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The highest peak is called Dragon Peak, about 406 meters above the sea level. There are 6 major areas in the park which are,snake cave, water park,camping land, animal and plants seeing garden, religion area and service area.
You might have guessed there is a story on every strange name. Well, you are right. They have a lot of stories here, I would pick my personal favorite version. Once upon a time, there lived a snake inside the cave. It could put its head out and drank the water in the river from 200 meters away, with tales left in the cave. When Russian wanted to build railways around the area, it got angry and came out of the cave, killing thousands of people.
It is just a story, but it does add a touch of mystery to the mountain. In ancient Chinese culture, people regarded snakes as the sign of immortals and they worship them a lot. There are numerous carvings and poems on the mountain wall, telling the stories of different versions.
What makes Snake Cave Mountain different is its significant archaeological value. On the hillside, there is a Paleolithic Age Relic stone tablet. Archaeologist have found that the stone tools unearthed here are the same series as those unearthed in Africa. So someone has made this bold speculation that the stone tools from here was one of migration places in ancient times. With such rich history, no wonder this place is full of folk stories and legends. This is the true meaning of travel-to see the unusual side of a place, good or bad, weird or normal, whatever makes the place different and worthy visiting.
I stayed in there for a short while, with the faint hope that I might find some rare stone tools, but no luck. My legs were already numb cuz squatting for too long, I struggled to stand up and the view under the mountain just astonished me inside and out. Looking to the west, there was hills after hills, in the south it was the river, east was a vast area of plain. You can fish, hunt or plough, what a perfect place to live for ancient people? No wonder they made a great living here and left us so many cool tools from that ages. One thing is for sure, they did not suffer living here, instead, they enjoyed it. I imagined myself as hominid in millions of years ago and ran in this wonderful land.
Under the snake mountain, there is small town of industry called Nianzi Shan. The people in town mostly are migration workers from Liaoning Province in early 50s, they speak with heavy accents but all have special feelings for Snake Mountain. Life is about that, it is like a train travel, you never know which stop you would take and which would become your favorite staying for life.