FYI, the mountain itself is not yellow. Haha. It’s named after 黄帝 who’s believed to be one of the ancestors of Chinese people. Well, Google it if you’re interested.
Anyway. I should finish this blog entry before the memories fade out. I’m already starting to forget bits and pieces of it (all except the stairs — it’s like a replay of a never-ending thriller).
We started our trip on Saturday with a 5-hour bus-ride from Nanjing to the foot of Huangshan. After we put down our luggage at the sub-standard three-star hotel, we set off for our first destination — some rock-seeing place. Haha. See, I told you I’ve already forgotten certain details. Anyway, the place was quite uninteresting. Rocks after rocks, and we really have to unleash our imaginations to picture tortoises, pigs, 美人s and what-nots. Other than the semi-beautiful scenery over there, I struggle to think of any other reason that’s worth a feature. Then again, I applaud the Chinese for being so creative and imaginative, using stories from the traditional Chinese culture to give life to these non-living things.
Here’s my favourite one — 癞蛤蟆头上插花 臭美. (OKAY. I forgot the exact phrase. But it’s a toad and it’s 臭美 that’s for sure.)
And next up is the 漂流 thing that we we had been looking forward to. After donning our raincoats and keeping our valuables (other than my camera) away, we climbed onto the rubber rafts and went off! The rapids were so exciting. Magdeline and I were sharing a raft. When we reached the foot of the first rapid, our raft got stuck, and water kept gushing into our raft. Before we could do anything, our raft was already filled to its brim. Haha. Their employees were around to help, so we got out of it after some time. As expected, our clothes were drenched, so we left the place wet and cold and shivering in the autumn winds.
At one of the calmer stretches of the river. By then, the sun was already setting.
Yen Chun and Kaiying (they lost an oar on the way).
Gaiatri and Sherilyn.
We borrowed a hairdryer from the hotel reception (which had to go opposite the road to borrow a hairdryer from another house) and spent most of the night trying to blow-dry our shoes and jeans. Oh oh, another interesting fact. Sherilyn and Gaiatri’s room was just opposite ours and both our rooms were at the extreme end of the corridor, so our toilets were next to each other. The soundproof facility was so non-existent that we could hold a conversation across the rooms! Fascinating.
Second day was a warm-up to whatever we were going to face on the third day. Took a cable car to the mountains, and it was sight-seeing around the area. Up the slopes and down the stairs we went, before checking-in the hotel and walking up-slope (it was really tiring — 56 degrees upslope plus the fact that we hadn’t had any proper lunch before that) to see the 飞来石. In the end we just looked at it from a distance and proceeded back to our hotel where we finally had our dinner. We were so tired that when we reached our hotel in the evening, we took a shower and immediately climbed onto our beds to rest at 7pm or so.
The view was breathtaking. It’s like as if we’d stepped into some 山水画 or 武侠 novel. 超赞!!
The third day (and the last), which is also the most exciting day (I think) started very early. We woke up at 3am for breakfast and some packing-up before leaving our hotel at 4am to scale the mountains. The night sky was so super star-studded! I swear I’ve never seen so MUCH stars in my life. If I were an astrologist, I would have easily identified the different constellations. Anyway, with two torchlights (one of them was PMS-ing and we had to hit it to make it shine) and our barang-barangs, we climbed the stairs again. Although we had our luggage on us, the journey this time round was much easier. Maybe because everything beyond where the torch light shined was pitch-black, we didn’t really know how much more steps we were supposed to overcome before we reach a certain place. Psychologically, the darkness of the night made things so much better.
When we reached the top, it was already about 5+am, and there were a lot of people already there, chope-ing good places to watch the sunrise. Some even went wrapped in blankets. Haha. We were quite happy that we brought our thick winter jackets along, if not we would have become snowmans on 光明顶. Well, as for the sunrise, I guess I’ll let the photos tell you how beautiful it was.
Look at those clouds! They were the exact reason for this trip. =))
We thought that it was nearing to the end of our tiring yet fulfilling trip. Alas, the tour guide told us that there was another 13.6km of stairs to scale before going downhill in the cable car! We overcame all the flights of stairs and conquered the 百步云梯 (which was WAY more than a hundred steps continuously) before bidding goodbye to Huangshan. By the time we got onto the tour bus back, we were more than lethargic.
When I went with the Singapore tour group ten years ago, walking wasn’t as much as what we’d experienced now. I think Singapore’s tours give a much more relaxing package as compared to these agencies in China. Singaporeans can’t walk too much for nuts. Hahahaha.
Our aching calves have recovered by now, and in place of fats, we now have a wee bit more muscles on those legs. Hahaha. (Soon they’ll revert back to fats again.)
I think I’ll go back again for the 3rd and 4th time. It’s simply too beautiful! If you haven’t visited China or haven’t visited Huangshan, please do go before age and health catch up with you. I plan to revisit it again before I turn 30. Hee. Maybe I’ll go during spring, or summer. Heh.
