The Jinji Mountain in Qingtian county – administered by Lishui city in East China's Zhejiang province – with its magnificent formations of clouds has been ranked as one of the dozen top weather and climate scenic spots in the country by the China Meteorological Service Association.

Jinji Mountain, with a main peak of 1,321 meters above sea level, is the southern branch of the Donggong Mountain Range.

Wu Yue, an official at the Qingtian county meteorological bureau, said that on clear nights in winter and spring, the near-surface temperature of Jinji Mountain drops to amazing levels.

That leads to water vapor condensing into liquid fog droplets that are suspended in the air, forming a large and stable formation of cloud.

In addition, factors such as terrain uplift and local disturbance also have an impact on the extraordinary buildup of cloud.

"The Jinji Mountain cloud sea mostly appears from March to June and from November to January in the following year, with the best viewing times being in the mornings and evenings," Wu said.

In recent years, Lishui has been mapping out its meteorological resources. It compiled the Mountain Cloud Sea Landscape Classification Standard which it issued in March 2022.

At the same time, Lishui has launched a meteorological landscape and phenological index for its forecasting services.

It has issued five versions of meteorological landscape viewing index forecast products – including cloud watching, stargazing and moon watching products.

It has also issued 10 types of phenological landscape viewing index forecast services for azaleas, peach blossoms, fireflies and maple leaves, among others.