First off, I have to say that this weekend, when we went to Huangshan was my first time traveling outside of Shanghai (in terms of traveling in China), so stay with me, this will be a lengthly post.
After hearing about how amazing the Huangshan Mountain views were from our friends who traveled there during Spring Festival Break, Maile, Chloe and I decided to venture there as well as our first weekend trip of the semester. We were a little ambitious, so we decided not to book a tour, and just do everything ourselves. Let's just say that my recommendation for someone who decides to go to Huangshan: Book a tour!
We started the trip Thursday night by taking a soft sleeper train from Shanghai to Huangshan. In terms of our train experience, it was definitely a good one, considering we managed to switch beds with two other people so that all three of us could be in the same room, as well as the fact that the fourth addition to our room was a graduate student who was not only a Huangshan native, but also spoke English very well. Needless to say, she was very helpful. As for the soft sleepers, it is four beds to a room, with a door that separates your room from the hall. Each room has hot water, pillows, blankets, a light per bed and a trash can (which is significant only because the hard sleeper does not have one). For the most part, the ride was fairly comfortable.
Upon arrival, a tour guide knocked on our door asking if we wanted buy tickets for the bus to the first base of the mountain for 20RMB, so we got that settled fast. However, our main problem in terms of transportation started after we got off this bus. From this bus, we had to find another bus to get us to the actual base of the mountain. We were told to just walk a little further down the road and we'll see the bus station. As we were walking we kept getting harassed by people who were offering to take us to the base of the mountain for cheaper, but we kept refusing. However, we had to ask about a million people where this bus stop was and all they did was point right; it wasn't until we reached a bank and asked them where the stop was that they explicitly told us where the stop was instead of just pointing in some random direction.
Once we got to the bus station, we had to figure out which side of the base of the mountain we wanted to go to. The side we choose to go was supposedly the route that no one goes up. Most people go down that trail since it is the longest trail to the top (but we heard it's the most scenic). However, we were determined to do that in hopefully less than seven hours. The tickets to the actual base of the mountain was 19RMB.
Tickets need to be purchased in order to enter the mountain. They run at around 250RMB for normal price tickets without the cable car, and 115RMB for students with valid ID (USA school ID's work too). Once we go tickets, we were still not able to find the start of the route. This required even more asking and wandering. It wasn't until 20mins and many stairs later that we were required to show our ticket for admission.
The route is all stairs....STAIRS...i think we wanted to give up before we reached the actual start of the hike. As we headed up the mountain, people kept saying 'good luck' to us as we headed up, since we were probably the only ones crazy enough to go up that route. We were told before we left for Huangshan that everything would be labeled and easy to find each route. Apparently, this was not the case. We didn't even know if we were on the correct path until about halfway into the hike.
After we finally arrived at the cable car station on the route we were taking, we met a sweet Chinese couple who just so happened was staying at the same hotel as us. We ended up heading up to the hotel with them. Good thing, because the fog started forming by the time we were close to the hotel. After 5 and a half hours, we finally arrived at the hotel!!! (which was an hour and a half earlier than scheduled)
We were informed that sunrise will be at 6:08am the next day, so we were up and ready by 5:40am, although we didn't expect to see anything since the weather was suppose to be foggy and rainy. On our hike down, we realized that we actually chose the correct route up, because the one that most people take was LITERALLY ALL STAIRS...all the way to the top, without anywhere to rest. It was also definitely not as scenic as our path.
Since we did not go as a tour, we didn't have a time restriction, so we ventured off to the Huangshan hot springs...which may have been our best idea yet. The hot springs offered a student discount and the ticket included access to snacks, fruit, and tea. The hot springs ranged from rose to coffee to coconut milk infused water. Definitely relived much of the soreness in our legs after the hike.
I'll just let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
Once we got to the bus station, we had to figure out which side of the base of the mountain we wanted to go to. The side we choose to go was supposedly the route that no one goes up. Most people go down that trail since it is the longest trail to the top (but we heard it's the most scenic). However, we were determined to do that in hopefully less than seven hours. The tickets to the actual base of the mountain was 19RMB.
Tickets need to be purchased in order to enter the mountain. They run at around 250RMB for normal price tickets without the cable car, and 115RMB for students with valid ID (USA school ID's work too). Once we go tickets, we were still not able to find the start of the route. This required even more asking and wandering. It wasn't until 20mins and many stairs later that we were required to show our ticket for admission.
The route is all stairs....STAIRS...i think we wanted to give up before we reached the actual start of the hike. As we headed up the mountain, people kept saying 'good luck' to us as we headed up, since we were probably the only ones crazy enough to go up that route. We were told before we left for Huangshan that everything would be labeled and easy to find each route. Apparently, this was not the case. We didn't even know if we were on the correct path until about halfway into the hike.
After we finally arrived at the cable car station on the route we were taking, we met a sweet Chinese couple who just so happened was staying at the same hotel as us. We ended up heading up to the hotel with them. Good thing, because the fog started forming by the time we were close to the hotel. After 5 and a half hours, we finally arrived at the hotel!!! (which was an hour and a half earlier than scheduled)
We were informed that sunrise will be at 6:08am the next day, so we were up and ready by 5:40am, although we didn't expect to see anything since the weather was suppose to be foggy and rainy. On our hike down, we realized that we actually chose the correct route up, because the one that most people take was LITERALLY ALL STAIRS...all the way to the top, without anywhere to rest. It was also definitely not as scenic as our path.
Since we did not go as a tour, we didn't have a time restriction, so we ventured off to the Huangshan hot springs...which may have been our best idea yet. The hot springs offered a student discount and the ticket included access to snacks, fruit, and tea. The hot springs ranged from rose to coffee to coconut milk infused water. Definitely relived much of the soreness in our legs after the hike.
I'll just let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
Chloe, me and Maile at the actual base of the mountain.
The dreaded stairs.
Sad fact: there's no way of transporting the supplies to the top of the mountain other than to have people carry the supplies up.
If you're ever tired while hiking up the mountain, you can actually pay 50RMB to get two people to carry you up the mountain...In my opinion it sounds more like paying 50RMB to fall to your death off the side of the mountain...just saying
The view from our hike up the mountain. Here is where we started to approach the clouds.
Our hostel for the night. It's a six person room, but we lucked out and ended up having the room to ourselves.
Our morning view from above the clouds.
From our hike up.
Hot Springs.
Rose Infused Hot Springs.
Wine Infused Hot Springs.
After the hot springs, we headed back into the city for dinner and our train ride back. Since we purchased our tickets a bit late, the only seats available were hard beds, which were actually not horrible. The hard sleepers have six beds per section, with a table in between the beds and blankets and pillows. The only downside to the hard sleeper is that between each stop, the lights will go on and the ruckus of people boarding will wake you up throughout the night...and people smoke in the train throughout the night too...
Overall, our trip to Huangshan went smoothly, minus not seeing a sunrise or sunset, but other than that we couldn't have asked for a better weekend trip.
Next up: Spring Break starts today...off to Guilin, Yanshuo, Zhangjiajie, and Xi'an!
