Another holiday and another Martin adventure. After finding out that we only had a week to travel for the National Holiday in China – Luke and I decided to head to Huangshan (or Mount Huang) in eastern China. On all of the China lists, it is one of the top 10 things to do and constantly referred to as the most beautiful mountain in China. Seeing as how we had seen Hueshan and Emeishan – it only made sense to add another one under our belt.
We were pleasantly surprised when we learned that more people than just us wanted to go on this little adventure and soon found ourselves joined by Lili, Jennie, Rani, Anna and Fallon. So our small group of two jumped to seven. We didn’t mind though – the more people the better.
Because we did not find out the dates of our holiday until very late – we were left to buy hard seat tickets. Which are as cheap as they come, but not the best investment. What we anticipated being a 10 hour train ride, soon transformed into a 17 hour death train ride to eastern China with smoke filled cabins and little space to move let alone sleep. We found reasons to laugh and about 8 hours in most of the people got off and we were all able to stretch out and rest.
We arrived at the mountain later then we anticipated so we quickly hopped on a bus to Huangshan and took the gondola up. Lili, being the bright cookie she is, flashed her student ID and was able to get a huge discount on the park admission and we all soon followed suite. Thank goodness not everyone can read expiration dates. However, the gondola was nice and fast and we were able to get up to the top right around sunset.
We hiked about 10 minutes to our hotel and were pleasantly surprised to see how nice it was. We booked a 9 bedroom dorm at the Shilin hotel and discovered that the rooms and outward appearance were not the same as our cheap booked option. The woman had us follow a man to our room which was literally a bunk room like at camp. We didn’t mind until we found out that Luke would have to stay by himself a floor down and that in order to get into our room – we needed to call the front desk and they would send someone down. Again, we laughed at our adventure and rested well before waking up very early to watch the sunrise from the top of the mountain.
The sunrise was just as to be expected – overcrowded and lovely. We grabbed our bags and then proceeded to hike around the top of the mountain and then down the west side. At the top, it was jam packed with people, but as soon as we reached the west trail, we were one group of maybe ten that we saw. It was so beautiful – clear blue skies and breathable air. The hike took most of the day and was full of downward steps but worth every sore muscle the next day. It was great to hike through the mountains and to see all of the cliff faces and even some clean water.
The next day, our group split into two and Luke, Rani, Jennie and Fallon went ‘rafting’ and then to where they filmed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (a fantastic film if anyone is interested) and Lili, Anna and I took the high road and went to the local hot springs. We like to say we had the better day, relaxing in springs that included the coffee spring, wine spring, alcohol spring and so on. We meant to only spend the first have of the day there – but did not return until after dinner.
When we got back to our hostel – we started talking to other travelers and ended the evening with a large group with people from Ireland, Germany, England, Canada, France and Holland. We did plenty of networking and are excited to meet up with these people later. Most, strangely, are students in Shanghai. Safe to say – we had an amazing time.
Returning was pretty much the same as getting there. Another 17 hours on a lovely hard seat. We survived and have returned. Here are a few photos in case you want to see and I will post more to Shutterfly when I get the chance.
Also - this month is breast cancer awareness - I hope everyone is doing their checks and taking care of themselves and the ones they love.
Miss and love you all!
0 comments:
Post a Comment