In The Peace Of The Mountain Tops: HuangShan

Every semester ILP gives its teachers one long vacation so they can travel and see more of the country. It’s 10 days long and I've been super excited for it since before I even came out here to China. My group which consists of six teachers (including me) are planning on going to three different cities over the course of our vacation. I’m going to give each city its own post so that it can be broken up a bit haha.

Our first stop was to a beautiful place called HuangShan. It is the name of both a mountain range and the city at its base. In Chinese “Huang” means yellow and “Shan” means mountain. So as you could probably guess the mountain range is also referred to as the yellow mountains. For this leg of our journey we decided to go with a tour group to see the mountain. So early sat morning (Oct 1) we left our dear school and headed to the train station which is where the bus depot was. With it being the Chinese National holiday it was crazy trying to catch a bus to the station. Every one that came by was jammed full, but we managed to get one in time to make our scheduled pick up at 12:30.

First thing to note about this tour is that it was a Chinese tour haha, luckily our guide spoke some English so he could explain some stuff to us but whenever he talked about the mountains or did any of the touristy stuff we never knew a word of what he was saying. Another lucky thing was that one of the guys on our tour named Jack spoke really good English and was kind of a life-saver. He made sure we always knew where to be and when and what was going on. It was actually super fun.

After boarding our bus we began the long journey south to HuangShan. It was a lovely six hour bus ride during which I was stuck in a seat that I couldn't lean back because the handle was broken. It was like sitting against a wall. Somehow I managed to fall asleep for part of the ride, but I was sure sore when I got up. Our first stop in town was at a yummy restaurant for some dinner. There was a rotating platform on the table where they set dishes of rice, chicken, pork, veggies, fish, and various things that we had no idea what they were. It was delicious!

Afterwards we drove to a famous shopping street where we got to wander in and out of some super cool shops. There were men making candy and stone combs. There were painting and wooden scrolls. All I bought was some postcards however cause I was saving my money for the super legit stuff we would find the next day. After the market we finally made it to our hotel, which was probably the nicest place we will ever stay at while we’re here. We had two people to a room and the beds were super soft (compared to our rooms at the school anyways haha), it was really clean, and big and we had working air conditioners. The bathroom had the first bathtub I’ve seen since I’ve been here. It was a beautiful sight!! That along with a western toilet makes for a good stay!

It was such an exhausting bus ride that we crashed pretty early once we got to the hotel, we had to get up super early too in order to make it to breakfast before checkout at 8. The breakfast consisted of boiled eggs, some fried bread and rolls, fried rice, a kind of dumpling, and basically was just amazing. At our school breakfast is usually a boiled egg a pastry and a bowl of really bland rice porridge, so needless to say it was quite a treat. After breakfast we boarded the bus and drove about an hour to Huizhou, which is an old ancient village of HuangShan.

All the old buildings are still there and there is a small lake at the front with a pretty bridge that we crossed. Most of the streets are narrow with small waterways flowing down the side.

People still live in the old dwellings and make a living selling, food, tea, and handmade trinkets to the hundreds of tourists who pass through each day. One disconcerting thing I saw was one woman who was washing her vegetables right downstream from another who was washing a raw chicken. They used the waterway for everything. While I was there I found a tucked away shop where a man was hand-painting scenes of the city on fabric and hanging them in hand-made wood frames. I got one for 35 Yuan (or about $6). It’s one of my favorite things I’ve found. There were also bamboo cups and bowls and wood pieces carved with pictures of the mountains or the city. It was certainly a cool little place to see.

After the ancient village we stopped for a quick lunch and then headed to the base of the mountain. To get up the first 6km of the mountain we took a cable-car. The views were spectacular although possibly slightly to highly frightening, especially with the car sporadically bouncing around. Just to get to the cable-car however was quite the adventure. Picture for me if you will hundreds of Asians packed into a small confined area attempting to shuffle, push, and squeeze their way to the front of a “line” as 12 oblivious Americans attempt to avoid being butted and shoved backwards. I’m telling you it was a battle for the ages!

However, I managed to come out triumphant by making friends with three sweet Korean women who very much enjoyed my sporadic outbursts of singing (I even sang some mamma mia when they requested it). They became my little bodyguards and aided us in making our three hour way up to the front of the line. I was sad to part ways with them, but I will never forget that sweet experience.

At the top of the cable car we were greeted by the most wondrous views. Unfortunately we arrived as mist was rolling in so we quickly put on a few more layers before beginning our 8km trek to our hotel on the mountain.

The path was all stone paved, which was good thinking on their part since the mountains climate is most commonly rain and mist, if it wasn’t paved it would be completely muddy and slippery (and with hundreds of Chinese tourists alone visiting the mountain every day that would be a disaster waiting to happen).

Some small slightly masochistic part of me wishes I knew how many steps we climbed that day, but it is probably better not to know.

All I can say is that we started from the cable car around 4 pm and didn’t get to our hotel until about 9:30. The majority of the people in our group severely disliked the entire hike and say it was the worst thing they’d ever done. I was soaking wet, stumbling up and down countless stone steps in the pitch black fog, at the top of the largest mountain range in China, surrounded by people who don’t speak English, and simply trusting that I was going the right way since it was too dark to see where my guide was most of the time and you know…….It was the best experience of my life! :D I wouldn’t have traded it for anything else!

When we got to our hotel, it was a glorious sight. Nestled in a mountainside, and shrouded in mist it was the coolest place I’ve ever stayed. The travel agency had told us that the conditions at the hostel were not very good, but I gotta say they were pretty awesome in my opinion.

The beds were soft, it was warm, and the lobby was super nice. Sure they didn’t give us towels and we had to bring our own toothbrushes (a lot of hotels here provide complimentary ones) but other than that it was pretty sweet. There were 12 of us in one room (five bunk beds and two pullouts) and we had one tiny bathroom, but we only slept there so we didn’t need much room. We woke up at 5:30 the next morning to head up to a lookout point in hopes of seeing a sunrise over the mountains. It was looking pretty promising but just before the sun was supposed to rise, thick mist rolled in and we could barely see our hands in front of our faces. It was also cold and windy, but man, before that wind blew in it was the most wondrous view. Gorgeous, tree covered, rocky mountain tops rising out of a foggy ocean; nothing could compare.

The hike off the mountain was just about as long, but much faster. We took a different route and didn’t take the cable car. It wasn’t as foggy as the day before and as we descended out of the cloud bank we got to really see the beauty of the mountain. It was unlike anything I had seen before. So different from the look of my mountains back home, the yellow mountains had a beauty all their own. Not even pictures could do them justice.

The hike was almost entirely downhill and the stone steps were somewhat steep so by the time we finished my calves and thighs certainly did not like me. Standing at the bottom of that mountain and looking up to where I had previously been standing definitely brought an amazing feeling of accomplishment and wonder. From there we started back towards Changzhou, which was eight hours away. This time I made sure to get a seat that I could lean back in haha.

Getting back to our school was relieving, we were all so happy just to get the chance to put our feet up. It was weird not having Kareena there, since she was off with a different group. The room seemed kind of empty, but alas I passed out fairly quickly so I didn’t have much time to think about it haha. That was the end of our adventure to the top of China, but the next day our travels would continue…..