June, 2010: HuangShan, AnHui, China

Being such a huge tourist attraction in AnHui, it is easy to sign up for a tour from HeFei to HuangShan. We booked one in AnHui, which will pick us up by bus on Saturday morning, take us to the town of TangKou at the foot of HuangShan, followed by a trip up the mountain the next day.
Once you reach TangKou, one of the townfolks (the local tour rep) working with the AnHui tour agency pick you up from the bus, persuade you to eat at her restaurant (which we did), buy a disposable raincoat (which looks strangely similar to a trash bag) and a walking stick. Before sending us off to our hotel, we need to decide if we will be leaving our luggage with the tour rep or with the hotel. This is when I realize thetour will be quite different from what I have in mind when signing up. I have imagined that we would get to reach the summit of HuangShan on a tour bus, even if need to get off and hike, we will get to leave our luggages on the bus. The tour rep explain that we will be walking most of the way up, carrying whatever you can. So, the lighter our luggage the better. I decided to leave everything that is not valuable with the rep, but insist on carrying the laptop with me.

The afternoon we can pick a couple of scenic sites to visit or activities to participate (like tubing down a stream). Not wanting to get wet, we pick the scenic sites. One of it was Lover's Valley.
Years ago, some youths were trapped in the valley in bad weather. Having been through the hardship in the valley, when they made the way out of the valley, a few couple fell in love and eventually got married.
So a bridge here is not just a bridge, they have to name it the lover's bridge.
And the Chinese characters for "Love" are found on faces of stone. On one, a total of 99 of this same character were inscribed in different script. The space for the 100th on the lower left corner is left blank. According to the guide, this last character is found in everyone's hear.
My theory is that the 100th Love character found its way to Taiwan. Go ask the heaven, the heaven will probably say I am right.
Somewhere in this valley is where they filmed a scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. If the guide had offered this nugget of info the year Tiger came out, I would be pretty excited. But not after all these years, with all these WuXia films with sword fights over bamboos and crystal clear lake.
The tour guide also mentioned that it is at the foot of HuangShan that you will encounter a temple. Any higher up, and burning joss-sticks in temples are off limit. The next day, on the hike up HuangSHan, it is obvious that the rule to not litter is neither strictly observe nor enforced. But the rule to not smoke unless in smoking area is strictly enforced.
The next day, we woke up to a wet morning. The guide picked us at the hotel lobby. I remember it's a 3-star hotel. The guide warn us that later in the evening, the hotel (as part of the package) we will be booking into is nowhere near 3-star. It sounds like a suggestion to seriously consider paying for an upgrade to a better hotel.
Ticket to the mountain is not included in the package, so it was a pleasant surprise that they were going for half-price. It was World-Expo week, and the discount is to attract those who went to Shanghai to make a detour to HuangShan. After the guide made sure that we were really walking up the mountain instead of taking the cablecar, we were off. It was not a downpour, but still wet enough to require waterproofing the laptop I was carrying up.
Luckily, the rain never did get any heavier and eventually stop. The sun came up but it was still pretty cool in the mountain.


We were given about 3 hours to make it up to White Goose Ridge, where we meet up with those who make it up by the cablecar, and refill with some food. It is also here that the guide remind us about the hotel upgrade. The hotel we upgrade to will be right on the summit, and we get to sleep all the way till sunrise. Otherwise, we stay at one lower on the mountain, wake up about an hour before sunrise, make our way in the dark to the summit and join the rest for the sunrise before making our down the mountain, on a different face from that which we came up. I was sold on the "making-your-way-up-in-the-dark" part.
After White Goose Ridge, the way to the summit was a more enjoyable walk. For one thing, there was no more time limit of 3 hours; for another,
while it is obvious we are going up, it is no more one flight of stairs after another. And it is at this stretch that HuangShan shows you why it is the attraction of AnHui: the sea of mist (thanks to the earlier rain), the craggy mountain faces, the sheer drops and dizzy height that made my legs goes weak.

Pine trees are also a big deal here. The guy in uniform here is not from the police to maintain order (although it would be a good idea if he was, what with all the pushing and shoving to take photo near edges to those sheer drops) but an officer from the fire department to enforce the no smoking rule.
We check in to the Guang Ming Ding Hotel. Got a double room with in-room toilet. Although there are dorms housing about 30, there were even double-deckers out on the corridor just outside our room. If I remember correctly, this dinner for two came up to about US$12.
Still, up in the mountain, we get Slovakia playing Paraguay.
Well, you need to know that with no road access up the mountain, this is how the ingredients get carried up.
The next day, everyone from every tour group who came up to the hotel to catch the sunrise, which duly cancelled its appearance. You can imagine the crowd at the breakfast shop and the toilet. And amongst the mass going down the narrow stairs were tired legs who wish there were a bus to carry them down. For those who can no longer walk down, they can pay to get carried on these ratten chairs. A granny did, so did a young lady who probably sprain her ankle on the way up.
Once we came to the first cablecar station, we made the choice to get down by cable car.



At the foot of the mountain is a statute of Xu XiaKe, one was the earliest travel writer (who was unique amongst his contemporary in that he travelled for the sake of travelling instead of pilgrimage or as diplomat of the royal court). His travelogue made the earliest reference of HuangShan.