A mountain to climb....Huang Shan

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After an epic train journey, in more ways than one (see previous blog entry!) to Huang Shan, and arriving three hours later than planned, at 7am ...in a slighlty delirious state from lack of sleep, we quickly got on a bus to Tankou, the town at the bottom of Huang Shan (Shan means mountain in Chinese). Everyone got off the bus in town, and the lady was asking us where we wanted to go to, but we couldn't tell her in Chinese, so she just handed over her phone and lucky for us, "Mr. Hu" , a recommended hostel owner was on the other end, speaking English, so we told him we wanted to come and stay at his hostel and he told the bus lady! Lucky.

Once at Mr. Hu's we checked in and had a quick refresh and a plate of noodles (sadly no time for a nap!) before we had a mountain to climb!

We took the eastern steps route up to the top of the mountain which was about two hours of climbing (there is a cable car if you prefer). It was raining and misty, but that added to the mysterious nature of the forest up on the mountain looking over us. The climb was mostly stairs, so it was still OK in the rain, and definitely a good work out! Once we got to the top, there was actually more walking to do to see the best bits. Huang Shan is a UNESCO site, and for good reason. We were lucky that we had climbed high enough to see the tops of the peaks, and the clouds were blowing over as we got round to some of the good viewing spots further round the mountain top. We walked for two more hours around paths at the top, with many excellent viewpoints taken in along the way. The clouds cleared and we could see sheer cliffs and deep valleys below. Some parts were rather scary because we were so high up and the drop in front of us was deathly! It was incredible though, and well worth the climb in the rain! Some awesome natural formations.

Obviously we were exhausted - climbing a mountain off the back of a 14 hour seated train ride with not much sleep, it had been a long 24 hours! We took the cable car down the mountain and headed back to our hostel. After a shower and a (very!) early dinner, we were in bed ridiculously early to catch up on much needed sleep...two out of the four previous nights have been spent on a train!!

J x

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Comments

[Today Yung]

Miss you>O<
I also have a mountain trip in Lijiang, but i didn't climb up by myself, I went up the Yue Lung Xue Shan ( a famous mountain in Lijiang which coated with snow, Xue=snow). I went up there by riding a horse, it was so funny!!!! When I was going up, I saw so many foreigners climbing up the mountain!! You have to come to this place, coz it's really very beautiful here!!!!

[Rachelle Morrison]

A Foggy place.
A Foggy place. It looks that the sky is fall down in to that valley. Its good that the place was preserved to its natural looks. And with that I'm sure that place is one of the tourist spot out their.