Huangshan Mountain

The Asian Games kindly gave us two weeks on our accreditation as a visa for visiting China so I was determined to make the most of it. It's not often someone pays for your travel and visa to a country that normally involves a bit of effort to get in and out of!

I bought the Lonely Planet and delved in, toying with ideas of seeing Beijing or the Great Wall or stuff like that. But, especially as initially we were being asked to fly in/out of Hangzhou, I decided to stick with the region around Hangzhou (roughly). In the end I was able to book return flights to Shanghai, but I still think it was probably a good choice.

Anyway, I always like to get out of a city I've been in for an event and find some nature, so Huangshan (Yellow) Mountain looked appealing as one of the choices of where to go. It's not too far west of Hangzhou and is on the Unesco heritage list, as are some nearby 'ancient villages', Hongcun and Xidi. My original plan had me heading to Hongcun first, but then I realised that would land me in Huangshan on a weekend, which is specifically warned against by the LP, so I shifted to head to Huangshan first from Hangzhou.

It was an easy train-bus-bus journey from Hangzhou to the mountain, with my suitcase deposited at the 'tourist distribution hub' nearest to the mountain before the second bus. I was helped a bit by a Chinese-American couple who were on the first bus in terms of finding the way to the second bus station - although it's a tourist destination, English language signs are few and far between, and nobody really speaks English. A translation app is essential if, like me, your Mandarin is severely limited. 

Again, following Lonely Planet advice, I'd settled on hiking up the mountain via the Eastern Steps and down by the Western Steps. I'd booked two nights in a hotel on the top of the mountain so I could properly enjoy it - I could possibly have got away with one night, especially if I'd used the cable cars, but I'm glad I took it more leisurely. In the middle day I did the West Sea Canyon loop, which took me down into the depths of a canyon before taking me back up the other side. Going down was busy with people, until the bottom of a cablecar, but it was super quiet after that until I got back up to the summit area again. I also got up for sunrise both days.

The mountain has been a destination for Chinese visitors for several centuries, and there is an immense network of granite steps (apparently 60,000 of them) and pathways to channel you around. Compared to the sorts of paths I'm used to on mountains and hills at home, it was a bit manicured, but the volume of visitors is immense and anything less solid would just erode insanely quickly. The steps cling to the side of the mountains and the gradients are often insanely steep - I ascended 400m in just 1km of walking at one point.

The views from the top are spectacular. I got two sunny clear days, devoid of the 'seas of cloud' Huangshan is famous for, but giving me uninterrupted views of the karst peaks. Sadly the views also make it a huge tourist destination, with many people coming in groups led by guides wearing portable amplifiers. At the top, between the cable car stations, you cannot escape the hordes, even in the week AFTER the national holiday when I'd hoped it would be quieter. I saw people in all sorts of clothes and footwear, including fancy dresses and nice leather shoes; velvet suits; silk shirts; Crocs; and a few others in what you might call hiking gear like me. Some had even dragged up small wheely suitcases. 

The worst was Lotus Peak, the highest point, which was on the way 'down' towards the Western Steps. It was cloudy when I started that day and I was in two minds about whether to bother with Lotus Peak at all, but it was still early and the weather improving when I got to the bottom of the steps up. My map told me it was less than 500m with 100m of ascent, and I scoffed at the sign that told me it would take three hours to get up and down - I'd been routinely smashing the suggested times for climbing things. And indeed it took only about 15 minutes to get most of the way up, before I hit a queue to complete the climb. 

Basically Lotus Peak has two ways up/down and the top is a bottleneck for the two routes to converge, through a narrow cleft that can only fit one person at once. So you have hundreds (if not thousands) of people all wanting to get to the top along narrow paths, and a one-way system at the summit proper. I queued about 40 minutes to get to the top, where the views were admittedly superb, and then decided to go down the other way. The line going up on that other path stretched at least halfway down the mountain and I can't imagine how long those people will have waited for their 30 seconds at the top. Safe to say I was devoutly grateful to finally escape the crowds and start on the Western Steps down (allegedly 6.5km and four hours; actually about 2.5km and less than 90 minutes).

Practicalities:

• From Hangzhou I caught the train to Huangshan North railway station, which was about 90 minutes
• Leaving the station, turn right and follow the signs for the scenic buses. Ask for a ticket to Tangkou (19 RMB) 
• The shuttle bus drops you in Tangkou town, and then you have to walk about 500m following signs for the tourist distribution hub to get the next bus (another 19 RMB) which will take you to the Yungu cablecar station
• The information desk in the Tangkou hub will store bags, 15 RMB per day
• If you have WeChat working or a Chinese number attached to Alipay you can buy your ticket to the mountain at the ticket desk at the entrance to the distribution hub - ask for help. Mine wasn't working, so the lady photographed my passport and that got me through to the bus station. I then bought my entry ticket to the mountain (190 RMB) at Yungu, through the app with help from the nice lady there, after I'd changed my phone number in Alipay!
• Your passport number will be required for all the buses and tickets
  
• Take snacks - food and drink on top of the mountain is expensive, although there's a reasonable choice and water was just 8 RMB for a 550ml bottle
  
• If you have dodgy knees take a stick, or buy one in Tangkou. I didn't, it was okay, but it took three days for my legs to recover ...