LAUSR

Fig. 1. Boat ride on a mountain lake in autumn. The natural beauty of the many different mountains, waterfalls, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and forests in China attracted me and prompted me to visit the diverse regions of this country multiple times to capture the unique and often spectacular scenery, or their impressions, in my paintings. One often finds idyllic villages with houses perched strategically on the top of cliffs overlooking a river or lake some hundred meters below. The mountain-top abodes offer splendid and panoramic views of the surroundings. Although visitors can admire and enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery from a distance, they are unable to experience the wonderful view from the top, because there are no proper routes for access. Some mountains are large and famous, places where emperors and wealthy followers of Daoism or Buddhism built temples for worship, constructed monasteries and other housing for keepers, and created man-made walkways so that they could pay regular visits and offer prayers to heaven to seek endowment of fair …