Misty Mountain Hop

We just made it back from Huangshan, an amazing mountain peak located in Anhui province in east central China. We had never heard of the place before coming here, but along our journey had heard so many people talking it up that we were ripe to go. There's no rail connecting Wuhan (where we were last staying) to Huangshan so we had to bus 4 hrs to Jinliang, 3 hrs. to Jingdezhen, train 3 hrs to Tunxi, and minibus an hour to Tangkou. A lot of work to get here, but it was well worth it. Chinese poets and painters throughout centuries have found inspiration in these mountains, and emperors have praised the site to the heavens. And if that don't convince you, parts of that ky-rah-TAY flick about them Crouching Tiger Dragons was filmed here.

We followed our guidebook (we wouldn't know how to shit without it) to take the popular Eastern Steps up. It's a pretty strenous climb. 6.5 km just to the base summit, where you can then choose to continue up several of the 72 peaks in the region-- a handful of which are scalable depending on whether or not the government sanctioned a paved route there. You're only allowed to hike on the paved pathways and staircases which sounds easy but the steps make you actually lift your knees vs. just lazily shuffling along. And they're a bastard coming down-- you'd think going downhill would be cake but when you're pounding you're feet on 2000 concrete steps (guessing), the old hips and knees start to Gumbify. It took us only an hour and a half to climb but 2 hours to descend.

But, it's really not any heroic feat. Tour groups climb this thing-- OLD folks tour groups...like slooooooow 75 year old guys who take 5 seconds to blink. And when you get stuck behind 30 of these guys (and gals) plodding up the narrow stairs you get even more worn out just waiting for them. But these guys are doing it cuz it probably tops the Chinese list of to-do's before buying the farm. There's an option to take a cable car, but it costs 65 yuan (=$8) each way, which is pretty pricey when compared to standard costs in China. So we huffed it. Besides, it's a mountain-- you appreciate the summit view more when you actually work for it.

So it was quite a bit of work. Being that we've been in a relationship for 5 years, neither of us are in much shape anymore so we had to break at least 9 or 10 times. But the most demoralizing thing was watching workers glide past us, both up and down, with staggering loads on their backs. There aren't any roads for vehicles up to the top, but there are plenty of hotels and restaurants for all the tourists. So they need to get the equipment and foodstock up there somehow. And for some reason they don't use the cable car to transport the goods as I believe that would take seats away from paying tourists. (don't ask me why they don't transport with the cable cars at night.) But they carry everything-- melons, pounds of fish, hotel linens, construction equipment-- and tons of it. I would guess each guy had a load of about 40-50 lbs, which had to have been 1/3 of their own bodyweight as they couldn't have weighed any more than 130 (60 of it being calve muscle). One maniac bastard was carrying a twin bed mattress WITH boxspring on his back! Again this is a 2 hour trip up a mountain! (CORRECT THAT-- 2 hours when you're carrying chapstick).

Anyway, the first night, after our 2 hour ascent we checked-in and immediately headed to a vista that was recommended by our hotel to watch the sunset-- Cloud-Dispelling Pavilion. It was supposed to be a clear view and free of tourists, but word must have caught on quickly as we had to fight for shoulder space on the small lookout point. Unfortunately, it wasn't the clearest view either as a huge crag blocked out the sun about 15 degrees before it hit horizon. But it was still a gorgeous scene. We had dinner which was expensive (again, no roads so you're paying mostly for the "import" tax) and went to bed early as we had to wake up at 4:30 to start our hike to catch the sunrise. Early as hell, but even if you didn't want to be bothered with the early morning business, you'd still have to wake up at 4:30 as EVERYONE there aims to see the sunrise and so the stampede will wake you anyway.

But this was well worth it. We were the first to arrive at Purple Cloud Peak at 5:30 for the 6:11 sunrise. Around 5:50 the platform was packed, but not as annoyingly as the night before. The pictures will go up, as I won't even attempt to describe it-- I'm just not that poetic (though pictures never really do justice either do they?) After the sun came up and the audience clapping died down (seriously, they clapped), we started our day and took on 2 more hikes. One up to the Rock That Flew from Afar (hour and a half) and one through a new 4 hr. route in the Xihai section called the Grand Canyon of the West Sea. The route was completed in 2001 but wasn't on the map yet (you'd think that if they could spend 7 years and millions of dollars constructing the trail, they could afford to reprint a new map of the park).

But the maps were crap anyway. For a mountain range, you'd think they'd have a decent topo version since elevation plays a key role. But the Official Tourist maps they gave out were one of those glossy amusement park layouts with comical mountain sketches and tri-color shading, bearing distance indications only. It was quite annoying as we didn't realize what kind of up-and-down we had to deal with when we started the western route. Several of the peaks are 1000m in elevation and we had to climb all the way down and back up, and half way down and back up again. Whereas on the map, it simply said 8km hike. And it was treacherous too. There's one section where you have to heel-toe across this 3-ft wide pathway running along the side of a 1500-ft cliff. If I'm going to plummet a quarter-mile to my death, I would like to know that I at least was equipped with the most up-to-date danger advisories, rather than fall off clutching this focking Cap'n Crunch kid's treasure map, b/c what I thought was a suspension bridge was really just the cart(toon)ographer's penchant for drawing smiley faces on inanimate objects.

But we made it through in the end, Gumby legs, soiled pants and all. I would say it has got to be the most impressive site we've seen in China so far. It may not be fair to compare sheer natural beauty with manmade city skylines or worn out ancient temples, but as far as arriving at a place and just having your jaw drop in every direction you look, Huangshan tops the list.

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