"I mean Huangshan The Mountain" Huangshan by anoum

Having read and seen photos of how beautiful Huangshan, the mountain (actually a range of them) can be, I put it as a 'must visit' for my trip to China.

My daughter and I were in Hangzhou when we found out that it is much nearer to Huangshan than Shanghai is so we rushed off to visit Huangshan before the weekend crowd. We bought government express bus tickets from the Post Office and found it was a very good choice as the bus was very clean & in good condition, the driver conscientious of his duty (even reprimanded a local who cleared his throat to spit). We passed through lovely scenery especially in the mountainous region.

We went up the mountain on a Friday but the rate of the accommodation had already been marked up.

Masked Beauty

When we emerged from the cable car station at the top, I was stumped to find there were no signs to tell us where to go. So we decided to follow the stone steps that most groups of tourists took.

But before we could actually start out, we found the wind terribly cold on our faces. Quick retreat to the nearest toilet to wrap up ourselves (see pix) and warm ourselves with the hand dryer!

We saw snow on the ground, the first real snow in our lives but didn't realise how low the temperature was until the next day when we were at the cable car station. It was 0 C although the sun was shining brightly!

I called this Monkey Watching Over the Mountain

We had booked our accommodation through a hostel in Tunxi (overcharged at 180 yuan a night when actual rate was 80 yuan). On the map, it looked fine to walk our way through beautiful scenery to our hostel. In reality, it took us 5 torturous hours to reach it!

It was another shock for me (& many visitors we passed on the way) to find out that there are no tar roads and no vehicles to ride in on the mountain! After some hours, my legs were already screaming in pain but the stone steps were still endless.

• Pros:Very clean environment, nice scenery
• Cons:Not enough good directions especially on scenic spots
• In a nutshell:Aaaargh!!!