Crazy for Shanghai: Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) for May Day

May 1st was Labour Day here in China, and like every other Chinese person here, we packed our bags and headed out of the city. Huangshan was our destination, and despite having the worst luck actually getting there, I was so happy we did.

Let’s rewind back to April 5th.

We were on our way back from Qingdao, melancholic about having to go back to work after a beautiful break in a sea-side town, and in hopes of correcting our mood we determined that there was only 4 weeks until our next holiday. Hoorah! And what did we decide to do? Huangshan of course! Kate and Heather had planned to go during the April weekend but as luck would have it they couldn't find any available hostels to house them so the plan was delayed. Of course we thought this was perfect as we could then purchase our tickets early, book the right hostels, and have a fantastic trip in one of China's most majestic locations.

Well, it didn't turn out EXACTLY as planned. As the first week passed after our Qingdao Excursion, Kate and Heather went down on a Saturday to purchase our train tickets. We had decided that taking an overnight train would be beneficial in two ways: One; we would get to Tunxi (The neighbouring town of Huangshan) early on Friday as we would take the late train on Thursday and sleep through the 12 hour trek, and two, we would be experiencing the quintessential “Chinese” mode of transportation . Common, you can’t live in China without taking the train right?

Wrong!

Now this is where reality hits and suddenly you are corrected from thinking that China is a modern country equipped with a convenient, practical, and well thought out railway system. Yes Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing offer serious advantages in terms of in-city metro service, but comparatively, China as a whole is still far behind when you consider the population and recent growth of this country.

For one thing, tickets are only released for a maximum of 10 days before each departure date. This meant that our train tickets to Huangshan were only going to be released 10 days prior to our trip... yes we were going to have to fight with 1.8 billion Chinese for our Soft Sleeper tickets. Gulp!

Fast forward to April 23 and the tickets still hadn’t been released. Now this is where we started to pull our hair out because at this point our trip had been planned and the hostel was booked so we just needed to get our hands on those damn tickets.

Well, we never got onto that train because when I went down at 12:30pm on Friday April 24th to buy our tickets, they were sold out. Yes between the time the station opened in the morning until 12:29pm those dear tickets were bought up. Now I have to hand it to the booth lady as she still tried to get me some “Hard Seat” and “Standing Room” tickets. Yes, you heard right, STANDING ROOM train tickets. Now I know I said I wanted to experience all things “China”, but heck, I wasn’t that desperate. 12 consecutive night hours standing anywhere is bad, never mind on a HOT crowded train.

The next day we rushed to the bus station to see if we could get our hands on some Friday morning tickets. Needless to say, we got our hands on some one-way tickets to Huangshan, and yes I said one-way because there is no such thing as RETURN tickets in China (I’m not kidding, you buy your ‘going’ ticket in your original city, and the ‘return’ ticket in the destination city...)
So a few high-fives and a week later we were on a 5 ½ hour bus ride to Tunxi. Upon arriving, we were picked up by the incredibly well connected owner of the hostel we staying in, and despite it having a different name than the one on the website we booked it on, we decided to stay and just try and enjoy the city before our 5am wake up the next day.

Tunxi has a wonderful Ancient street that holds some of the most interesting buildings I’d seen in a while and where we found a lovely little French-style cafe in which we sat and relaxed for a couple of hours before heading back to the hostel to get ready for the next day. It was really the break we needed after the rush we had experienced getting to the city.

We were picked up at 6am sharp the next morning to be driven an hour to the base of the mountain where we would then get on another bus that would drive us to the entrance of the mountains. Two hours later, we had gotten to our destination, purchased both entrance and cable car tickets and were climbing our first steps towards boarding the cable car.

I’m a bit of a dreamer – you could even say “a romantic” and I tend to exaggerate ideas a bit and there aren’t many things that meet those embellished expectations. But going up that cable car, through the glass windows that started collecting fat drops of rain, I saw peaks jutting up through wispy white clouds like giants reaching up for the skies. It was magical.

“Huangshan, known as 'the loveliest mountain of China', was acclaimed through art and literature during a good part of Chinese history. Today it holds the same fascination for visitors, poets, painters and photographers who come on pilgrimage to the site, which is renowned for its magnificent scenery made up of many granite peaks and rocks emerging out of a sea of clouds.
Mount Huangshan, or "Yellow Mountain", is named after a legendary Chinese sovereign Huang Di, also known as the Yellow Emperor. It is said that he became a hermit on this mountain and searched for enlightenment and immortality.

The stone steps took over 1500 years to build. There are said to be more than 60,000 in total. They are called "the hundred steps into the clouds".

For more info: visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/547 and click on the video link. You won’t be disappointed.

It took us eight hours in pouring rain to get from one side to the other, and I’ll be honest, there were moments when we would reach a peak and look out and see nothing but white fog, and in those moments we would just think “What the hell are we doing here???” but it was in those rare times that you would catch those oceans of clouds with jagged peaks jutting through that would just catch your breath. Everything would be worth it then. Those were the moments that made you remember why you were up there: you are thousands of feet in the air in heaven.

By the time we reached the bottom, we had spent 3 consecutive hours going down hundreds of steps and my legs felt like they had been hit a few times in the knee with a crow bar, and all we wanted to do was get back home, take off our soaking wet clothes and take a hot shower. We had climbed Huangshan for over 8 hours in pouring rain on nothing more than peanuts and bananas and by the time our heads hit our pillows that night, we were out. It was the nicest sleep I had had in a long time.

The next day we decided to take it easy and just stroll around the city before our 3pm bus. I purchased some Chinese shoes because my running shoes were still dripping from the day before and Kate and Heather found a few bracelets to bring back home.

The transportation was a nightmare, the hostel was less than perfect, the rain dampened our spirits, but the mountain saved our trip and I got away with great pictures and the fact that I can check it off my ever increasing to-do list. All in all, a good trip!

Here are a few memorable pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2230002&id=172005214&l=121fe9d11c

For some good black and white pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229822&id=172005214&l=b0ba99f248