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Western Trail
View from the bottom I had been looking forward to visiting Huangshan (otherwise known as yellow mountains) for a long time - ever since we moved to Shanghai and the previous tennents of our flat told us about them (and we then subsequently googled them!).
The easiest way to get there is by bus so Emily, Alex, Sam and I set off on the 5-6 hr journey late in the morning with the plan to arrive there and climb up the mountain in the early evening to stay up there overnight.
The bus ride was interesting as you got closer to Huangshan you were driving down a neat little valley surrounded by hills and rice paddys. The hills and paddys are incredibly well maintained (like most gardens are across China) and covered in yellow flowers - I thought that this was undoubtedly the reason for the name of the mountains but I think I am wrong!
We arrived later than expected into a town called Tangkou right beside the mountains (we almost got off the bus way before this town but thanks to a Chinese girl on the bus who spoke ok English we didnt). Strangely the bus stopped at a hotel
Western trail
On the trail going up rather than the bus stop, even more strangely a local man called Mr Cheng (or Simon as his English name) mysteriously appeared and negotiated us a 'great deal' on the hotel room as at this point (4.30pm) apparently the mountain was closed.
The whole thing was weird and, having experienced situations like this before, I felt something dodgy was going on so made up an excuse to get us out the hotel.
Outside we bumped into some fellow Westerners ('Lao Wei' in Chinese) and asked them if they knew about the mountain being closed. Mr Cheng overhears this and amazingly (!) it turns out the mountain was in fact open and he is the very man to sort us out with accommodation!
Given his earlier lies we should have just left it at this, but the price he quoted us for accommodation was really good and something we (as Lao Wei (which probably translates as 'cash machines' 😉)with little mandarin knowledge) wouldve struggled to negotiate.
So we booked our room through him in a hotel he told us was 2-2.5hrs up the mountain, he gave us a lift to the bottom and we began our climb.
Jade Peak
Em and I at the peak as it starts to get dark Climbing up the mountain isnt easy, you are talking about thousands of stairs, but I think the amazing scenery you are surrounded by makes up for it.
After 2.5hrs of climbing the western path, seeing some amazing peaks and spikes along the way, it was dark and we hit the Jade Peak Hotel. They said it was another hour to the hotel we had booked so we decided to stay there instead. Unfortunately Mr Cheng would charge us a 'cancellation fee' (he made this up) so we would lose some money but as long as we booked the extremely busy (must be booked in advance) bus back to Shanghai with him then we would not lose the whole amount - as this seemed the best option to get our money back I did this. Sadly we would not see our money again as this guy was a lier and scammer.
The other unfortunate point was that we only just caught the hotel shop before it shut and it had nothing but snack foods, so we munched down on a dinner of biscuits and crisps - sadly not for the first time that day either!
Alex and
I stayed in the all male dorm room where we were treated by what can only be desribed as an orchestra of Chinese men snoring and snorting for most of the night. So not the best nights stay Ive ever had!
Of course there was also no breakfast in the morning so we left hungry too, but we didnt let all this get us down and set off in good spirits.
The lack of food and sleep isnt the best way to prepare for climbing the tallest peak in the whole range, but this is precisely what we did after leaving the hotel, reaching the Lotus Peak after around 30 minutes of climbing some large, narrow and slightly dangerous paths.
After all this endeavour and effort we were thoroughly rewarded by an amazing view of... fog. Yes, we could barely see 20 yards in front of us. We could see some fog covered peaks that were cool, but it turned out that we didnt choose the best day for climbing as the top of the mountain was completely clouded in fog.
After Lotus Peak and some more of the trail we finally made it to the
Walkways
View of the foggy, windy and slightly dangerous pathways up the mountain hotel we were supposed to stay at. We decided to take the hotel buffet, which I must say was one of the most well deserved buffet meals we are likely to ever eat.
We literally stayed at the buffet until they shut it and kicked us out, before we set off to see some more peaks. The original plan was to do a circuit known as the canyon, before heading down the eastern peak. However, with all that had happened and the fact we couldnt see much we decided instead to just take in the peaks that were on the way to the eastern trail instead.
After the Bright Top and White Goose peaks (both nice, but too foggy!) we started our descent down where we were then hit by torrential rain accompanied by some lightning and thunder.
It would seem that a lot went wrong on this trip and we could have felt sorry for ourselves. However, firstly, the scenery and trip was still fun. In particular near the bottom of the eastern route was a stunning stretch of granite rocks in the mountain - it was impossble not to look at it in awe even
Lotus Peak
4 of us at the foggy peak as you were being soaked by the storm. Secondly, on the way down we came across a bunch of guys who have it considerably worse than we do:
Basically, the hotels up the mountain use manual labour to transport their goods up (instead of the cable car). So we saw many Chinese men carrying obscene loads up the steps (tied to a either side of a stick which they carried on their shoulders) - for example 6 crates of water (3 on each side) would be a normal load. And of course, they have to carry these up the thousands of steps every day, even during this storm. It is probably the closest thing to slave labour I have ever seen in my life. Passing all these guys really puts it into perspective how 'hard' things are for you.
Nonetheless, we were relieved to get to the bottom and start to dry off. There was still time for some fun and games with Mr Cheng though!
As we had arrived down earlier than expected we called him to change our bus time and he said there would be another 'cancellation fee'. Luckily this time we hadnt paid
any money to him so we basically told him to get lost. Alex was determined to get our money back so tried to run to his place before our bus left, but he didnt make it in time. The moral of the story is if you are reading this and travelling to Huangshan, Mr Simon Cheng appears very friendly but in fact is a lier and scammer who will steal your money.
On the bus back (which was amazingly (!) half empty not full as Mr Cheng would have us believe) we finally got to rest our tired and extremely wet legs.
So the trip didnt exactly go as planned and the weather didnt cooperate at all. But it was totally worth it and even a fog covered Huangshan mountain is still one of the best sites Ive seen, so I cant imagine how good it must be without the fog!
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Me
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Everything is correct !
Mr Cheng is a liar and makes money by ripping off western students or generally young people ! Just book whatever hotel you want to stay at beforehand by yourself. Buses and Transportation is super easy to find out about, so you don't need that dude at all. When we didn't want to pay the overcharged prices and said, that the normal prices are way cheaper, he even locked my friend's backpack in and didn't want to give us back until we paid. That says it all about his business methods !