Alan: Trip To Huangshan
Article contributed by Alan (California, USA)
I have been up mountains in California, New Hampshire and Vermont. But all of those experiences resulted from taking a lift up during the ski seasons. This past June, I “hiked” up a mountain for the first time. This mountain, Huang Shan, was no ordinary mountain. It is the place where the Oscar award winning movie, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” filmed its famous sword fighting in the plush trees scenes with Chow Yun Fat and Zhang Zi Yi. A place where pictures could barely capture the views that one can see with his own eyes.
My best decision was to visit Huang Shan using a travel service/tour group. The scale of the mountain was so big, that if I had visited it without a tour, there would have been many things that I would not have seen. My trip started at 7 am from Nanjing and my group took a bus to Tangkou, a town at the bottom of the mountain, that was about 6 hours away.
As seen in the picture above, Tangkou is a very nice pleasant town with a dramatic view of the mountain in the background.
The following day, we woke up at 6:30 am and were taken to Huang Shan’s East Gate.
Once we walked through the gate, what we saw ahead, were stairs, stairs and more stairs.
Knowing that the hike up the steps would be tough, there are people their waiting to help you carry our bags and other carryons that you have up the mountain for a 5-10 RMB per bag. For some, this is an extremely worthy service. Moreover, because it is so challenging to get up the mountain, water and food sold within the mountain, especially those at the top, are 8-10 times more expensive than those sold at the bottom of the Mountain or in Tangkou. For example, a bottle of water that costs 1.5 RMB can cost up to 9 RMB at the top of the mountain. This is because all of the goods sold up in the Mountain are manually carried up the mountain using human labor. For example, the workers at the mountain will carry heavy stones, which can weigh up to 50 lbs, gas tanks, eggs, water and etc. up the mountain!
While walking up the stairs, I saw many amazing scenes. Beautiful mountains covered with light clouds with many pine trees growing off the mountain’s granite rocks. A unique phenomenon!
Within Huang Shan, there are also many beautiful streams and waterfalls. Below is a picture of a stream where people can enjoy the refreshing water of Huang Shan.
Besides lots and lots of stairs, there are stairs that are extremely steep and narrow. Below is a picture of people waiting in line to attempt to walk down Heaven’s Line, 一线天, which only as wide as a Northface backpack, about 20 inches, and has a downward slope of almost 60 degrees.
As people descend Heaven’s Line, many like myself were extremely careful and anxious to get down safely.
Overall, the trip lasted 3 days and two nights. The highest point of Huang Shan, was about 1,800 meters. I saw not only beautiful mountains, streams, waterfalls, unique pine trees and yes, cable cars.
