But far from being a serene backdrop to peaceful village life, the Tian Shan (Mandarin for "celestial mountains") in this part of Kyrgyzstan are at the centre of one of the region's most ambitious and controversial mining projects and a long-running and increasingly tense conflict with communities nearby.
Seen from the base of the soaring 1969 television tower, for example, its reflective glass facade is a serene backdrop to the emptiness of Marx-Engels Platz.
Nearby, the white-shingled one- and two-family houses and the tidy streets of Throgs Neck provide a serene backdrop to the windswept waters of Eastchester Bay.
Held at the Gateway Plaza, Aldrich Park served as a serene backdrop to the memorial service while Hoke's 5-year-old cousin, clad in a green floral dress, handed out sunflowers to everyone present.
They are set against a serene backdrop based on an 18th-century Chinese painting by Ba Dan San Ren.
With each day that slips by before an end-of-March deadline for a framework agreement, the political temperature rises against the serene backdrop of the snow-capped Swiss Alps.
With the sea, the sand, and the sky as his serene backdrop, he levitates a stick, eclipses his shadow with his open palms, and shrinks a sand dollar.
I needed to furnish it (a teak daybed came to the rescue) and turn the rest of the landscape into a serene, calming backdrop.
Yet the serene backdrop was not matched by the mood of the room.
If you left your swimsuit behind, you can stay dry on the viewing platform and still absorb the serene landscape — a perfect backdrop for envy-inducing vacation photos!
AMY McDONALD is a serene advertisement for rejuvenation and purification.
