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Hiking in Huangshan

Challis Hackley
Mar 28, 2018
4 min read

What I Learned

Huangshan is as cold as... I don't know but it's freaking cold.

Form the moment we stepped off the train to the moment we stepped back on I was cold the entire time. The taxi wasn't heated, out rooms wasn't heated, hiking outside, on the mountain was actually the warmest I got the entire trip because I was exercising. So be prepared for that id you ever decide to visit Yellow Mountain in the winter.

It's fun hiking with strangers.

We just met these two random dudes on our hike and get to talking with them. it was fun taking pictures with them and jsut enjoying everything with another set of eyes. It didn't hurt that they took us out to dinner afterwards.

It's twenty-three kilograms not fifty pounds.

So traveling with he imperial system, you know that the weight limit for luggage is fifty pounds but in metric it's twenty-three kilograms, good to know for international travel.

Burger King is a good way to start.... and end your trip to China.

My first meal in China was Burger King, generously bought for us by our Chinese coordinator who picked us up form the airport. Sitting in the airport, hungry and longing for home, nostalgia got the better of me and I got Burger King for my last meal in China too.

What I Did

Sunday

So... we missed our train to Huangshan. We thought we were going to have plenty of time, but we underestimated how difficult it was going to be to take all our luggage with us on the metro to get to the train station. We got here, just in time to watch our train pull out of the station. The friend I was traveling with was near-in-tears and I was resigned because, according to the website, that was the last train out of there that day.

Turns out... that wasn’t true, so they let us trade our tickets and we caught the next train, which was loooooong. But anyway we arrived in the train station in Huangshan, and the manager of the hotel that we were going to stay at cam and picked us up, helping us with our luggage.

That was nice of him. I have to say, his hotel, was not nice. it was freezing. there was no central air or heat, there isn’t usually in China. but we got there and we were already cold from the heartless taxis ride, and the windows in our room were open and the heater was turned off. needless to say we were shivering.

And as he turned on our heater for us the conversation went a little like this.

“So when you want to take shower?”

“I was hoping for one tonight.”

“No, you take shower tomorrow.”

“Okay, we want to get an early start because we’re hiking the mountain so can we take a shower at 7:00, before breakfast.”

“No, you take a shower after breakfast.”

Then why did you even ask me? I had been hoping to take a warm shower that night but instead I got to sleep in a frigid room under thin blankets in every scrap of clothes that I could fit over myself. I’ll tell you what I have even warmer in a sleeping bag camping in the Rockies then I was that night, seriously no exaggeration.

Monday

So, needless to say, I was not happy when I woke up the next morning after an cold and aweful nigh’s sleep, especially when breakfast wasn’t served until 8:00. After that, I had given up on a shower before we left. I would take one when we got back from hiking the mountain. I would be all sweaty and that would be a good time to take a shower anyway. Nope, taking a shower then would cost us an extra 50% on what we were actually paying because it would mean holding our room for us or one other such nonsense, even though we were his only guests and he wouldn’t be missing out on any other customers any time soon. He was very helpful at dropping us off and giving us directions to the mountain and when we did finally get breakfast it was one of the best I’d had in China. So he’s got that going for him.

We made it to the mountain and I was still cold but that soon cleared up after hiking a bit. It was beautiful there. it’s just like the mountains you see in traditional Chinese paintings, rising out of the clouds at impressive angles. it was awesome. And we got to meet some great people. We hiked with them, got some great pictures, experienced the majesty of yellow mountain, and then took the tram down.

It was funny. On the drive up to the base of the mountain they had some advertisements on the bus seats that said how difficult the climb would be and how they recommended the tram. Us being the fit Americans that we are, dismissed that. We could hike that in under three hours, that’s nothing. No. it took every second of the three hours to reach the top and, like it said, only took ten minutes to reach the bottom by tram.

The guys we met on out hike up stuck with us a little longer and they bought us dinner. It’s always great to meet the locals and travel with them, even it is is just for a little bit.

So we came to hike the mountain and we did, and we had a flight to catch, so headed back to the hotel to grab stuff from storage and took a taxi back to the train station.

Tuesday

It was my first time on a sleeper train and it wasn’t too bad, besides the bathroom situation. I mean the bunks were comfy and everyone there knew they needed to keep quiet. So we got into Shanghai made it to the airport and made it home. Yay!