Huangshan -- The Yellow Mountain

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August 4th 2008

Published: August 6th 2008

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Sunrise at Huangshan

Prologue:

Huangshan is in Anhui province. It's very accessible by buses, trains and private vehicles these days. James and I always have fond memory of it since we both visited it in our college years. This is one of the most amazing mountain in China if you ask me. So many other mountains are associated with religious activities, but this one is not. Huangshan is famous for three wonders:
1. Huangshan Pines
They grow out of the granites on the cliffs, as if they don't need anything else, and looking absolutely elegant and breathtaking
2. Rocks and Peaks on Huangshan
Many of them took the form of people, animals, or something you can relate to in the everyday life. It doesn¡¯t take much imagination to figure out what they look like
3. The Fog
It comes and goes so unpredictably, and gives every scene a very different perspective

Our journey started in Shanghai. We drove from Shanghai to City of Huangshan on the same day. The road condition was excellent, no traffic at all. Considering how much we paid for the tolls all the way there, I had to say that I was expecting nothing less. We arrived at

宏村

the city of Huangshan early in the afternoon, planning to meet another friend's family who arrived by train earlier on. By the time we checked into our hotel, they had left for this little village call Hong Cun (ºê´å), which at first I thought was just another one of those man-made sceneries for tourists. But James insisted in going. So after the usual lost and found for a couple of times, and taking just a few detours, which is the typical Jame¡¯s driving style in a not-so-familiar place, we arrived at this typical Anhui (°²»Õ)village sitting peacefully on the water. It turned out to be such a lovely surprise especially since James is a fanatic for photography. If you don't believe me, see the pictures for yourself. All I can say is that this village seems to be walking straight out of a black-and-white Chinese water color painting if you know what I mean. There are people actually living in there, not just posing for the tourists. It was overcastted that afternoon, the looming clouds and distant thunders added drama to the tranquility of this little village. Time seems to be standing still here. If you are on your way

石笋峰

Stalagmite Peak

to Huangshan, you have to stop by this little village.

The next morning, we drove to the entrance, and started our hikes up. Oh, forgot to mention, when we left from Shanghai, we decided that although there are three cable lifts available at Huangshan now, two from the front, one at the back, we will do it the old fashion way. We will hike all the way to the top, Beihai£¨±±º££©, where we would stay for the night. Half way through our hike, we met up with our friend¡¯s family at Jade Screen Station ÓñÆÁÂ¥, who just took the cable up. Turned out they spent whole two hours waiting in line just to get up. Here people lined up to have their pictures taken with the Welcoming Guest Pine (Ó¿ÍËÉ)£¬this is probably the most famous pine tree in China. After that, we passed the Yixiantian (Ò»ÏßÌì), where you have to squeeze between two cliffs and still going up, and 100 steps in the cloud (°Ù²½ÔÆÌÝ), Turtle peak £¨÷¡Óã±³£©, Lotus peak £¨Á«»¨·å£©£¬Brightness top (¹âÃ÷¶¥)¡

We arrived at our hotel in Beihai at 3:30pm. Absolutely exhausted. That night, we had a stunning view of the sunset right on the hotel

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patio. Early next morning, James rose at 4:00am trying to catch the sunrise. I tried that 20 years ago, and it turned out to be a very cloudy day. But he had better luck this time. This has been a perfect trip for us.

Disclosure: All the English translation of the sceneries are quoted from Tourist Map of Huangshan. That's why I try to keep the original Chinese names so if you happen to know Chinese, please don't blame me for some of the terrible translations @😊.

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