Huangshan, now under UNESCO World
Culture/Natural Heritage List, is located
in the south An Hui province, about 40
kms long (south-north) and 30 kms
wide (east-west). Its best scenic area is
about 154 sq.kms.
Huangshai has spectacular landscape
with its four unique scenes: interesting
shaped rocks, waterfalls, unique shaped
pine trees growing out of rocks, and its
sea of clouds. Compare to other five
famous mountain areas in China that
each has its own unique scene, Chinese
say 'There is no need to go to any other
mountains after seeing these five, but
after Huangshan, none of the five'.
Huangshan has all the characters these
five have, the steepness, the grace, the
elegance, and so on. Its ever changing
scenes attracts tourists in all seasons
and inspired countless Chinese ancient
poets for thousands of years.
Touring in Huangshan area, you can
also visit some small villages nearby
where the traditional architecture (Ming
or Qing styles) especially the local
unique Hui style houses, relatively well
preserved. The fine carvings used in Hui
architecture are famous, being the
materials stones, bricks, wood, etc.
We flew from Beijing to Tun Xi airport
(the closest to the park), then took a
taxi to a hotel a few miles away from
the park. We booked the Bei Hai hotel
on top of the mountain but the local
people said since there were
thunderstorms the cable ride was closed
and there was no way we could hike to
the hotel with the time given on that
day. So instead, the hotel taxi took us
to the Emerald Valley and the
Nine-Dragon Waterfall for the afternoon.
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Next morning, we took a taxi to the
park all the way to the Yun Gu Cable
station (Yun=cloud, gu=valley). (We
started our trip from the back of the
touring area hiking to the front while
other go reversely. It is all up to you.)
There were two type of fares then:
RMB 50/one-way ride per person, but
have to wait for 2-3 hours in the queue
even in May when it was not the peak
season; or RMB 65 for foreigners or
dignities. However, just because you
look like a foreigner and/or are willing
to pay the extra cost for a higher fare,
you are NOT automatically granted
with it. You have to walk to its office
nearby and negotiate with the officers
there. Only with their approval, can
you then go back to the ticket window
to purchase your higher fare ticket.
Then life would be easier: you do not
have to wait in the queue, instead, you
go to a VIP waiting room and get onto
the next ride. Together with us, there
were young PLA soldiers and a Taiwan
housewife tour group. I thought the
PLA soldiers should climb up to the top
for a good training session. The Yun
Gu cableway uses a cable car of 40-
people capacity. Stand next to the
window (front preferable) to have a
marvelous view.
The end stop is the White Goose (Bai E
Ling) station, from where you can hike
to the ‘Just Believe Peak?(the title
photo), the Refresh Terrace, Bei Hai
(north sea area), then the Bright
Summit, the Jade Screen Peak/Hotel,
stay over one night, then Celestial
Capital Peak. Finally we took the Jade
Screen Cableway down to the Mercy
Temple Station, then stay over night at
the Huangshan Hot Spring hotel at the
hot spring area where many hotels
located.
The Jade Screen-Mercy Temple cable
ride uses smaller cars of 6-people
capacity with RMB 65 per person for a
one-way ride. Watch your head when
you walk out the Mercy Light station,
the metal gate might not be higher
enough to give you tall people head
clearance, in other words, you would
hear a 'bang' as you knocked your
head on it. :(
Along the mountain paths, local
peoples carrying human sedans trying
to carry you or at least your backpack
for a very cheap fee. We never let
them do that.
Our strategy is to hike day 1 and stay
in hotel A, then hike day 2 and stay in
hotel B etc. Many other tourists use
only one hotel as base (typically a
hotel at the hot spring area at the foot
of the mountain), but then waste lots
of time hiking repeatedly on the same
path.
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The third morning, our taxi driver took
us to a famous local village Xi Di. You
would have to find a reliable taxi driver
with a reliable car, he would be happy
to pick you up after you finish the
mountain tour and take you to some
local villages (although reluctant, as
some dirt roads really can dent their
relatively car). He would be more than
happy to give you his home phone
number so that you can contact him
when needed. Knowing Chinese
definitely will help as these taxi drivers
do not speak any English.
Huang Shan Mountain area is such a
marvelous place with spectacular vista.
However, they do not do a good job in
marketing. The service need to
improve as well. If you do not want to
go there by yourself, there are tours
organized by travel agencies in
Shanghai etc to get there.
The paths in the park are very clean.
In order to be on the UNESCO list, a
site has to meet the UNESCO criteria,
including, easy access, cleaness etc.
Every 50 meters there is a trash 'well'
built with cement or rock, so look
natural in its natural setting. People
wearing uniforms constantly sweep the
main paths. However, many tourists
still have a bad habbit littering all
over...
Everything in the hotels on top of the
mountains is carried up by local people
- very cheap labor cost. Right next to
the empty yet running cablecars, local
people climb up with huge metal file
cabnets, logs, cement, rice, etc on
their backs. From time to time, you
may have to stop to let these local
'porters'-be they in their 20s to 70s -
pass first, as the logs they carry are so
huge, there was no way they can turn
around for you.
If you are 'lucky' to share the
mountain path with some VIP group,
you would have to wait till them pass
first. A group of Thai royal family
people visited there when we were
there, the security people blocked
everye one from walking along with
the dignities even when the paths were
wide enough. One good thing is that if
you follow them, you would have a
'free' English guide to show you the
details such as this rock looks like a
monkey, and that one, two monks
playing chess.
Be prepared to use the restroom. Hold
your breath! Bring your own paper. We
found the public restrooms in one of
the top end hotels, namely, Bei Hai
hotel, filthy dirty.
We had our lunch there in the hotel's
dinning room, so as the Thai dignities
(in their private room of course). The
lunch was RMB 64 (about $8) per
person. There were fish, chicken, pork,
soup, and a few vegetable dishes.
Although the mountain area located in
An Hui province which is famous for its
Hui style cuisine, the cooking in the
mountain areas is not the best.
However, one of the famous mountain
dish is steamed pheasant (shi ji= rock
chicken) with a kind of wild fungus (shi
er = rock 'ear'). That was delicious. In
the morning, do not expect any cold
milk nor cold drinking water, there
were always hard boild eggs soaked in
soy sauce, with several dishes of hot
and salty and spicy local pickle like
vegetables even though they might be
fresh. There was always some
steamed buns and rice porridge.
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