Huangshan

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We arrived in Tunxi via a 3 hour bus ride from Hangzhou, a bunch of non-cabby cabbies were waiting at our arrival looking to score some customers. Like usual we ignored all of them, grabbed our bags, and kept walking. We went to the front entrance of the bus station and saw a row of cabs with their drivers hanging outside of their cars. One guy on his phone, away from his car, stops and asks us if we need a cab, we showed him where we needed to go, he quoted us a price and we were off..... to a parking lot with a non-cabby cabby! Dammit. We laughed and hopped in anyways, so much for our tried and true methods.

Non-cabby cabby is talking to us in Mandarin the whole time and we have no idea what he is saying, we can tell he is talking about Huangshan mountain. Suddenly he pulls over and starts pulling money out of his wallet and talking louder instead of slower to us.... we look at each other.... huh?! What do you want?! Then we figure it out, he is trying to take us to the mountain tomorrow for 180 RMB- we tell him, no we will take the bus. He starts driving again but is still talking away. Finally we arrive at our hotel and he says to us in Chinese "tomorrow, 8:00am, 160RMB, Huangshan", we are trying to be polite about taking the bus but this guy won't give up. We pay our fare and grab our bags.

The hotel we booked was farther out of town then anticipated but we had a huge suite and the breakfast included was great with fresh steamed buns, egg station, and noodle station, along with regular Chinese food buffet. We decided to go for a walk along the river that night thinking this place was a ghost city. Saw some old ladies dancing in a square again, love that... little did we know that 2 blocks over was a busy thriving city. I hadn't read much in terms of things to do in Tunxi but after seeing the busy city center, I'm sure we could have found a lot more to do. We stopped in at a bakery and a supermarket to grab food for the hike the next day and headed back to our hotel for the night.

The next morning we grabbed an actual cabby to head back to the bus station (for half the cost too, of course!). We were a little confused as we didn't have to buy tickets beforehand and people just kept sending us to a gate and onto a bus and not selling us tickets. We got on a random van bus and sat down asking the guy in the front passenger seat, "Tangkou ma?", He replied with a nod "Tangkou" and some other words so we were pretty sure that we were heading in the right direction. When the bus was full, the driver pulled away and a lady came around collecting the fare for the ride.

Tangkou was about an hour away and we kind of assumed that we would be stopping at a bus station... everyone got out and we had no idea where we were... a bunch of people crowded around a big hiking map on the outside of a building and so we looked around to see if that was the place to buy tickets to the next stop... nope. The guy from the passenger seat earlier noticed that we were looking a bit lost and tells us in Chinese that we need to eat now. We were stuffed from breakfast already but this guy insisted - you must eat, very expensive on the mountain -he kept saying. We figured this guy was definitely hiking too as he and his crew all had big packs on and hiking clothes, so we followed them into a restaurant and actually had some of the best and cheapest Chinese food since our arrival. Afterwards, we used our translator app to ask him if he was climbing the mountain and then told him that we were going to follow them there. Of course, the next bus station was just right beside where our bus stopped but we wouldn't have known that unless we had walked around first.

The guys we were following were a group of Korean men but they could read Chinese and their leader spoke Mandarin as well. They seemed happy to have us come along and shook our hands with big smiles. They helped us buy tickets and showed us on the map where we were going to go. We didn't have an exact route planned out anyways so we were happy to go along with the plan. We got distracted by a guy from Toronto who did have a plan but couldn't read or speak either, he was pumped to hear anyone speak English and started asking us a million questions but all we could say was that we were following these guys who clearly knew what they were doing and hopped on our bus after our new friends. They even saved us two seats! Best.

Our group was taking the Yungu cable car up the mountain, we came at a perfect time and scored a gondola to ourselves, well almost to ourselves- there was also a giant gourd with some Chinese writing on it. Once everyone had arrived to the top, our leader started the way. Off we went exploring a couple of peaks, taking pictures, and having fun with our new friends. They would call for us from afar, "My friend! My friend!" and when we would get to them, it would be for us to take their picture and then they would in turn take ours too. It was super entertaining. A couple of the guys in the group started talking English to us which was awesome, they were asking if we were a couple and when we told them that we were married they would say funny things every time they took our pictures, "Beautiful couple, love, closer, so good". On our way to Lover's Pine, the one guy held up one finger and looked at Binnson, "you one pine", then on another hand he held up one finger and looked at me, "you one pine", then he smashed the two fingers together, "Lovers pine". The men told us they had sons and daughters who were between 30-34, married and unmarried, some had grandchildren, I think they felt like they were on a trip with their new son, Binnson. It was so much fun that we were sad to depart to check into our separate hotels.

After we settled in, we went exploring on our own for a bit. We wanted to get a couple of pictures of sunset and started climbing up one of the peaks that was recommended for a good view. Unfortunately, this wasn't a secret peak and there were a ton of people with serious camera set ups ready before we got there. Once the sun was down, it got cold fast! We started back to our hotel for dinner and called it an early night. We woke up bright and early the next day and headed for our sunrise peak that the map indicated was 1 km away. Little did we know that would be 1 km upwards... nice early morning work out! Again, it was jam packed for sunrise but it was a beautiful scene with the cloud floor covering one of the valleys. We returned back to our hotel to have a quick nap and eat breakfast before checking out and starting the Xi Hai Grand Canyon loop. Tour groups gathered early in the morning and the mountain was packed with people on the tight trails and stairways. Every twist and turn offered a new stunning view that no photograph can completely capture.

We hiked for hours before deciding to descend the mountain, there was a couple of path closures and we ended up missing the section that we had planned to descend on by about 5kms... We thought about going back as we did want to see that scenery on the way down but we had already hiked so far that day that it was time to just head down the closest route. Catching the buses back to Tunxi was no problem at all, everything was waiting for us at the bottom of the mountain. We arrived back fairly late in the evening, originally we had planned to head to Tunxi Old Street but after taking showers and resting for a bit, we decided that we were done with walking!

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Photos

Huangshan

Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Huangshan
Definitely a tick on your wish list to visit China's holiest mountain. Looks like you had great weather. Interesting way you got there and about. Isn't it a surprise how extensive the mountain area is?

[Binns and Cheryl]

Absolutely, if we had the time we could have definitely spent an extra day up there. Couldn't have asked for better weather, clear skies and sunshine! Our bags were filled with rain gear as you never know in the mountains but we were very happy that we never had to use it.

[taracloud]

Oh, your relaxed heart!
Love this sign, your hiking adventures and the great group of Korean trekkers that ushered you along and gushed over you at the Lover's Pine. How great that you're sharing a part of China that few encounter!

[Binns and Cheryl]

Thanks! There were so many of these cute signs with great little sayings on them. Glad you enjoyed our blog entry :-)

[D MJ Binkley]

china
Really enjoying following along.