I Built a Website That Puts Cities Back Among Their Mountains and Rivers

When we visit a city, we usually start by looking up where to eat and where to wander, then pin the places we want to see on a map.

Pull the view back a little, though, and there is another interesting way to look at a place:

Where do the mountains rise? Where does the water come from? What kind of landscape does this city sit in?

Recently I built a website called Guanqi (观气, roughly "observing the lie of the land").

It places a city's mountain ranges, rivers and terrain inside an interactive 3D scene. You can look at the landscape from different angles, and you can switch the weather and time of day, letting it rain or turning it to night.

On rainy days you can also turn on background music. Before a trip, you can use it to get a sense of how your destination is laid out among its hills and waters. The rest of the time, you can simply leave it open as a backdrop while you work or read.

This post was first written in Chinese for the developer's WeChat Official Account (a blog-style publishing channel inside the WeChat messaging app) and adapted for English readers.

Hangzhou: a view I especially love

Hangzhou comes first. The feeling of this place is one I especially love.

West Lake is surrounded by hills on three sides and opens onto the city on the fourth. We usually walk along the shore, but from another angle, with the lake, the hills and the city in one view, the layout of the scenery becomes much easier to understand.¹

When you look at Hangzhou, take your time and rotate the scene. Watch how the hills wrap around the lake, and how the lake leans against the city.

Then switch the weather to rain. The same landscape, seen in a different mood.

Dali: Cangshan and Erhai in one frame

Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake are names that usually appear together. Cangshan lies to the west of Erhai, and between the mountain and the lake is a stretch of flat land where many people live.²

Looking at the mountain from the lake shore and at the lake from the mountain each has its own beauty. Put them in front of you together and you understand one more layer: how the mountain unfolds, how the shoreline runs, and what kind of space is left in between.

If you are planning a trip to Dali, take a look this way first. When you later walk at the foot of Cangshan or along the shore of Erhai, the scenery in front of you will feel a little more connected.

Nanjing: linking the hills, the water and the city

Nanjing has Zhongshan (Purple Mountain), and it also has the Yangtze River, the Qinhuai River and Xuanwu Lake. Low mountains, hills, rivers and lakes together make up the city's terrain.³

On an ordinary trip, these names might just be separate stops on an itinerary. From a landscape point of view, you can pay attention to what lies between them: where the hills rise and fall, where the water runs, and where the city spreads out.

After seeing the individual sights, it is fun to look at the terrain they sit on.

Wuhan: following two rivers to understand three towns

To look at Wuhan, start with the water.

The Yangtze and the Han River meet here, which gives the city its layout of three towns: Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang.⁴

Zoom out, follow the two rivers, and find where they meet. The "three towns of Wuhan" then make much more sense in space.

The next time you walk along the riverside, take a ferry or cross a bridge, you may have a better feel for where you are.

Yichang: watching the Yangtze leave the gorges

Yichang is a good place to read the mountains by following the river. The Xiling Gorge ends to the east at Nanjin Pass in Yichang, and this area is also where the mountains of western Hubei give way to the Jianghan Plain.⁵

For this view, try turning the scene along the direction of the river: how the mountains on both banks rise and fall, how the channel bends, and how the space gradually opens up.

A flat outline is not enough to convey the feeling of a gorge. Change the angle and take the height into account, and it becomes much more intuitive.

It can rain, and it can turn to night

Besides switching cities, I really want people to try the weather and time controls.

You can look at the same landscape by day or switch it to night. If you want a change of atmosphere, let it rain on the scene.

When it rains, you can also turn on background music.

While coding, reading or tidying up, you can treat it like white noise, a quiet backdrop. Glance up now and then, and there is a landscape on your screen.

Sometimes you do not need to study any terrain at all. Pick a city you like, switch to rain, put on a little music, and just sit quietly for a while. That is nice too.

Before you travel, look from another angle

Another feature worth trying is switching between viewpoints.

Pull back to see the overall layout. Turn to another direction to see how the mountains and water sit in front of and behind each other. After looking from above, tilt the view to see the relief, and the same place takes on different shapes.

Say you are about to visit a city. Before you leave, take a look: which side of the mountains is your destination on? Which river is it next to? How does the terrain change as you walk away from the lake?

Once you arrive, compare the scenery in front of you with the landscape you saw earlier. A name on a map slowly connects with real directions, distances and relief.

Besides knowing which places are worth visiting, look at why they came to look the way they do.

It is good for building an overall impression of the landscape. For actual routes, rely on maps and what you find on the ground.

We may know a city's streets well and still never have really looked at the landscape it sits in.

Come and take a look around when you have time.

Or pick a city you like, and let it rain.

Website: shanshui.pomodiary.com

National Forestry and Grassland Administration (in Chinese): https://www.forestry.gov.cn/lyj/1/mtbd/20260203/659179.html ↩
Wikipedia, "Dali Town" (in Chinese), citing the Dali City Yearbook 2021 and other local records: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E7%90%86%E9%95%87 ↩
Nanjing Municipal People's Government, natural conditions and scenic areas (in Chinese): https://www.nanjing.gov.cn/zgnjsjb/csgk/202509/t20250919_5653088.html ↩
Wuhan Water Authority (in Chinese): https://swj.wuhan.gov.cn/mlsw/ ↩
Yichang Municipal People's Government, Xiling Gorge scenic area and Yiling (in Chinese): https://www.yichang.gov.cn/content-56330-999522-1.html ↩