Yellow Mountain

After a rather uncomfortable attempt at sleeping on the train, we arrived, bright and early, at Huang Shan, the Yellow Mountain.

This was a rare sight.  A place for a line-up, and no people. O_O  It was so unusual, we had to take a picture of it. LOOK! THERE ARE NO PEOPLE!

We took a bus from the train station to the first gate. Went through the eerily empty lineup, and took a cable car up the mountain even farther. Then off the cable car and into the actual park. Which is basically just endless stairs and pathways that have been carved into or built onto the side of the mountain. It was beautiful. And exhilarating. And we tramped around all day, and only saw a fraction of what you can see.  There are even hotels perched up in the tops of the mountains, so you that you can hike for days and days.  The guy from Tibet that we met on the train said we were missing out on the best part of Huang Shan - sunrise from the tops of the peaks. It's breathtaking, apparently. But we had already booked passage on a train out of there that evening, so we were going to miss it.

Perhaps one day I'll return, and overnight at the top of the mountain. Maybe in the summertime.
Yeah.

 

The line up may have been empty when we got there, but the top of the mountain was not. There were plenty of people who were hiking around up there!

This was probably the most terrifying stretch of path that I have ever walked down. It was ridiculously steep, it had just started snowing again, and there was no hand rail. NOTHING to hold on to except your breath, your breakfast and your boots.