Yellow Mountain

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Last weekend Spicy Horse (the company that Paul's working for) had a company trip to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in Anhui province, south east of Shanghai. Apparently it's the most famous mountain in China.
All 40+ of us piled onto the coach at 4pm on Friday. We stopped off at the most famous restaurant in Hangzhou for dinner. I skipped on the duck tongues. This was my first introduction to 'bai jiu', chinese 'wine', or more accurately, moonshine. The most foul liquid I have ever smelt or tasted. And it repeats on you, mmm, the gift that keeps on giving...

We eventually arrived at our hotel at the bottom of Huangshan at 1am. Up again for breakfast at 8am ready for a day of hiking. The plan was to get the cablecar to the midpoint and then hike to the top. However there was a 3 hour wait for the cablecar, so we decided to hike all the way up. 6 hours of climbing incredibly steep steps! The weather was fantastic, not a cloud in the sky and the views were incredible. The first part of the hike was strenuous but fairly uncrowded. However once we got to the cablecar station midway that soon changed. The second part of the hike was strenuous, crowded, very jostly and, at times, unsafe! Crowds of pointy elbows are not what you need when facing a sheer drop. Not being the best with heights, I missed some of the most amazing views as I was concentrating on staying on the path and clinging to the mountain face.

Whenever you started to flag you just took a look at the porters carrying the heaviest loads up the mountain to the hotels. Then you didn't feel so bad! Surely they could stick some stuff in the cable cars? There was some speculation over dinner that night that they are doing community service to shorten a prison sentence. Not sure if this is true?!

Once at the top, 1860 metres, it was just an hour's queue for the cablecar down to the hotel. I wasn't particularly looking forward to this. Especially as each cablecar held 50 people, mostly standing room. It was like the metro at rush hour except in mid air. As soon as the doors opened they all ran into the car to try and grab the seats by the edge. Again, jostling at extreme heights is not good. Well, I made it back down the mountain in one piece and have come some way to overcoming my fear of heights!
That night we stayed in the coldest hotel I have ever experienced. We all wore our coats for dinner in the freezing cold hotel restaurant. Afterwards a few of us had a foot massage. I was just in it for the hot tea you soaked your feet in. It was quite a funny sight, 8 of us all lined up in our armchairs with trouser legs rolled up. Unfortunately for Paul, he got the hardcore masseur and had an hour of pain. But his legs didn't hurt the next day so it did the trick.

On the way back on Sunday we visited 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' land. Emerald Valley and HongCun village were where it was filmed. Emerald Valley is a beautiful place with clear green pools and rock formations. HongCun village is a beautiful old Chinese village, apparently in the shape of a resting cow and is famous for its water supply system.

It was a great weekend and a much appreciated change from the city, fresh air for a weekend!

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