Message #29593

[Bianca]

Many geographers and historians searched for routes in China or other parts of Asia which would fit the descriptions. Matching land forms were not found there. (14) But the Shan Hai King notes that the traverses are in a place beyond the eastern sea from China—and the routes do match mountains and rivers in parts of Canada, the western United States, Texas, and Mexico. In the section quoted above, the course appears to be along part of a line of peaks through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Mountain peaks, wooded and desert areas, stretches of sand, and river directions fit the description.

The Davis Mountains, Jeff Davis County,
looking southwest.
Photograph by Two Dog Woman Graphics


Lone Mountain may be El Capitán or Guadalupe Peak, the latter the highest mountain in Texas near the present Texas-New Mexico border, with Delaware Creek draining east into the Pecos. About a hundred miles (three hundred li) south is Mount Livermore, or Baldy, as it is called even today, (15) and the animals here are surely peccary, with pearl-like tusks. Limpia Creek flows east. And there are enough beautiful “water gems”—agate and quartz—in the area to satisfy the description.