Climb every mountain
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2008
1
21
129
Trip End
Jul 07, 2009
Huangshan,
Anhui,
China
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
In the middle of the night we were both struck down with food poisoning, although David had it far worse than me. This meant that we spent most of the morning in bed feeling bad and so missed the bus to the mountain we had come to see. When David felt well enough we went to find the bus station so that we could get another bus. The problem was that we had an old map which marked the bus station at the opposite end of town to where it actually is. An hour of stressing later we caught the bus to Huangshan mountain. We paid the extortionate entry fee (200 yuan each!) and took the cable car to the top of the mountain. We passed strange jagged peaks covered in trees. The rock formations were unusual (see the photos) and looked like a Chinese scroll painting. At the top we could see for miles and there was a strange layer of cloud that looked like someone had poured the cloud into the valley. After a short walk we found a hotel with dormitories that looked clean so we checked in and then walked up to Purple Cloud Peak to watch the sunset. It was quite a trek but worth it for the pretty orange sunset with silhouettes of mountains in front of it. We walked back with some noodles and then sat in our room to eat them. It was then that we heard strange scurrying and scratching sounds. Then a black thing ran across the floor. We looked under the beds to see huge things running about, looking at us. Rats! I went to ask if we could change rooms which involved me squeaking and doing rat impressions to get the lady to understand what I meant. We walked into the next room just in time to see two huge rats scurry across the floor. I then got the jitters and stood in the corridor, thinking I would be safe. Then another one ran from one room to the next, across the corridor! The Chinese people in the room didn't care in the slightest. In the end we slept on the top bunks to be away from the rats, but I still had fears that they would climb the curtains and leap into our beds in the night.
The next morning we awoke with no rats in the beds and made a hasty exit to watch the sunrise at the Dawn Pavilion. It was freezing, with actual ice everywhere. The sunrise was very pretty as it rose between two jagged mountains and then the sky went purple. After this we climbed to the highest peak to look out over the mountain and a sea of cloud. We then walked through the forest to a gorge which we looked out over. We walked around the edge and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of jagged needle-like peaks covered in Chinese trees. We walked between the rocks and on some precariously balanced stars. It was all very pretty and I took far too many photos! We then decided to do a circuit of the peaks which involved a lot of walking up. We found ourselves in the middle of the clouds but we could see under them to the valley. We stopped for noodles before descending into a gorge. We were told it was an 8 hour walk down but it took us only 5 and we walked through the trees and over the crazy rocks to the bottom. We passed people carrying huge loads on their backs (uphill) using only a stick of bamboo to hang things off. At the bottom we took the bus back to Huang Shan City where we played with the hostel cat and then took the overnight train to Shanghai.
