Huangshan Part 2 (7-30)

Tuesday was sunrise day. We all woke up at 4:30 to go out to the viewing point. Of course, there were already a lot of people there when we arrived. The sky started to brighten at 5:15 and the sun made its appearance at 5:40. It wasn’t a spectacular sunrise, but there was a red sun. Back in the room, we all rested and slept some more.

The family left at 8:30 to head down, and I decided to stay in the room and relax for a while. At 10:00 I started on a short walk. I had decided to stay in the general area of the hotel and just hang out. First I went to revisit an area I’d walked through while arriving. The trail was blocked off not far from the hotel, as a VIP was at the viewpoint. It was a media event and a big camera on a long crane was reaching out to the viewpoint. I don’t know who the man was, but he was there most of the day. At this time, the mountain was in a cloud with no visibility over the edge. 

But that changed soon and some rocks emerged from the clouds.

I had thought about going down the trail and coming up on the cable cars I had seen on Monday. The trail is used by porters carrying goods up the mountain. Probably down as well, but at this time they were coming up with baskets of food. It is several kilometers from the bottom to the top. After seeing these men, it was easy to understand why prices are high on the mountain. After a few minutes, a porter coming up said something and motioned “no,” which I took to mean that the trail was closed. Another man did the same. I also realized that the trail just goes down and that wasn’t what I wanted to do all day.

I went back to the sunrise viewpoint to see what it looked like during the day. Since it’s off the main trail, not many people were there. I stood on a small, lower viewpoint alone for about fifteen minutes watching the clouds move in and out and the mountains play peak-a-boo. 

There were people on the viewpoint above me but during that time no one ventured out to my viewpoint. When people came, I left so they could take their photos. But that was one of my favorite times on the mountain.

By that time the sky was clear on the other side; so I decided to revisit a few places I’d been to on Monday. I met another junior high student who decided to chat with me. His English wasn’t great, but it was fun to chat with him. I ended out slowly walking around for several hours.

My new roommates were a family of three and two other woman, one of whom had a baby. The family was pleasant to me. The others weren’t in the room much until they were ready to sleep. The baby cried once during the night, but not for long. I passed on the morning sunset, since once was enough for that experience.

Wednesday it was time to head down the mountain and back to Tongkou. The others left at 8:30, but I decided to relax a while longer and left at 10:00 since I wasn’t in a rush. That may not have been the best decision, as the trail was crowded starting shortly after I left. I hadn’t thought about it, but many tour groups go to the mountain for only one day. They take the east cableway up in the morning and the south one down in the afternoon. So in one day, they do what I did in three days and what overnighters do in two days, but they miss the Xihai Grand Canyon. And they don’t get to have a relaxing day.

 Since the hotel is in a valley, all trails leading out of the area go up. So I began the day going up the steps I was so happy to go down Monday evening. 

The trail was crowded and I realized that these were probably day trippers. At the summit at Brightness Mountain, there is a building with what looks like a football/soccer ball on the top. I learned later that it is a planetarium. I had seen it across the valley Monday afternoon and had passed it Monday evening returning to the hotel after the cable ropeway.

I could see a huge crowd across the way. 

The trail became packed going up to that area and was divided with barriers into two lanes—one for each direction—to help control the masses of people. This continued for much of the way to the cable car station. 

On the way to 100 stairs (which were really more than that up a steep cliff), there are two trails—one for each direction. The trail becomes quite narrow in a few places where it goes through the rocks, which contributes to the crowdedness. It was quite a walk. 

After that, the trail widened and wasn’t as crowded until I arrived at the cable car line. It rained lightly at one point and then rained heavily for half an hour just before I got in line. 

The line took only an hour, and since it was on the trail with a barrier down the middle, there wasn’t as much pushing as there had been at the bottom.

An interesting encounter on the trail: When I wasn’t wearing my hat, I heard “Hello, grandmother.” Two elementary school girls were greeting me as they passed. Sweet.

I was really glad to have had three days on the mountain. The slow day between the two long hiking days gave me time to really relax and enjoy being there and enjoy the mountain itself. My heart was relaxed.