When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination.
Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge.
“It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said. “The puppy’s posture is like it’s drinking water, or it’s looking at some fish. It also looks like it’s quietly protecting the Yangtze River.”
Photo: AP
Guo’s post on Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, received 120,000 likes within 10 days. On the Sina Weibo media platform, the hashtag #xiaogoushan (小狗山) — Chinese for “Puppy Mountain” — drew millions of views.
Dog owners started to post pictures of their dogs to see which one had the closest resemblance. Many people traveled directly to the location in Yichang to see the mountain for themselves and some even brought their dogs to take photos.
“Puppy Mountain here I am!” one social media user wrote on RedNote along with photos of the mountain. “Just stroke the puppy’s head and then everything will be OK.”
Another social media user commented: “We all need the eyes to see the beauty in this world.”
Yang Yang, who lives about an hour and a half from the location, drove there with her friends and her two-year-old gray poodle named Yang Keyi.
“I was really happy to see the mountain,” she said. “I always travel with my dog if possible, so Puppy Mountain and my own little dog really match.”
The mountain is in Yichang’s Zigui County, where it can be seen from an observation deck.
After Guo’s photo went viral, many people shared photos of the view they previously had taken from the same deck, many saying they had not realized it looked like a dog. Some discussed how the dog’s appearance has changed over the years.
Yichang resident Shi Tong said he knew he had seen the mountain before, and posted a photo he took of the location in 2021.
“After I saw the Puppy Mountain photo online, I tried to look up where it is, and then I realized that I have been to this place before. I thought it looked like a dog at that time, too,” Shi said.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US