Trees that a nation has long pined for

Visitors to Mount Huangshan of East China's Anhui province are often led to the Yingkesong (Greeting Guest Pine), which looks like a hospitable host extending an arm to greet guests. In 1959, local artist Zhu Yanqing made a portrait of this pine with wrought iron. It has impressed many honored guests from around the world as a symbol of the Chinese people's hospitality.

For Chinese, pine is not just a tree. It has been the subject of admiration in innumerable poems, paintings, artifacts and gardens.

Song Dynasty (960-1279) scholar Hu Zhonggong once wrote that the pine's branches wave like an old man's beard in the wind and the trunk seems like a dragon with upturned scales. The tree absorbs moisture and lets out a fragrance similar to orchards.