Total Miles Traveled: 39,098
Huangshan (“Yellow Mountain”) is said by some to be the most beautiful mountain in China and where some scenes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were filmed. It is also likely one of the most visited national parks in China – there was no shortage of tour groups with guides screaming in to their megaphones or tourists clamoring to get the perfect photo. But we didn’t let that spoil the fun! The scenery more than makes up for any inconveniences.
Simply dodge the tourists, stay ahead of the tour groups, and you’ll find quiet little spots where you can enjoy the scenery.
The great thing about the park is that there are a few hotels at the summit so that you can stay overnight and see the sunset and sunrise. It’s these two events that many come to see, because you can see a “sea of clouds” against the mountains or as many would say, a real life Chinese painting.
What you soon realize though is that all the food, water, beer, etc. is hand carried up the mountain by porters and not via the gondolas we rode up on. That’s a 4-hour minimum uphill climb! It makes you appreciate all of the food and drink you have, and the hefty price you pay to stay up on the mountain doesn’t seem so bad after all.
Then, you begin to wonder, how did they build all of the hotels? Well, by hand of course. We came across these workers, about a dozen of them, carrying a huge steel beam in to a new construction site.
They were struggling pretty hard, so much so you wonder if they actually brought all of these up the mountain. I’d hope they were brought in by helicopter… So… the next time you think your job sucks? Well, maybe it doesn’t suck so much.
The park is rather large and one can spend several days climbing up, down, and around the mountaintops.
We didn’t hike the “West Canyon” route (8 hours)although that was rumored to have some of the most dramatic scenery. I attempted it for about 15 minutes and realized the steps just kept going down, down, down, which meant a lot of up, up, up. And not only that, the steps… they were STEEP!
See what I mean? And the guardrails? Well they weren’t so high in some points.
One of the things people do on the mountain is to put a lock on the guardrail at the Cloud Dispersing Pavilion. Neat to see the old rusted locks against newly purchased ones.
After braving the chilly winds waiting for the sunset, we finally saw the light fade:
Then, at 6am the next morning, we woke up to see the sunrise.
You may ask, was it worth it? Definitely. The whole experience is a must do. The scenery really is gorgeous and breathtaking. If you’re wondering about the sunset vs. the sunrise? Definitely the sunset. The sunrise was OK, but we would have rather slept in. 😉
On our way down the mountain, we saw a fun sign:
And a peculiar table setting wrapped in plastic:
At least you know it’s clean!
Next, we head to the nearby village of Hongcun, a UNESCO heritage site. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here’s a slideshow of all of our photos from Huangshan. Be forewarned, there are many!
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157625368069776″]