Yellow Mountain Fever

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Déjà Vu

It wasn’t until this trip was well under way that I realized my sneezing was not from allergies, but from a cold that was spreading around the Shanghai Summer Program students. The worst of it hit me on the mountain, making the climb extremely uncomfortable. I tackled Philmont with mononucleosis, though, so I wasn’t going to let a cold hold me back.

Getting There

The bus trip went by pretty fast since I slept through most of it. I was awake for the last hour or so, so I got to see some of the sights along the way. I noticed several small villages surrounded by rice fields. The land was very uneven, but that didn’t stop these people from planting rice on every possible spot that they could flatten. I wish the bus had stopped so we could get out and take a few pictures.

In Chinese, Yellow Mountain is Huangshan and it is located near a city with the same name. We stopped there for lunch and met up with our tour guide. Initially we were going to go with a non-English speaker to save money. Alex, the student who organized the trip, is fluent in Chinese so he could translate for us, but the Chinese tour guide insisted that we change to an English speaker for an extra 100 yuan per person. We bargained her down to 50 yuan and that’s when we met Cliff. Yes, he is a mountain tour guide and his name is Cliff.



For an English speaking tour guide, his English was pretty awful. In fact, for the entire first day a bunch of us thought his name was Cleave. He was a nice guy, but it seemed like for half of the price we only got half of the English. We could have understood him if we all sat close and paid attention, but he was difficult to hear so we let Alex translate his English anyway.

On our way to the base of the mountain, Cliff informed us that he would be taking the cable car half way up. That seemed pretty bad at first, but there was only one way to go during that first half and not much to see that would require a guide. The trails are all paved and the climb consists entirely of walking up stairs. It takes away from some of the adventure, but that doesn't mean it is easy. There are thousands of steps to the top and they are often steep, so it can be quite a workout!



The first shot is of the group taking the first few steps of our journey. The second is one of the peaks at the top of the Yellow Mountains. Beyond the cable car station is a fairly confusing network of trails that lead to different peaks, each with an amazing view. That is the part for which I am glad to have had a guide.



After we made it to the cable car station we started to see these locks everywhere. Apparently couples bring them to the top of the mountain to "lock it up," tossing the key over the edge afterwards. How romantic!

We were only able to visit one peak on the first day since the sun was getting ready to set. I wanted to get some sunset pictures, but the fog prevented us from seeing the sun. I was still able to get a couple of nice shots, though.



After taking in the view we made our way to the hostel for dinner and rest. There are about eight hotels/hostels in the mountains. Staying there is a must, since it takes a few hours just to get to the first peak and then several more to see the rest and come down. I wanted to take some night pictures, but I only got one decent shot of the hotel next to our hostel.



We woke up at 4:00 AM the next morning to see the sunrise from one of the peaks. The sun played a trick on us, though, and decided to hide behind fog until it had risen well above the mountains. It was still a beautiful sight and an excellent opportunity for picture taking.



The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon was spent visiting some of the peaks and climbing down. We were able to visit some of the more popular areas, including Lotus Peak and Bright Summit, the highest point in the Yellow Mountains.



It wasn't always a peaceful, lonely hike. There were several areas packed with tour groups, and sometimes we had to stop and wait for people to walk past. While walking we got to see first hand how all of these trails, hotels, and shops are maintained:



These guys were everywhere, carrying anything from garbage to cinder blocks. We even saw a line of workers carrying mattresses on their backs. The whole time I was wondering how we would do something like this in the United States, where the cost of labor is much higher and many people refuse to take jobs like this.

Eventually we made it to the bottom, where I took another look at where we had been and a shot of our victorious hiking party.

Tea Trap

No Chinese tour would be complete without a visit to a couple of tourist traps. The first was a tea house where we sampled several teas grown on the Yellow Mountains.



The lady who made our tea put on a very good show, so we actually enjoyed this stop. Later on, however, we found the exact same tea she was selling in several different stores for a fraction of the price. In the end the difference only amounts to a few USD, so those who bought tea at the tea house didn't feel too bad.



After the tea house we went to a pearl store. This place wasn't impressive at all. The owner tried to convince us that we were getting the "special student rate" of 70%!o(MISSING)ff regular price, but nobody fell for his shenanigans. It didn't help that one of the products being sold was some kind of pearl cream with sheep placenta...



Our last stop was an old street in town lined with several souvenir shops. There wasn't much to buy in the stores, but the street did look pretty cool.

Leaving Early

We were supposed to spend one more night in town and visit some kind of grotto the next day. Nikhail and I talked it over and decided rather spontaneously that we might be better off getting home earlier to finish up some work and we were able to catch the last train to Shanghai. Before we left Nikhail found a hotel near "downtown" Huangshan with an open roof for picture taking.



The train ride was 14 hours, more than twice the duration of the bus ride due to the number of stops along the way. We rode in a sleeper car, a new experience for me, and managed to get home in time to work out and start our thermodynamics homework. I definitely missed being on the Yellow Mountains once I got back. I had a great time hiking and I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys nature and the outdoors.

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