A mountain forest in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has been ablaze for nearly 20 hours and at least 100 forestry workers are still working all-out Tuesday to extinguish the fire.

The fire started in the weeds and bushes near the Huangfu Valley in the renowned Mount Hua at 1:30 p.m. Monday, a clerk with the mountain's management committee told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

She said the committee and the local government sent a fire fighting team to the site shortly after smokes and flames were detected.

"But it was impossible to put out the fire right away because the place was extremely steep," the clerk said on condition of anonymity.

A second team was sent to the fire site at 5 a.m. Tuesday, she said. "Until now, I can still see thick smokes through the windows of my office."

She said no casualties had been reported so far and the cause of the fire was being investigated.

Mount Hua, in the Qinling Mountain Range, is about 100 kilometers east of Xi'an, the provincial capital. It is one of China's five renowned Taoist mountains and has several influential Taoist temples.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2008)