Mountains 山

Mountains, which are high are usually regarded as awesomew and mysterious. And legends are often associated with the mountains. There are also idioms related to mountains. For examples, long life is characterised with Nam-shan such as, “To live as long as the Southern Mountain” (寿比南山), and stability is being related to Taishan, “Be as stable as Tai-shan” (稳如泰山).

Mount Kinabalu is located in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the highest mountain in South East Asia. There is a legend associated with the marriage between a sailor from China and a tribal girl in Sabah. It happened several hundred years ago, during the voyage of Zheng He (郑和), a Chinese admiral of Ming dynasty. One of the sailors got married with a tribal girl. Time came for the sailor to return to China. The tribal wife looked forward to her husband coming back. Owing to great desperation, she climbed up to the peak of Mount Kinabalu longing for the return of her lover. According to the legend, the sailor never managed to come back to be reunited with his tribal wife, probably due to voyage accident. And the tribal wife in the end died. Thereby, one of the names given to Mount Kinabalu is “China Widow Mountain” (中国寡妇山).

There is certainly no historical evidence for the above legend. Yet, it remains till today the romantic and tragic love story of an inter-racial marriage.

As high mountains are awesome and mysterious, they are great places to be explored and conquered. Personally, I like to resonate with the pilgrims who used to visit the mountains of Jerusalem for festival celebration. It was tiring for them to go through the pilgrimage, yet they would declare,
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

To them the mountains are awesome, but they acknowledge that the mountains are the creation of God. They do not worship the mountains, but only the creator of the universe.

高山通常被认为是状观而神秘的。一些神话也与山有关，並且也有与山联系在一起的成语。例如，用”寿比南山形容长寿，“稳如泰山”则表示非常堅定。

神山位于马来西亚的沙巴，它是东南亚最高的山峰。传说中在几百年前，随着中国明朝郑和太监下西洋的一名水手，他和沙巴的一名部落女孩有了婚姻。而後来水手回他的国家了，部落妻子则非常期待她的丈夫回来。结果她爬到神山顶，思念她的情人能回来。然而，水手可能因为海難没有返回与他的妻子团聚，最后部落妻子死于山上。因此，神山也被稱为了“中国寡妇山”。

上述传说当然没有历史证据。然而，这必竟是一个超越种族的浪漫和悲惨爱情故事。

由于高山壮观而神秘，它们也是人类探索和征服的地方。就我个人而言，我和过去往耶路撒冷山守节日的人有共鸣。他们在古代的旅程中是疲累的，但他们在迈向山上时会宣告，
“我要向山舉目；我的幫助從何而來？我的幫助從造天地的耶和華而來。”

对他们来说，山是壮观的，但他们却不敬拜山，而是只敬拜神，因为祂才是创造天地万物的主宰。

Mountain Kinabalu is also known as “China Widow Mountain”. (A view of the mountain from the Jabez Resort.)
由雅比斯度假村观看被称为“中国寡妇山”的神山。

Mountain view from the Haven Lakeside Residences in Ipoh.
在怡保曦云轩观看到的山景。

A view of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基的桑迪亚山景。