Chinese and British artist exchange, Nail Adams, a British artist, said: "China is an ancient and magical country, and I will share everything I saw in China. When I am back to home, I will have a personal exhibition to show the scenery of Wenzhou. In the recent sketches of Margareta Horner, Emily Ball and George Politis, we can also feel the strong Chinese landscape character. Therefore, the event is very successful in terms of cultural exchange.

    Since ancient times, artists have been the discoverers, painters and disseminators of beautiful mountains, waters and scenic spots. No doubt, the artist's vivid brush is the catalyst for the integration and development of culture and tourism, which shows the charm of scenic spots. The unique human landscape and cultural accumulation also achieve the artist's glory. It is expected that the in-depth international exchanges of the "Meet" series of activities will spread Wenzhou's cultural heritage and natural landscape at home and abroad.

    The construction of ecological civilization is related to the common destiny of mankind, and building a green home is the dream of all peoples. The profound and all-round ecological civilization reform that China is pushing forward not only changes China, but also contributes to jointly creating a better future of the world's ecological civilization and promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. Talking to Nantang, listening to Chaobaidao Dongtou, exploring Yanshan and Nanshui, seeing Wenzhou with insight, measurinh Wenzhou with footstep, colliding Wenzhou with inspiration, writing freehand Wenzhou with fine brush, and leaving excellent works and travel notes about "the city with gentle landscape and poetry" for Wenzhou's cultural tourism construction.

    British artists cross the sea and fall in love with wild geese, leaving beautiful footprints behind. What we are looking forward to more is that next year, with the works of artists of Yandang will be brought to London, to Britain, which has already fallen in love with Wenzhou!