Awesome Redefined, Huangshan
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2005
1
85
141
Trip End
Dec 15, 2005
Huangshan, Anhui, China
Saturday, October 22, 2005
With all of the ambition I can muster, I get myself up at 5:00am. I find the owners sleeping behind the front desk, so I decide to be nice and not wake them up to turn on the hot water. After my frigid wake up shower, I get dressed and walk up the block to the train station. My companion has still not gotten up, as expected. I wonder if he'll even make it to the mountain today. Not surprisingly, I am the first person waiting to get a bus to TongKou (the town at the base of the mountain). Around 6:10 we leave, but you're never really underway in these countries. We stop once to wait 10 minutes for two more passengers, stop again for the driver to get breakfast, and then again to get some more fuel. Eventually the bus drops me off in TongKou, seemingly near nothing related to HuangShan. Before speeding off, the driver pointed me up a road without a sidewalk, making me wonder... I mill around for a couple minutes wondering what to do. Some guy who speaks a few words of English came up to me and we converse using the broken words we know of each others language. He is walking up to HuangShan as well, so I decide to follow him. Just around the corner is the shuttle bus station, a nice new looking building that I'm sure has maps, entry tickets, or something at least. No. It's so early that no customers are inside. There is a ticket window selling shuttle bus tickets, but the names of the destinations don't seem to correspond to my guidebook back at the hotel. I turn around and see a "Tourist Information Office" with a few sentences in English explaining what they can do to help. Ah, finally, someone to talk to. No. The lady says she does not speak English, but points me outside to the "Information Desk". The woman there speaks perhaps fewer words than the man I met earlier and is no help to me. I go back to the ticket desk and finally recognize one of the stations and buy the ticket. I rush back to the other side where they quickly herd me as the last passenger onto the full bus and off we go to...I'm not really sure.
Shuttle to the gate
The shuttle bus stops once and about half of the passengers get off. I put my money on the other half of the people and stay on the bus. At the next stop, everyone gets off, so I do to. There are no signs at this stop to indicate where to go, the direction of the bus seems like a good idea. At this point I just resolve to follow the herd of other people, wherever they go. Hopefully not off a cliff. Up to this point, the weather has been a chilly 50 degrees or less with gusting winds. I'm wearing nearly all nylon and start to wonder whether I should have worn both of my pants. Then I remember that back in August I planned on buying a hat and gloves when needed so I wouldn't have to carry them all over the world. Seeing a strings of vendors, I pick up a map, cheap mesh gloves, and a cheap hat. Hopefully enough to carry me through the day. Up ahead is the ticket counter, and wha?? The entry fee is Y200! Wow, thats a lot, but I've come this far, I've got money, I'll pay it. Upon checking my money, I realize I have a total of Y252 on me. It seems I underestimated how much money I had left after paying the hotel, the train ticket, and dinner last night. I know it will cost me Y23 to get back to TunXi, leaving me Y29 to make it through the day in the most expensive area in the entire country. This also solves the question of whether I would ride the cable car up the mountain or not. Doesn't seem to matter as the line looks extremely long. Looks like the steps for me.
How crazy will it get?
Up to now, the day has been confusing, I've run out of money, and I'm not sure what I'll eat the rest of the day. This seems to occur a lot in China, but if I am patient, I've found things have a tendency to work out here. It's a crazy country, but there's a method behind all the madness. After giving up the vast majority of my cash, I walk through the gate and am greeted by the foot of the Eastern Steps and the long day ahead, wondering if my companion will even make it this far...
Up the Eastern Steps
A sign at the bottom indicates that it is 6.5km to the top of the Eastern Steps. Around 8:00am, I take the first step. I imagine it will be the easiest step of the day unless I learn to levitate. I say goodbye to my first step and begin the long climb. After about 2 minutes I have to slow down and pace myself. I wonder how much harder it can get, and then I see a laborer ahead of me hauling two heavy looking loads from a sling across his back. After this photograph, the thought of my walk being difficult never crossed my mind for the rest of the day. I passed many more laborers as I wound up the mountain. I guess it is far cheaper to pay a fifty men to carry goods all day than to lose the revenue from the cable car. The eastern steps are supposedly half the difficulty of the western steps. Nowhere along the route is a railing, although there are plenty of places that a misguided step could result in some broken bones (if you're lucky). About a third of the way up the steps, I meet a couple of Chinese guys my age, one of whom speaks decent English. We talk some, but mostly climb, climb, climb, further up the mountain. The word "we" in the rest of this report refers to me and my new-found Chinese friends. There are quite a few people climbing the stairs this morning. Not enough to be dangerously crowded, but plenty enough to slow down the climb at times. Many people of all ages have walking sticks, but I'm not sure why. If I slip, I sure as hell want to have both my hands available to grab onto something. The entire way up the Eastern steps, I saw one older caucasian couple that I guessed to be Eastern European. My Chinese companions speak Korean too (they say from watching Korean TV) and tell me that there are tons of Korean tourists here. It's difficult for me to tell, but I take their word for it. In many places we had the opportunity to take great photographs both up the mountain and back down. A picture describes a thousand words (maybe ten thousand at HuangShan), so I leave it to my photo gallery.
The Eastern Peak
At the peak, we find a mass of people, all of whom just got off the cable-car, or finished climbing the stairs. Most of the people seem to be part of a tour group, from which country, I am not sure. It seems that most Chinese travel in large tour groups. Most of the loners are the young ones in their twenties. I do see some caucasians around the summit area. I imagine none of them wanted to walk the stairs when the "Wait 2 hours and pay $8" option was available. Never throughout the day will I see a caucasian under the age of 40. We take some pictures, and head in the only direction that seems to be towards the hotel of my companions. Many of the scenic places around this area have chain-link railings with many locks attached. People add locks with their names engraved to signify being "locked together in love". Just past a large cluster of these locks is ... A Bank of China with an ATM!!! I am saved from uncertainty as I withdraw Y1500. We pass by quite a few scenic lookout spots along the way and finally stop to take a lunch break near a group of hotels around 11:30. While eating, we see a couple of older Asians being carted around by a pair of young workers. They ride in a chair resting on two bamboo struts strung between the two workers. I can't imagine wanting to spend money on that. Just the thought of burdening someone with half my weight on these steps hurts my head. We did see a dwarf-person being carted around, and then I realized that there was at least some good purpose to the chairs. It would suck climbing stairs 1/4 your height all day. We still can't find the hotel of my companions, so we trek onward. We pass by the North Sea, the King Pine, and eventually come to the Cloud Dispelling Pavilion. This is a lookout point at the north end of a very large canyon that runs many kilometers south through the mountains. The clouds roll over this lookout point and down into the canyon. It's quite a sight. We battle the hordes of tour groups to get some good pictures, then move onward.
The Long Way 'Round
The sign seems to indicate that the "West Sea Grand Canyon" is just around the corner, so we walk further along the path. At this point, we leave behind the tour groups and find ourselves either alone on the path, or passing a few loners every now and again. The path goes up a few dozen more meters as it winds around the lip of the canyon. Some of the railings at this point have a 200m, straight down cliff edge. It's definitely not for those afraid of heights. The path begins to descend sharply as it winds around many peaks. We pass many guys with expensive cameras, and for good reason. The vistas here are better than probably anywhere I've seen in my life. Eventually the signs begin indicating that a special bridge is about 3km away. Down and down we climb. At the perigee of the steps, we find what we assumed is the bridge, but it was a tad underwhelming. The path returns to a steep climb and up we go. Around 1pm we stop for one of our frequent rests and a passing group tells us the bridge is still about 2 hours away, up the hill. What a kick to the stomach that is. Feeling the burn in our legs, we resume our climb, up, up up. The pathways on this trail literally wind around the side of vertical cliffs. Many times we climb up or down paths that seem to come directly out of the side of the mountain. It's like walking on a magical path through the clouds. I imagine this must be what Tolkien had in mind when he was describing many of the accomplishments of the dwarves in Middle-Earth (The Lord of the Rings series). Eventually we do come to the long sought after bridge. It's the smallest we've seen so far, and I think its only claim to fame is that it's built over a 120m+ gorge. I tell my companions about the bridge in Colorado over the 400m gorge. Passing by the bridge (not through it, as it goes down another path), we come around to...
Awesome Place on Earth #3
The third addition to my list of awesome places is here, at Heaven's Sea, HuangShan. At this peaceful place, we stop for a few minutes of silence to watched the sea of clouds roll around a few large "island" mountain peaks. As I look off the distance, the clouds remind me of the view out of an airplane's window. The mountains are covered in a cornucopia of colorful trees. I can't imagine coming to this spot during any other time of year. Perhaps a few more weeks would have given a differnt mix of colors, but I like the green in the trees as well as the yellows and reds. Off to the right is a solitary peak that someone has built a small representation of a temple out of rocks. I suppose it is held up with concrete or wires inside. There are no people near us, and our moments of silence are quite touching. I record a GPS location and we move along. I now have three places on my "top ten" list. I wonder how long it will take me to find the other seven. My companion says this is definitely number one for him.
To the Bright Peak
The path begins to gently level out as we climb along the top of the ridge. To our left is the canyon we've walked around and we can see many of the distant paths we climbed earlier. Eventually the path leads to an area with a series of shops and a couple of hotels. I buy some oreos to comliment the ramen I had eaten earlier. After burning thousanads of calories through the day and taking in only 500, these were the best tasting oreos I've ever eaten. After checking the map and asking a passing guide, we determine our paths. It is a about 3:25pm and I am what is listed as hours away from the bottom of the mountain. I know that the last bus leaves for TunXi (where my hotel is) at 6pm. I begin to feel concerned. We climb up another half kilometer to the Bright Top peak, almost the highest point in the region. I battle more tour groups for some pictures and then bid my friend's farewell. They think I will miss my bus, so I take down their e-mail address so I can let them know how it turns out. It is now about 3:40pm. I need to be at the shuttle by 5:40 to get to town before the last bus leaves for my town.
The Mad Dash to the Bottom
Altitude: 1840m
My plan at this point is to make a run to the top of the Eastern Stairs and try to catch the cable car down. I expect the line to be long, but China is crazy, so I don't really know. When I lived in the dorms in college, I used to be able to run up and down the stairs at a speed that most found rather frightening. I put all of this practice to good use and tried to take most of the shorter staircases in stride as I jogged along the path. I could hear strange exclamations from the locals as I jogged past them. After 4km, I arrive at the peak of the cable car. The line is very long and the sign near the end of the line states that the wait is 2.5 hours. Hmmm, it is 4:05pm, math is against me here. I turn around towards the stairs and the sign says "6.5km, 2.5 hours downhill". Hmmm, well, it can't be any slower than waiting for the cable car. So I begin the second half of my mad dash down. Taking the stairs two at a time when possible, but usually reverting to single stepping at the steep parts, I make my way down. I figure the fact that I am running down steep stairs makes this the most dangerous part of my day, but I gain extra energy and focus when racing a clock. At one point, I reach a construction area where some workers are re-pouring one of the stairs with concrete. He motions that I need to wait. Well, I surely can't wait for concrete to dry, so I motion for him to move and I make a LaoWai-Leap 4 stairs down to the one he is standing on. He's a little surprised, but I just keep on moving. At 5:07pm, I finally reach the gate and make my way to the shuttle. The shuttle whisks me away, but to where, I don't know. I haven't quite figured out how I will find the bus back to TunXi, as there is no bus station. Fortune shone down upon me and some random guy came up from the back of the bus and asked where I was going and then told the driver what I needed. Soon I was dropped off at a waiting mini-bus and jumped in for the 90 minute ride back.
Conclusion
HuangShan is a truly amazing place, and I'm surprised more people don't know of it's existence. If you ever visit China, a day here is not enough. I would recommend booking a hotel on the top and staying the night. I hope to one day return to HuangShan and take the Western Steps.
