Huangshan

We arrived in Huangshan Shi (Yellow Mountain city) at about 5am and had to kill some time before we could check into our hostel.  It was still dark out, but we found a little restaurant with warm baozi (steamed buns) and hard boiled eggs.  We spent the rest of the day napping, exploring the town and local park, and preparing for our climb.

New friend, Boni

The following morning we woke up at 5:30am to take a bus to the town near the base of the mountain.  The reality of traveling to Huangshan over the National Holiday became all too clear has we queued up in a 3 hour line for the 20 minute bus ride to the trail head.

Yellow hats = tour group

Once we started the ascent, I had to adjust my hiking expectations because we were surrounded by people for the entire climb.  This was not going to be the peaceful and calming hike that I thought it would be.  We were surrounded by a new kind of energy and once I accepted the presence of my hundreds of hiking buddies, it was cool to feel part of this giant upward climb of China's most esteemed mountain.

Huangshan is huge.  Once you reach the top, you have access to all kinds of trails leading to peaks, view points and gorges.  We planned on spending a night on the mountain so we could cover more ground on top, but even with an extra day of hiking, we had to pick and choose what we wanted to see.  To escape the crowds on the top of the mountain, we headed straight for a trail that seemed less traveled and were pleasantly surprised to have the path mostly to ourselves.

Sunset over the mountains

Fairy Bridge- our destination and turnaround point

We didn't arrive at our summit hotel until after dark; I had to use my headlamp for the final stretch.  At our summit hotel, we slept in dorm style rooms.  My other roommates were friendly and helped me plan out our next day itinerary.  The following morning we woke up at 4:30 and joined hundreds of other climbers to catch the sunrise.  Then we headed straight for the West Sea Canyon hike- a grueling and amazing down and up hike in a gorge.

We finished our Huangshan experience by taking the long and scenic way down the mountain.  Once we reached the base, my legs were completely shot.  The thing about hiking Huangshan is every hike involves stairs.  Our 2 day hiking trip turned out to be a 2 day stair master work out!  Every step was absolutely worth it- Huangshan was breathtaking.