Mt. Huangshan in Cotton Paradise

Photo: Mountain Huangshan, China - 17/11/10

In the hostel in Shanghai I met Julien from Belgium. We got along pretty well and we both planned to climb Mountain Huangshan, a few hundred kilometers west of Shanghai. We planned to go on the Monday or Tuesday and checked for the weather forecast which gave us some disappointing information....clouds and light snow!!! Not exactly what you hope for to enjoy the wide views when climbing a mountain. Luckily on Wednesday the weather was predicted to be clear and sunny.
Since there are quite a few peaks on the top, and a long route was sat out, we planned to go in two days.
On Monday evening we took the night train K8418 leaving at 17.45 from Shanghai for which we had reserved bed in the hard-sleeper, carriage 8, bed row 9, with for me an comfortable upper-berth. There are actually price differences between the lower-, middle- and upper-berth, lower being most expensive, upper cheapest. Our expected arrival in Huangshan Shi, also know as Tunxi was early in the morning.

Photo: Night-train Shanghai - Huangshan - 15/11/10

The next morning, around 7.00am, we walked out of the train station, overwhelmed by taxi and bus drivers to go up the hill to the start of the trail. We had some other plans first so we quietly ignored them and walked on to a hostel where Julien was planning to stay after the hike. I already had my train ticket for the onward journey with the night train to Nanjing.
In the hostel Julien made a reservation for the night on return, and we could leave our heavy bags in the hostel overnight as carrying 60 kilos up the mountain is now such a good idea.

Breakfast and go! With the stomach full with different kind of small dishes, some pancake with egg, a stick of bread and pauza - little bread buns with meat in it. I love them! These pauza are similar to the bapao as we (they!) have in the Netherlands.
After finishing and walking out, it was then that we saw by other people how we should have eaten the pancake combined with the bread sticks! The locals wrap the pancake around the bread stick and eat this partnership at once. We laughed about it, since we tried to eat the sticky pancake with our chopsticks - and we were quite successful I must say!

It was time for us to move to the square in front of the train-station, to find us a bus with a driver who could take us to the next town. Luckily, in this touristic place it was not difficult to find a bus as people on the street and on the square were catching us already to sell there seats and almost drag you into their bus. More problematic was to find a bus which already had people inside, as buses only leave once it's almost full....and all the people from our train already left while we went to the hostel and ate our breakfast...
So we Sat for some time, went to the bank to get money - everybody being very worried that we went with a different bus, so someone actually walked along with us to make sure we didn't get approached by a different bus driver who could take us.
On return still no new people on the bus, just 4 in total. There were still more then 10 seats empty. 11 people to wait they told us.
We decided to go out and see if there is a bus more full, or a smaller bus ready to leave, or perhaps a taxi, depending on the price. First we were not allowed to go out of the bus, though we did. They didn't like us peaking around and when we started talking to other bus drivers and taxi drivers straight away our bus people came and joined the fights :)
Taxis asked tipple the normal price. No go. Other buses were empty. And suddenly our bus came driving to us telling us we were leaving. Some company had a shipment of a few boxes and I guessed that the company payed for the bus to leave straight away. Smiles when we finally left!

There are three ways to go up this mountain.
* The 'eastern steps', a three hours walk on the stairs, non-stop stairs all the way up to 1800+ meters.
* The 'western steps', 10 kilometers of curls and stairs through the beautiful nature.
* Last and least, a 15 minute cable-car journey.

Since it was cloudy and we had to climb up, we decided to take the eastern and short way to go up the mountain. Stairs stairs stairs! And many clouds! Fantastic, as we were literally walking in the clouds, right in front of you, a distance of 10/20 centimeters you can see the clouds(water) sailing past, not falling but floating! I love this!
We didn't get much to see of the surroundings, although at some point we could vaguely spot the shapes of one of the peaks, just it's silhouette in the with clouds. Almost magical! Unfortunately I was just too late to grab my camera. Literally when I got my camera out of my bag, the clouds became thicker and the silhouette was gone. A moment we laughed about.

At the top it was very cold and very empty. There were a few villages, hotels etc but hardly any people. And hardly any temperature. We tried to find a place inside to get a drink but there was no bar and some hotels were closed or impossible to drink something. In the end we found a hotel, quite expensive, where we bought a bottle of coke, same price as a can of coke or a can of beer. We could enjoy a meeting with the managers and there young staff, a group of girls and a few guys, about 18 year. It looked like they received instructions and they ha an English class. One of the managers was asking English food names to be translated by one of the waitresses in the group.

After some more drinking, talking, reading and eating we went to our hostel/dorm, a very expensive - though the cheapest - dirty ice-cold place hidden in between the trees.
An early sleep and an early wake up to see the sunrise behind the many mountain peaks. When we walked to the hostel, we already saw many stars in the black sky, so it was all cleared up! The next morning, waking up at 6.00, it was still clear. We walked to the top of two different peaks where we enjoyed a magnificent view!






While at one of the peaks, with fresh photos in our camera, ready to climb down again, a few Chinese who were also at the small and tight rocky peak, sat down next to each other facing the sun. And suddenly they started humming, praying to the sun!
Here, in the ice-cold, with the beautiful surrounding and the many sunshine's, and this low and high humming from the Chinese tourists with bright colored winter jackets. A moment, a touch, impossible to imagine! How many photos i take and show, how detailed I tell my stories...not a single chance you feel or imagine what I felt. The only way to feel it is by being there, and not only that, you need to be surprised, it has to be the first time....well, I took a photo anyway to show you to get a little bit of an idea :)

Photo: Humming in the morning sun - Huangshan, China - 17/11/10

We started or trail all around and over the peaks, stairs up stairs down, curling paths, steep stairs, and most of all beautiful views! Sunshine and clouds and sunshine. Chinese habits of putting many people at work. Doing the tiniest little jobs, jobs that take hours and that are unimaginable in my country.
Paths has been cut out of the mountains, handrails made by hand out of concrete in shapes of tree roots, painted brown, mold painted on it, stairs that look like trees cut in half, flat at the top, round at the bottom, complete with the structure of the tree, and on the flat side a perfect copy of what a tree looks like on the inside.
Other handrails made from concrete contained a nice structure. They made this by letting a person use a hammer and a chisel To cut a structure in the hand rails! It will take hours to finish two meters! This is typical for this country in many ways!
But the results on this mountain were very nice and of course very ecological.

Photo: I couldn't stop climbing higher - Huangshan, China - 17/11/10

Some parts were very busy with all kinds of Chinese tourists, groups with a guide screaming in his radio speaker so everyone can hear him, hikers, couples, gentlemen in suits, poshly dressed girls on high heels, elderly people, children. Whole of China seems to come to this mountain. Hardly any foreigners.
Other trails/places were very quiet and we wouldn't meet anyone for over an hour walking.

Each peak had it's own funny name like the turtle peak, the 'you are almost there peak', etc. The Lotus peak was the highest of all. A heavy climb on the stairs. Half-way, in a bend in the stairs, I found a spot in between the trees to enjoy the view, a view of soft cotton clouds with another peak pinched through.

Photo: The top which we have reached - Huangshan, China - 17/11/10

On the top of the lotus peak we enjoyed a beautiful 360 degrees view. Took some photos, and before we knew, we were surrounded by 10 to 20 Chinese tourists al trying to take photos. A very funny moment making it impossible to take photos. Also there were these people taking photos of you and print for some money trying to take a photo but impossible!

Photo: Photographers shooting your pose - Huangshan, China - 17/11/10

I tried to take a photo of Julien, and every time when someone disappeared from the background, a new tourist came up the stairs.....we gave up :)
Luckily we arrived a little earlier giving us some time for shooting people-less pictures.

Photo: Impossible to take a photo - Huangshan, China - 17/11/10

We wanted to walk all the way down the mountain peaks, however we became short with time as the last bus was leaving at 17.30 so we decided to take the cable car, starting half way the mountain, bringing us down in a 15 minutes ride.
We were just in time to catch the last cable ride, and the bus was waiting for us, taking us the the first town, from where we had to take another bus back to Huangshan city.
Obviously there was no bus anymore, as per a taxi driver waiting for us telling us he could bring us for 200 Yuan(bus ride 14 Yuan). And he was even not a taxi!
I ignored the guy and walked on to the main road to see if we could catch a bus there. In meanwhile we met a guy from Brazil and another Chinese tourist. The taxi driver came after us dropping his price every meter we kept walking. When we reached the main-road suddenly a random mini bus stopped and offered us a ride for 15 Yuan. So we got home safe and cheap.
We went back to the hostel, had a hot shower after two ice-cold sweaty days. Julien showed me some of his photos from his trip in Nepal and Tibet and then it was time for me to catch my night train to Nanjing. A 1 day visit to see the old wall and the city. The same day I caught another night train to Xi'an.

It's so easy to get around in China with all the night trains! It is fun to get onto a night train. For me it is not getting from point a to point b. For me these trains are traveling. The thought and accomplishment of getting a train ticket - which is very easy in China! - for a hard sleeper makes me already happy. The habit of preparing for your night journey. Getting to the train station, buying a big pot of instant noodles and a big bottle of water from a local supermarket to get me through the night. Going into the station. First trying to find the entrance on the crowded station square. Each station building is incredibly wide. Even longer than a 20 carriage counting night train! The front is split up in many sections each with a different service. A coffee shop, a food take away window, a window or door for 'left luggage' to leave your bags, a big ticket office with approximately 20 windows to get a ticket, perhaps a hairdresser, and in between all these 'front services' and many people we should be able to find the real entrance to get into the actual building. So much time is put into the architecture. Observing China allows you to notice that the country spends a lot of time and logical thinking to make things very convenient and especially efficient, before they actually start making or building.
Possibly in the metro you can find the most practical examples, where they have put barricades to force people to walk a particular route, to not let two streams of people cross or simply that big groups of waiting people form in front of the escalator (of which the lowest platforms in the train station of Antwerp are the perfect example).

To get back to the stations in China, once you find the entrance, depending on the size of the station, you could find long queuing sections with a ticket inspector on the end making sure only passengers are allowed into the station. Straight after that your bags go through the X-ray machines and all passengers walk through to metal detectors - no I am not confused with the airports.
Big waiting lounges full with passengers. The Chinese have the habit to arrive 30 minutes up to an hour before the train leaves. With their tickets and a reserved bed or chair guaranteed they start queuing in the waiting area in front of the platform doors early before the train even has arrived.
Again someone has to check your ticket before permitted onto the platform, and as always on night trains an employee of the rail company is awaiting you at the door of your carriage for which you have a reservation and of course is pleased to see your train ticket. It sounds perhaps a bit awkward but I the system really works.
Whenever the train left the station, it became time to open up your pot of instant noodles, add the sachets of spices and veggies and get some steaming hot water on one side of the carriage. Perhaps a chat with one of the passengers who speaks a few words, a curious student who wishes to practice their English or a quick read in my book before it's time to climb the ladder and find a comfortable position in the upper berth. The locomotive leaving kilometers of rail road behind and keep on pulling the carriages into the black darkness, and a soft pillow under my cheek, ready to fall a sleep, just to be woken up by a few pokes in your back from the conductor who returns your train ticket telling you next stop is your arrival.
They always come too early in the morning to poke you and wake you up....that is because the trains in China are never delayed.