Blogs from Huangshan, Anhui, China, Asia - page 5

Ok, next stop: Huangshan. For the tea connoisseurs Huangshan city is a place where you should have been. People around the world flock to this city for the local delicacies, which are growing on the lush green tea fields sloping on the hills. Illustrous teas like the following are grown here: Huang Shan Maofeng, which growns of altitudes of around 1000m and are bathed in the mist Qimen Hongcha, also known as Keemun black tea, the original main ingredient for the English Breakfast tea, before manufacturers substituted it with cheaper stuff. Taiping Houkui, also known as Monkey King, the premium large-leafed green tea, which grows north of Huangshan. Handpicked and prepared: A classic. The town houses several teamarket, both wholesale and tourist style. And tasting is recommended, as not every tea is everybodies liking. As as ... read more

Die Chinesen sagen, wer einmal den Huang Shan gesehen hat, der möchte keinen anderen Berg mehr sehen. Bisher dachte ich, das beziehe sich auf die unbeschreibliche Schönheit des Gelben Berges. Mittlerweile war ich mir aber sicher, dass jeder, der einmal die zahllosen Steinstufen bis zu der 1600-1800m hohen Gipfelregion hinter sich gebracht hat, keine Lust verspürt, jemals wieder auch nur den niedrigsten Stadthügel zu erklimmen. Morgens nach dem Frühstück fuhr mich Hr. Hu zu den Neun-Drachen-Wasserfällen, die ein wenig unterhalb des Haupeingangs zum Huang Shan liegen. Auf diese Weise würde sich zwar der Aufstieg um weitere zwei Stunden verlängern, aber wenn schon, wollte ich es richig machen. Dieser Abschnitt führt an einem Wildbach entlang zu einem großen Wasserfall. Im oberen Stück ist es schon ziemlich steil und ich war einer der wenigen, die den Aufstieg auf ... read more

It is 4.30am, total solar eclipse day. The residents of the Bei Hai hotel have been shouting and moving outside for over an hour to jostle with each other to find a good spot to see the sun rise. Even now, they follow the megaphoned tour guides. We are living in total cloud, missing the rain by a sliver. There is nothing to see. After the sun has secretly risen, without them seeing it, the majestic mountain peaks and the pines slowly come into view, the swallows arrive and the wind rustles a new sound for me in china - the sound of rustling leaves in wind blown trees. I am in the north sea clouds. There is no sound of soundlessness here. Always these people are excited by the new things - being out in ... read more

Huangshan or the Yellow Mountains as they are called in English are named after an emperor who was called Huangdi (shan means mountain). Jingjing and I found a clean and small hotel at the bottom of the mountain in a town called Tengkou. We rose early and started our climb up the eastern flanks of the mountain around 7am, and after a harsh 3 hours of non stop climb to an elevation of 1800 meters we reached the plateau of the mountain chain which obviously led to more peaks and even more climbs! In total we hiked roughly 30K"m in a period of 10 hours, which enabled us to exit through the western trails. I am still partially in pain (over a week after the climb) which has led me to the conclusion that I will ... read more

Hello Everyone! This is Jennifer again, and we are back from over a week of vacation as our students were taking the College Entrance Test (the Gao Kao). I know it has been a long time since I have written. I am still angry about the other blog website access being “taken” away from us, www.blogger.com, so part of my absence has been some sort of rebellion at having to start up again on a different website. But, I have missed writing and I do have some great things to tell you about... so here I am! We just got back from a mini-trip which took us from Shanghai to Hangzhou and then on to our ultimate destination of HuangShan (Yellow Mountain). The purpose of starting in Shanghai was for me to find some shorts ... read more