Amidst the mist, the sun shines down upon the lush greens and bold mountain. We stand upon the majestic mountain and look down on creation. We exhale … we … pause in awesome wonder.

9 Sept 2006: Heading Off

19 of us departed for Huang Shan at approximately 10:50 pm (some people come late, lah!). The trip towards Huang Shan was long (around 7 hours) and most of us did not get to sleep much on the bus, because the ride was very bumpy. (the roads were very bad as they were repairing the roads) I ended up sleeping only for about an hour and spending the rest of the time, chatting with Fionna and eating tidbits on the bus. (So glutton!)

10 Sept 2006: The beginning

Arrived in Huang Shan City at approximately 6 am in the morning. Everything was close, and everyone was hungry and so they ended up buying food from some stall here. Besides buying food, we ended up buying rain coats, maps from this 2 ladies who pestered us to buy from them. Persistence is always their greatest forte!

Anyhow, after we paid the tour agent (陈小姐), we went to eat breakfast again at a more decent place. (阿里山豆浆) Not the most wonderful food to be eating, but decent enough.

From here (Huang Shan Jing Qu Gate), we hopped on to the Huang Shan internal Bus and made our way towards the starting point of our trip – Yun Gu Si (云谷寺) with the intention to take the cable car up the mountain and then check into the hotel and subsequently explore the mountain top. Even with a price of RMB 66, the cable car was fully booked and the waiting time was 4 hours, way too long! Therefore, after purchasing our ticket (student price RMB 101), we decided to ascend the mountain on foot.

Beginning the trip around 9:40 am, we made it to the top (which is actually half way up the mountain where the cable car goes to) within 3 hours at 12:40 pm. Everyone was visibly tired, but I’m sure they had good fun climbing up the mountain even though they were tired and they were possibly going to collapse … haha

You see those people carrying things up? I think its very sad that they have to work so hard. They carry around 130 kg of load and make around 4 trips a day up and down the mountain. The amount they get is a meagre RMB 20 to RMB 100 only. Very sad indeed!

Someone trying to act Gungho!!!

Some nice scenery on the way up. Quite a lot of things to look out for, and the locals imagination are very good. They describe each tree symbolically like dog looking towards the sky, or buddha sitting, etc …

And we finally reached the cable car section – Bai Er Ling Station (白鹅岭站)

On the way, we saw some quite interesting things. First, the Lover’s Pine … the tree grows out into 2 trunks … I wonder if its by nature or by culture? A lot of people buy locks and then carve their SO’s name on the lock then lock it to the chain around the tree. It is suppose to represent being locked together forever?!

Xi Hai Hotel (西海宾馆)

Lots of people in a single room. What do you expect for RMB 90 a person a night on top of a mountain.

At least they had decent sheets and blankets, and they had hot water for you to cook instant noodles. Without wasting too much time, after washing up a little, settling in a litte, we headed out once more to brave the mountain!

The beautiful sunset at the Meng Huan Jing Qu (梦幻景区)

After that, we headed back to Xi Hai in search for food. Initially we wanted to eat at the restaurant there which cost like RMB 50 per person, but decided against it in the end. All we needed was something hot and that came in the form of Bowl Noodle. We bought noodles from the convenient store (which cost like RMB 10 for a bowl!!!) and some Roast Chicken that they were selling (that puny little, very saltish chicken cost RMB 30!!!). Well, considering the fact that these things were all carried up by the men we saw on the way up, we really think the cost is small, but the bad thing is that the people carrying the food do not get the cash, whereas the shop keepers are the ones that get fat and rich from the labour of other people. We ate outside the shop Alfresco style … it was nice and windy (abit cold though!) but still the feeling was GOOD!

… and we all went to bed early tired out from the hard day’s work!?!?