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The morning after our trip to the orphanage in Huainan, the Hudson’s and the Dugan’s flew to Nanning to visit their second orphanages while we drove south with the Awtry’s to Mount Huangshan. It was an easy drive of about 4 hours on another brand new highway with many tunnels as we neared the mountains. Two years ago the trip would have been over 8 hours. We crossed the Yangtze River about 3 hours into our journey.
We arrived at our hotel in Tunxi around 1:00 PM and said good-bye to Jeff our guide from Hefei and hello to Ellen, our guide for this part of our trip. Jeff and the bus headed back to Hefei while we quickly checked in and then walked down river to a nearby restaurant for lunch. We were shown our lunch menu options and after politely saying no to the dog dish (yes …dog) we had another delicious array of pork, chicken, tofu, bamboo shoots and assorted other regional offerings.
We walked back to the hotel, unpacked and then walked up the river to the Old Town section of Tunxi to walk the narrow lanes, admire the ancient architecture and shop. We stopped
at a tea store and were treated to a ceremony sampling many delicious teas. And of course we bought some to bring home. We had dinner at a restaurant just outside of the old town and when we were done we walked back to the hotel along the Xin’an river. The Chinese really celebrate their rivers with beautiful bridges and buildings that are brightly lit in glorious designs and colors and Tunxi was no exception.
The next morning we packed our backpacks with what we would need for our night at the top of the mountain, stowed the rest of our luggage, had breakfast and headed to Mount Huangshan. It was about an hours drive from Tunxi through beautiful scenery and mountainous terrain. When we arrived we took cable cars to get to the top of the mountain. The views were amazing if not a bit disconcerting given the steepness and height the cars were traveling. When we arrived at the top we had about a ½ hour hike further up to reach our hotel. We checked in and then went hiking with our guide Ellen. The hikes were very steep but the views were well worth the effort.
We had perfect weather, which meant we did not get to see the atmospheric cloud conditions that you often see in photos and paintings of Yellow Mountain. We hiked for a few hours and then back to the hotel for dinner and early to bed. Once again we were about the only Caucasians on the mountain and the center of attention with the girls.
We were up at 4:30 the next morning to hike up to Lion Peak, a popular look out point facing east so we could see the sunrise at 5:30. Despite the early hour, it was crowded as everyone had the same goal. It was fairly hazy so we did not get the full benefit of the sunrise but it was pretty cool to be there. Back for another hour of sleep before we had breakfast and then our last hike heading back to the cable cars for our return down the mountain. Mount Huangshan is definitely on the list as a very special place worth returning to. There is an artist in residence at the top of the mountain and we bought a small painting as a memento of our visit.
There is only
one flight per day from Huangshan to Shanghai and unfortunately it is at 11:10 PM, arriving in Shanghai at 12:30 AM. Needless to say that made for a very long but full day. After descending from the mountain, we drove to two ancient villages that are both tourist destinations as well as active communities. The first was Nan ping and the second was Xi-di. Each village is between 400 and 600 years old with populations of 800 – 1200 family clan members living there. We saw many homes like the one in the Peabody Essex museum in Salem MA. There were hundreds of high school age art students from all over China painting and sketching. The local villages of Huangshan are very popular with art students. The kids come for a week at a time and stay in local homes. There were beautiful temples and rock and wood carvings. In fact one village was the setting for Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon movie. There were also sad reminders everywhere of the Cultural Revolution and the damage done to beautiful antique artifacts by the Red Guard. In one village there were originally nine stone arches, eight were destroyed. In peoples
homes we saw many stone carvings ruined by the Guard. I still don’t understand why Chairman Mao is looked upon as a kind, benevolent father figure when he was responsible for so much bloodshed and cultural damage. Fortunately, the Chinese government is now actively seeking to protect their cultural heritage sites.
After touring the local villages we headed back to the Old Street in Tunxi and enjoyed drinks at an outdoor café. It was our turn to stare at the local Chinese tourists for a change. We had dim sum for dinner and while Eric, Ira and Susan went back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and get situated for our last journey, Kyle and I stopped for a Chinese foot massage at a local place that Ellen recommended. Visions of a quiet, soothing massage were dispelled when two women arrived yielding plastic hammers and proceeded to bang away on our feet much to Hannah and AiLi’s delight. It was like a deep tissue Swedish massage on steroids! Painful to get through but it did do the trick in getting our feet back in working order after the stress of the mountain hiking.
We hobbled back to
the hotel, boarded our bus and headed to the airport. The Chinese know to get to airports well in advance of published flight times as more often than not, once you board the flight, even if it is ½ hour ahead of departure, you leave. And the duration of the flight is always less than expected. Consequently you always arrive ahead of schedule, which is always welcome. Our guide Tom was waiting for us at the airport when we arrived around midnight. Shanghai has two major airports. One for international flights, is an hour outside of the city, the other for domestic flights is only ½ hour away. We looked forward to getting to the hotel quickly since we were so exhausted having been up since 4:30 AM. Unfortunately we ran into traffic due to highway construction and didn’t reach the hotel until 1:30. Lucky for us, it was probably the best hotel we’ve stayed at on our trip and we all slept very well.
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