Huang Shan

Travel Stories - China

introduction

The city bus takes me to the very modern and efficient bus station in Huangzhou where I take the bus to Tanghou. On the way the buildings are becoming less and less, the landscape a bit more drier and the houses here are white with gray with gray rooftiles. In my travel guide I read that I am entering the province of Anhui - a combination of two cities that are located here in the province.

It is a generally poor province with many "foreign" workers. The bus stops very coincidentally (not) for a hotel and I check in, together with a Frenchman I met in the bus.

Avatar

After my check in I meet the French guy from the bus again by the lobby; because he intends to do the same as I do - and we leave the hotel together. On the street we meet two Chinese girls with whom we take a taxi to where we encounter the ticket house of the most famous mountain peak of China - Huang Shan - the yellow mountains.

At the foot of the mountain we have to pay the astronomical amount of Y230 as entrance before we can start the climb to the holy "Cloud Valley" temple on the top. It is 7.5 km climbing and the fog is so thick that we see nothing. They only thing we see are the "carriers" that come down in the opposite direction and the path of rocks before us. This is of course also the mystical and sacred of this place – the fog and mist.

The carriers have everything on their back; from building material to food and from rubbish to pack of cans. The trip is heavy, also because it is humid but the sun does not shine and you do not know exactly what is wise to wear. The path excists of very slippery wet pebbles and rocks of the rain that falls here and again the fog. It strikes me that we are the only two Western tourists we’ve seen til lso far, and quite a lot of young Chinese people make the trip. When it starts to rain softly we have to take care we don’t slip down because of the small tiles that became wet and the path becomes narrower and steeper as we get higher.

Over time, we see some holes in the fog and we see the granite peaks in the distance that seem mysterious and what this trip is so famous for. The walk here is really interesting because you are surprised every time by the acceleration and the involvement of the fog. After 2.5 hours of climbing we arrive at the White Goose ridge. Looking around us we certainly see what many artists have seen for us - and inspired. Years later, scenes from the movie Avatar could be traced back from this mountain.

Misty surfacing

Walking along the railings we all see padlocks hanging and in them, if we see it well, names engraved. We walk around and enjoy the view which is occasionally breathtaking. The Frenchman would first look for a hostel on top of the plateau but decides to go back with me.

It feels heavy in my knees when we are downstairs, 1.5 hours later, and go back to our hostel to eat something in the large clinical dining room where the foul green grass is lying as carpet on the floor and lots of mirrors. I decide to go back to my room, read something and before I go to sleep (still trying) to take a boiling hot shower.

tips & advice (2009)

There seems to be a bus station in the north of the village of Huang Shan but I never saw it (and I do not know if it actually exists). Upon arrival I was dropped by the stop of a minibus (from Huangzhou) for my hotel (without name) and when I asked at the reception where the bus to Wuhan would go from I would be picked up tomorrow, again at the door.

Huang Shan - Wuhan: there would be two buses a day; I was picked up in front of my hostel and dropped first in the middle of the village of Huang Shan. Ten minutes later, the van came to Wuhan. Costs were 210 Rmb.

The van drove away around 08:30 and arrived at Wuhan, bus station at 16:30.