Woman climbs mountain, spends 2 months painting picture of man she loved

Several days ago, a group of backpackers found a
portrait of a man painted on the side of a cliff in
the city of Taizhou, Zhejiang province, China.

It was later revealed that the portrait was painted
by a 37-year-old woman in order to profess her
love to a man.
The portrait would likely have been discovered
sooner were it not for the fact that the 218-meter-
high cliff wall where the portrait was painted was
off main routine path.

The portrait is 6 to 7 meters
high,
with the subject's expression vividly depicted. All
clues pointed to the work being done by a skilled
painter.

According to a man surnamed Wang, a member of
the local rock-climbing club, the portrait was
painted by a climber named Lingling.

After falling in love with a fellow club member
named Chen Geng, Lingling decided to paint
Chen's portrait on the mountain cliff to show her
love.

Lingling came to the mountain every weekend and
worked on her masterpiece after spending several
hours climbing to its site. In order to save time,
she lived on the mountain during weekends.

It took Lingling two months to complete the
portrait. She used mineral pigment so that the
painting would be preserved for a long time. Wang
said it was not right to paint on a tourist site, but
that Lingling's love for Chen is true.
The People's Daily China reports that after her
painting was discovered by the local tourism
department, Lingling promised to remove the
portrait soon.