huang shan (the yellow mountain)

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it was tuesday the 8th of august that mr. dei (however you may write his name) brought me to the railway station in nanjing. excitement came over me when i got out of the car and the first thing i did was smoking a cigarette to calm down. of course that didn't help. i went to the soft seat (kind of 1st class) waiting room where the girl at the entrance made clear that i had no soft sleeper ticket and thus was supposed to wait in the hard seat waiting room. eventually i got kind of nervous at this point because i was not sure about the procedure for people with hard seat tickets. it was much easier than i thought. there were signs enough with the train numbers and departure times so that i quickly found out what to do, i.e. waiting until all the other people got up to form something similar to a queue and then waiting another 10 minutes before getting up. it seems that the chinese people feel the urge to be the first on the platform, though the train is not even there yet and anyway most people have reserved place.
however, when i found my bed i was quite satisfied. there were compartements with six beds in each. i didn't really mind that there was no door for the compartements and was glad to that the whole waggon was equipped with aircondition. i got some sleep this night, though not to much since i was not sure if somebody would wake me up before we came to huang shan shi (or tunxi) or how i would be able to recognize when i was there. they woke me up at half past 5 by rattling at my bed and we arrived at 6.
i actually thought i could have some coffee and cookies at arriving but when i came out of the railway station somebody immediately sold me a map and in the next moment i was sitting in the bus to tangkou, from where you can go up the mountain. so i shifted my breakfast plan to tangkou. when i arrived there i was sitting in a car to Yellow Mountain Gate before i could even think about breakfast.
i think, i started to walk at 9.30, the weather was great and except for my missing coffee i was in a good mood. there were no people on the path and at the next best possibility i went down to the river to have my coffee and cookies. in the next 3 hours while walking up there i nearly met nobody except for some people who were cleaning the stairs or trying to sell something at the shops along the path. then i arrived at Yungu Temple Station from where a cable car goes up to the mountain. and here the crowds started. everywhere there were tourist groups with their guides, which were carrying some small flag and a megaphone in which they talked nearly without a break all kinds of maybe interesting but for me ununderstandable things. i had to pay 200 RMB (20 euros) to be allowed to enter.
a lot of people were coming down and some were also walking up like me. the major part of the people going up there were guys who were carrying food, water, stones, cigarettes, etc. up there. i would guess that everyone of them was carrying about 80 kg. they had two baskets hanging at both sides of a bar on which the load was distibuted. every 20-30 m they would take a break of a minute before going on. above their heads they cable car was transporting the tourists up the mountain. it was amazing! i would have taken a picture but they were not so very enlighted by this idea, which i find quite reasonable so did not do it.
i got up on the first top around one o'clock and had a coffee before exploring the surrounding. it was really beautiful although i already now was quite confused about all this tourist groups of people running around with slippers or sneakers, some of the perfectly dressed as if they were on their way to office for work. and all the stairs...! really strange to me how you can transform a mountain into an amusement park. even the noise was the same as in an amusement park, the brasern tones of the guides talking through their megaphones, the chatting of the tourists and the loud screams of some guys trying to get an echo by screaming into some valley full of forest.
finally i found a path that was not so crowded, strange enough, although it was a path as perfect as all the others i just met one or two people there. on this empty path i found some old stairs that haven't been used for a year at least. i climbed them and found myself at a beautiful and empty top. in the meantime it was around four and i was tired so i decided to stay up there. i read and wrote a little bit and was worrying if it would start to rainbefore i prepared my sleeping place in a little forest.

the next morning i got up at four. in the dark i went back to the top and sat down to have my breakfast. i started the day by listening to the paper chase and some pink mountaintops, watching the sun rise and taking some pictures. a beautiful way to begin a day and i'm sorry for everyone who was not there, which is everyone except me.
after a while a packed my things and started to walk. the more often i looked at the map the clearer my route became. i went up onto the Heavenly City Peak on the northern route. that was more exhausting than expected and when i arrived at the top it was so crowded and everyone was so eager to take a picture that i was afraid it would not take to long until somebody gets pushed over the edge and especially i didn't want to be that one. so i went down the southern route. while walking up i started talking with a guy who could speak a little english and i think he was happy to practice it a little bit. he had tolg me that his guide had told him he should avoid the southern rout because it's dangerous. i think, if the chinese are not supposed to do something they're just told that it's dangerous.
while going down i met another chinese guy about my age who could speak english rudimentery. he said his english name was lion and it was nice talking to him, though difficult, because he was very interested in europe.
finally i came down and wanted to search for a place in the forest again to sleep but then some guy came towards me and asked me if i'd like to have a room. i thought about and decided that i could need a shower and a decent room would also be nice so i took it.

i woke up at 6 this morning and after breakfast i went down to tangkou again to take the bus back to tunxi. the bus left but stopped after about 1 km and we (the bus driver, the ticket girl, another passenger and me) were waiting for a while. then the ticket girl got out and came back with some delioucisely smelling foldover pastries. after some minutes i could not withstand anymore and somehow showed her that i also would like some of these and where i could get it. she was so nice that she got some for me. they were as good as they smelled and damn cheap, 2 RMB.
after a while we started again but just to stop after about 3 km this time. the driver was refilling cooling fluid. i could see that he poured about six litres of water into the openeing and was wondering what the motor could do with all that water and what it had done without. then the ticket girl stopped another bus and we passengers got out to step over to the other bus which took us sefely to tunxi.
there at the train station i sat down to figure out some plan of how spending the day when a woman approached me to asked what i wanted to do. i told her that i was not sure and she proposed to go some old ming villages. thhis sounded ok for me and i went with her to a bed & breakfast where her husband told me about the possibility to get my own driver to get there. after some bargaining we agreed on 180 RMB for 2 villages. it was about 11 and he said the journey would last until 6 and i could eat at his place for 35 RMB with some other european guests.
the first village was chengkan. you had to pay a small entry fee and then could walk around in the village. damn, that felt strange! i was strolling around and it was actually really quite a nice village, pretty old houses and narrow paths in between. the people living there appeared to be poor farmers. and indeed was just a usual village with people lining their normal lives there. on the one hand that's nice of course but on the other hand i never felt so out of place before. it got better a little bit when i found some more touristic place, like an old temple and some other tourists. but the feeling never disappeared. still it was nice to have seen it.
then i went on to quinkou. that was just empty old houses, but really nice looking. the highlight was a performance by some chinese. when i passed one of the houses i saw some people in there and at first wanted just walk by, so that thay wouldn't try to push me into buying something. an old man inside saw me and waved me in. when i entered he offered me place on a long table. in front of the table there was a kind of stage and soon one after one of this old chinese started to sing and dance in front of me. it was really great, though it again felt strange because i was the only one sitting there. but they didn't seem to care and happily performed in front of me. i was delighted and applaused lonely after each performance and gave them some money in the end.
back to the bed & breakfast it was 3.30 p.m. i drank some tea and started writing a little bit. the little daughter of steven (the husband) was about 7 or 8 years old and soon became curious about me and what i was doing. i ended up playing with her all afternoon. she could speak some english and i tried to teach her some more words she didn't know yet. in exchange i wanted to her to teach me how to count in chinese but she was not very patient with me and probably she was also used to getting her will. so i had to give up this plan. we compareds scars of which she had quite a lot but when i wanted to show her my nice brandnew scars on my big toe and all the small once which i still had from the blisters on my feet she refused because of "the bad smell". that was quite understandable so i guess i lost this game.
in the evening i had dinner their with two spainish and three italians. steven cooked and he actually was quite good at eat. i exchanged some china experiences with the other guys and left at nine. the time until eleven, when the train to nanjing would leave, i spent at the train station reading. this time i had again taken a hard sleeper ticket and was already wondering why it was cheaper going back than coming here. i found out when i entered the waggon, this time no aircon anf instead of matresses the beds were pretty hard and you had to lie on a straw mat. still it was allright for me since i was tired anyway. i lay down in the bed in the middle and nearly had fallen asleep when i was awakened by some talking. two ticket guys were standing there and wanted to see my ticket. there seemed to be a problem, which they explained to me - in chinese. i showed them that i don't understand and they started sighing instead of showing me what to do. i asked them if i maybe should take the lower bed by first pointing at me and afterwards on the lower bed. they seemed to be delighted by how easy this problem was to solve and said yes. ot was quite a convenient night. the ventilator and the noise that came in through the open window was enough to cover the snorring of the guy above me. i just woke up a few times when another train passed by or when we stopped in a station and all the noise disappeared. in nanjing i took a taxi and so i'm back now.

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Photos

locks
these are brought up there by couples to "lock them together"

chinese tv show
kind of scared me. there were these singers and in the background a screen with films of mass destruction...

Comments

[Linda]

break
Thanks, Florian. I had a great break by reading your last entry. While raeding, there came the same thought again and again: "Yes, that's Florian!" I would have loved to join you.

[Flo78]

you're welcome linda!
and thank you for the confirmation that i still sound like myself and that i described the trip well enough so that you would have loved to join although i still sound like me ;)